A petrophysical chemostratigraphic comparison and correlation of “Collingwood” strata across central Ontario was conducted using geophysical borehole log data and core produced by the Ontario Oil Shale Assessment Project (OSAP). Outcrop sections were also measured, sampled and described. The resultant geophysical correlation was compared to sections in the Michigan Peninsula. Microfacies analyses and a biostratigraphic review were also conducted. The dark organic rich rocks collectively referred to as the “Collingwood Member, Lindsay Formation”, in Ontario were deposited during the progressive drowning of a mid to late Ordovician carbonate ramp. Due to variability in ramp palaeotopography, condensation intensity (sedimentation stress) varied across the region during drowning. This variability resulted in regional differences in Collingwood section thickness and facies. Less condensed carbonate rich “Collingwood” sections are associated with palaeotopographic highs such as the Algonquin Arch in Ontario and grade upwards and outwards (off-arch) from predominantly deep-shelf carbonates (microfacies type SMF 9, FZ 2 – open sea shelf –deep undatherm below wave base) to more condensed deeper water shale rich strata (microfacies type SMF 3, FZ1- basin fondotherm below oxygen level) – that contain abundant graptolites and Triarthrus trilobites.

A petrophysical chemostratigraphic comparison and correlation of “Collingwood” strata across central Ontario was conducted using geophysical borehole log data and core produced by the Ontario Oil Shale Assessment Project (OSAP). Outcrop sections were also measured, sampled and described. The resultant geophysical correlation was compared to sections in the Michigan Peninsula. Microfacies analyses and a biostratigraphic review were also conducted. The dark organic rich rocks collectively referred to as the “Collingwood Member, Lindsay Formation”, in Ontario were deposited during the progressive drowning of a mid to late Ordovician carbonate ramp. Due to variability in ramp palaeotopography, condensation intensity (sedimentation stress) varied across the region during drowning. This variability resulted in regional differences in Collingwood section thickness and facies. Less condensed carbonate rich “Collingwood” sections are associated with palaeotopographic highs such as the Algonquin Arch in Ontario and grade upwards and outwards (off-arch) from predominantly deep-shelf carbonates (microfacies type SMF 9, FZ 2 – open sea shelf –deep undatherm below wave base) to more condensed deeper water shale rich strata (microfacies type SMF 3, FZ1- basin fondotherm below oxygen level) – that contain abundant graptolites and Triarthrus trilobites.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

This thesis traces changes in geological concepts associated with the New Zealand greywackes. Since mineralogists adopted the German mining term 'grauwacke' in the 1780s to refer to a type of old, hard, grey, muddy sandstone, both the name and the rock have caused confusion and controversy. English geologists in the 1830s used the term 'grauwacke' as a rock name and a formation name for their most ancient rocks. The English abandoned the name, but 'greywacke' remained useful in Scotland and began to be used in New Zealand in the 1890s. New Zealanders still refer to the association of semi-metamorphosed greywacke sandstones, argillites, minor lavas, cherts and limestone constituting the North Island ranges and the Southern Alps as 'the greywackes'. With the South Island schists, the greywackes make up 27% of the surface of the New Zealand landmass. They supply much of our road metal, but otherwise have little economic importance. Work on these basement rocks has rarely exceeded 10% of geological research in New Zealand.Leading geologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed to construct stratigraphical models for New Zealand where the greywackes were usually classified as of Paleozoic age. Controversy was generated by insufficient data, field mistakes, wrong fossil identifications, attachment to ruling theories and the inability of European-based conventional stratigraphical methodologies to deal with these Carboniferous to Jurassic rocks formed in a very different and unsuspected geological environment. After 1945, growth of the universities, increased Geological Survey activity, and the acquisition of more reliable data led to fresh explanatory ideas about geosynclines, turbidity currents, depositional facies, low-grade metamorphism, and structural geology. New interest in the greywackes resulted in the accumulation of additional knowledge about their paleontology, petrography, sedimentology and structure. Much of this geological data is stored in visual materials including maps, photographs, and diagrams and these are essential today for the interpretation and transfer of information.The development of plate tectonic theory and the accompanying terrane concept in the seventies and eighties permitted real progress in understanding the oceanic origin of greywackes within submarine accretionary prisms and their transport to the New Zealand region. In the last half century comparatively little geological controversy about the greywackes has taken place because of the acquisition of quantities of data, technological improvements, and the use of a dependable theory of the Earth's crust. Scientific controversy takes place when data and/or background theory is inadequate.

