s l L l. OS. \e /3 R. L. LANGENHEIM, JR. DEPT. GEOL. UNIV. ILLINOIS 254 N. H. B., 1301 W. GREEN ST. URBANA, ILLINOIS 61801 Press 1 ' ii I lei i ii Scries Issued Twice Quarterly STATE OF ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRATION AND EDUCATION A. M. SHELTON. Director DIVISION OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY M. M. LEIGHTON. Chief. Urbana No. 13 ILLINOIS PETROLEUM January 28. 1928 THE MEDIA ANTICLINE, HENDERSON COUNTY. ILLINOIS By A. H. Bell and L. E. Workman I NTRODUCTTON The Media anticline has recently come to the attention of the State Geological Survey through Messrs. C. R. Pendarvis of Media and Fred Gibson of Kirkwood, who have been interested for several years in the oil possibilities of this region. The structure is situated in the southeastern part of Henderson County in T. 9 N., R. 4 W.. (Media Township) and extends in a direction west-northwest and east-southeast across the township. through the village of Media. The geographic position of the Media anti- cline, with its relation to the nearest prodncing area, the Colniar- Plymouth oil held, is indicated in figure 1. This paper is published in accordance with the policy of the Survey to provide information on the oil and gas possibilities of territory that extends beyond the leases now held. It gives the results of a study of the strnctnral geology of the area near Media, based partly on data supplied by Mr. Pendarvis and partly on field work by the authors. This report is here made public for the first time. Oil Showings and Previous Development Three oil and j, r as seepages have been brought to the notice of the writ- ers. One is found on the Ericson farm three hundred feet northeast of the center of sec. 24, where the gas and oil come up through the mud and broken chert in the bed of a small stream. The bedrock immediately below is the Burlington limestone, and the contact with the underlying Kinderhook is probably about 30 feet below the surface. Another seepage is found along the bed of a stream 1000 feet east of the west line and .'?()() feet south of the railroad in sec. £1. It is possible that the oil here has come from a leak in one or more of the several oil pipe lines, of the Prairie and Sinclair Pipe Line companies, along the base of the railroad embankment. How- ever, it is reported by an old resident that oil appeared on the water in the vicinity before the pipe lines were put down. A third seepage was reported on the Dalton estate in the NE. 14 sec. 13, but this location was not visited. ILLINOIS PETROLEUM A Area mapped B Colmar- Plymouth oil field ~\ / # -I *■•« ' Fig. 1. Index map of the State showing area included in this report. THE MEDIA ANTII'LIM;, HENDERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS 3 At some time before 189.8 a water well, drilled to a depth of 204 feet on the William Pogue estate in \"\Y. '4 NE. l / A see. 17, T. 9 X.. R. I W., gave sufficient gas pressure to blow the pump tubes out of the well. The Rankin No. 1 well was then drilled for oil nearby to a depth of 213 feet, and it is reported that sufficient oil was found to till up the hole and run over the top down the hill. This well, however, did not continue to produce. Rankin well Xo. 2 was then drilled to a depth of 606 feet. A slight show- ing of oil was reported at 150 feet, but at 500 feet salt water began to flow over the top of the easing, the stream increasing with the depth drilled. In 1916 the Richey well was drilled to a depth of 50 1 feet. A little gas and oil was reported at 1-tii feet. At 424 feet the hole filled up with fresh water which is now believed to have been surface water breaking in around the casing. The Pogue well Xo. 1 was drilled in L916 so close to the Ran- kin Xo. 1 that it probably penetrated the old well. Some thick, heavy oil or tar was obtained which appeared to be the oil residue after the more volatile parts had escaped through the old well. Xo drilling has been undertaken recently in this area. Many data have been collected privately by Mr. Pendarvis on wells and outcrops in the vicinity of Media, and under his direction levels were run to such of these as he considered of value in outlining the structure. In 1!>1<; .Mr. William C. Morse was engaged by Mr. Pendarvis to go over these data and make a report on the oil possibilities in the region. The area which he recommended as favorable for testing was much the same as is now in- closed by the 680-foot contour line. (See figure '■>.) The field work for this report undertaken by the authors consisted of traversing most of the creeks in the township for outcrops, and running additional levels, by means of the barometer, to all the exposed points of Burlington-Kinderhook contact, to springs which might indicate such a con- tact, and to the lowest points to be obtained on Burlington outcrops. The accompanying contour map, figure :}, was prepared from data furnished by Mr. Pendarvi> and that collected more recently by the Survey. General Geology The graphic log, figure 2, shows the thickness and characteristics of the strata underlying the Media region. Surface deposits consist of glacial drift with a thin covering of loess. Their average combined thickness is about 30 feet, although well records show that the thickness ranges from 20 to 10.") feet. The drift lies unconformably on the eroded edges of the Burlington limestone and Kinderhook shale formations. These are exposed in outcrops along Ellison Creek and its tributaries