Master of Science / Geology / Sambhudas Chaudhuri / Chemical and mineralogical compositions of < 2 µm-size fraction clays of the shale source rocks of Devonian-Mississippian age in northern Oklahoma were determined to find any link between the minerals and the generation of petroleum. Ten samples of clay separates were analyzed for their mineral composition, major element contents, K/Rb ratios, and REE contents. XRD analyses and SEM showed the presence of discrete illite, the most dominant clay mineral, with smaller amounts of mixed-layer illite/smectite, chlorite, and kaolinite. The non-clay minerals found in the Woodford Shale from this study include quartz, dolomite, calcite, pyrite, feldspar (albite and microcline), and apatite. The clays in these rocks have a range of K/Rb ratios between 160 and 207. These ratios are considerably lower than the ratios of average silicate minerals (clays), with expected ratios between 250 and 350. It could be that clays received K and Rb from a solution, which was partly involved in oil generation by which oil received more K relative to Rb making the aqueous phase depleted in K/Rb ratios (Alvarez, 2015). Thus, the low K/Rb ratios for these clays may be reflecting signatures of reactions involving oil generation. The total REE contents ranged between 13 and 30 ppm. The low total REE contents of < 2 µm-size fraction clays in the Woodford Shale as compared to average sedimentary rocks which may be represented by values given either PAAS 184 ppm or NASC with 178 ppm, may suggest that the formation of the clays was linked to oil generation, having known of the face from the study of Alvarez (2015) that crude oils could have higher specific REE concentrations than the associated formation waters. PAAS-normalized REE patterns for these samples display positive Gd anomalies. Two out of the ten samples had prominent Ce anomalies. Only three out of ten samples had Eu positive anomalies, one of which was quite prominent. All samples had MREE enrichment, superimposed on either a flat REE distribution patterns with enrichment in LREE. Only one pattern showed the distribution with a distinct HREE enrichment. The MREE anomalies could be from the effect of phosphate mineralization. In fact, the X-ray diffraction patterns of random powder samples showed the presence of fluorapatite and chlorapatite in most of the studied samples. The total organic carbon (TOC) contents of the whole rocks ranged from 0.5 to 6.54 wt.%. Thus, it can be concluded that hydrocarbon generation potential of the Woodford shale (0.8-4.44 wt.%) is significantly higher than Mississippian Lime unit (0.5 wt.%). Only one sample, which belonged to pre-Woodford Shale Hunton group, had the highest value of TOC. The available K-Ar dates of < 2 µm-size fraction clays suggest that the clays are authigenic (illites) for at least some samples. The dates ranged from 318.6 ± 7.9 Ma (Serpukhovian) to 353.9 ± 7.9 Ma (Tournaisian). All dates are younger than the times of deposition of the Woodford Shale. Assuming there is a genetic link between formation of authigenic illite and hydrocarbon generation, this study suggests that oil generation may have taken place on an average about 30 Ma after the deposition of the Woodford Shale.

The Michigan basin has long been established as the type example of an intracratonic basin due to its near circular geometry and gently inward-dipping Paleozoic formations. The backstripping of major formations within the basin reveals that its geometry varied over the duration of the Paleozoic, displaying two distinct subsidence signals consisting of quasi-circular basin-centered subsidence interspaced with periods of irregular basin geometry. The quasi-circular basin-centred subsidence is thought to represent the surface expression of a driving mechanism located beneath the Michigan basin, which persisted for the duration of the Paleozoic. An irregular subsidence geometry periodically interrupts the quasi - circular basin-centred pattern and is contemporaneous with the Ordovician Taconic and Devonian Acadian orogenies. Through the use of scaled analogue experiments, the effects of convective mantle downwelling and long wavelength folding are explored as potential driving mechanisms to explain the subsidence patterns of the Michigan basin. Convective mantle downwelling is hypothesized as the process responsible for the quasi-circular basin-centered subsidence patterns and the relationship between mantle flow velocities and a variety of continental strength profiles is explored. A series of scaled analogue vice experiments explore the effects of regional orogeny on a continental hinterland, with some experiments containing a strong lower crustal strength heterogeneity, designed to test the possible influence of the Mid Continental rift beneath the Michigan basin. The results of both types of experiment demonstrate that quasi-circular subsidence patterns within the Michigan basin may have been formed due to convective mantle downwelling, while the effects of regional orogeny and long wavelength folding dramatically influenced subsidence patterns during the Taconic and Acadian orogenies.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Allen W. Archer / Hydrocarbon production throughout the continental United States has declined in past decades. New interpretations together with advanced recovery techniques can increase production in older fields. Re-examining these types of underdeveloped resources is a simple and cost effective tool that can be readily used to increase hydrocarbon production throughout the mid-continent. Pennsylvanian sandstones throughout Oklahoma and Kansas are known for their excellent reservoir qualities. The focus of this study is the upper Pennsylvanian Tonkawa Formation, a sandstone dominated unit. The Tonkawa has been informally correlated to both the Stalnaker and Tonganoxie sandstones in Kansas. Previous publications do not present a unified understanding of the depositional environments that are seen across state borders. The interpretations vary from fluvio-deltaic to marine environments. A cohesive interpretation is necessary to understand paleo-processes and efficiently exploit the reservoir for hydrocarbons. The study presents a regional analysis covering an eleven county area in northwest Oklahoma. Analysis of core and well log data is used to determine the range of depositional environments of the Tonkawa sandstone. Sedimentary structures, mineral assemblages, and lithologies of selected cores are described and correlated with well log data. With this data, structural isopach maps are constructed using Petra software. Earlier interpretations have relied primarily on well log data, focusing on core data rather than geophysical logs, allowing for a more detailed and accurate interpretation. Analysis of transitional sedimentary sequences, such as the Tonkawa, can be applied to sandstones deposited in similar environments throughout the mid-continent.