where the streams have cut through the drift. ILLINOIS I'KTICOLK.ral SYSTEM Pleistocene Pennsylvanian Mississippian , Devonian Silurian Ordovician FORMATION Peorian Illinoian Burlington Kinderhook Sweetland Creek Cedar Valley and Wapsipinicon Maquoketa Galena- Platteville "Trenton" St. Peter wwm | Niagaran { [ / , / ill ^ n~~J 1 -p. l~n~ n~^ zrz zrz ^r X T, ~m~ DESCRIPTION Loess and till. Conglomerate, sandstone, clay and coal; not everywhere present. Limestone, cherty, gray and brown, crinoidal. Absent from top of anticline. Shale, dolomitic, bluish-gray. Shale, dark gray to chocolate brown, Sporangites liuron- ense fossils. Limestone, gray, fossiliferous, oil showing in top. Dolomite, light gray, finely crystalline, horizon of Ho- ing sand at base. Shale, dolomitic, gray and brown. Dolomite, buff, finely crystal- line to dense. Sandstone, light gray, med- ium-grained, porous, water- bearing. Fig. 2. Generalized geologic section for Media area. TIIK MED] A ANTICLINE, HENDERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS 5 The Burlington is a coarsely granular limestone made up largely of the broken plates and stems of crinoids. In general the upper beds are light gray and fairly pure, whereas the lower are brown, finer grained, and more or less magnesian. Nodules and beds of chert are common throughout the formation. The thickness of the Burlington in this region is about 80 feet. Its outcrops extend roughly along a V-shaped line from sec. 35, T. 10 N., R. 5 \\\. through sec. 24, T. 9 N., R. 4 W., to sec. 25, T. 9 N., R. 5 W., as shown on the map. Valleys in the Burlington formation are narrow with steep slopes. The Kinderhook formation is a dolomitic, grayish-blue shale. Where capped by the Burlington it is protected somewhat from erosion and steep faces are commonly developed. Where the Burlington has been removed by erosion, the Kinderhook has weathered considerably so that long slopes and wide flood plains in the valleys have been developed ; consequently good out- crops of the Kinderhook are rare under these conditions. Because the shale is impervious, water flowing through the cracks and solution channels of the limestone comes out in the valleys at numerous springs along the con- tact. The thickness of the Kinderhook is about 90 feet. Under the Kinderhook are the Devonian shale and limestone, the Xiagaran dolomite, the Maquoketa shale, and the Galena-Platteville (Tren- ton ) dolomite, to the St. Peter sandstone. These are found only by drilling. Their thicknesses and general characteristics may lie seen in the graphic log (fig. 2). Structure The structure of the area is illustrated by a contour map showing the altitude of the base of the Burlington limestone. Some of the datum points are on actual outcrops of the contact; others are on probable positions of the contact inferred from the spring horizon or water zone immediately above the impervious Kinderhook- shale. The datum points used in draw- ing the contours are listed in the table which should be used in conjunction with figure 3. Because the Burlington ilmestone has been removed by erosion from the higher parts of the structure, it was necessary to calculate its prob- able altitude for three of the datum points. This was done by adding an as- sumed interval between the Burlington and the base of the "Niagaran" lime- stone to the altitude of the latter as obtained from the well logs. The value of 340 feet for this assumed interval was taken from the logs of the Strong- hurst and Parrish wells in which both formations are recorded. The most conspicuous structural feature is the Media anticline. Its axis trend- approximately west-northwest and east-southeast. Available data indicate a probable closure of 60 feet. Two local structural highs lie along the major anticlinal axi> and are separated by a slight saddle. ( )ne of them centers around the Richey, Rankin, and Pogue wells in sees. S and ILLINOIS PETROLEUM •<>• Dry oil well A Exposure of contact of Burlington and Kinderhook Intersects contact v Fig. 3. Structure map of the Media area. Key horizon, base of th THE MEDIA ANTICLINE, HENDERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS ILLINOIS STATE GEOL. SURVEY o Water well ■ Protoable elevation of Burlington- Kinderhock contact f Burhnfcton-Kinderhook rock surface Surlington formation. Contour interval, 10 feet. Datum, sea level. 8 ILLINOIS PETROLEUM 17, T. 9 N., R. 4 W. The other is about 4 miles farther east and appears to lie mainly in sees. 23 and 24, T. !) N., R. 4 W. The relatively steep dips to the north, northeast, and east are based on observations of fairly con- tinuous outcrops. Lack of outcrops to the south prevented the determina- tion of dip by direct observation ; the south dip shown, therefore, is not proved, but is considered to be a probable eastward continuation of the south dip measured in sees. 1 "i and 20. The Media anticline appears to represent the highest up-warping of the Burlington and associated formations within a radius of at least 15 or 20 miles. At Burlington, Iowa, about 12 miles west of the west border of the area mapped, the Burlington-Kinderhook contact lies at an elevation of 520 feet or about 200 feet lower than at the crest of the Media anticline. The same contact in the LaHarpe and Good Hope quadrangles to the south and southeast, and in the Monmouth quadrangle to the east and northeast, has a maximum elevation of 550 feet and a minimum elevation of 250 feet. At Biggsville, about ."J miles north of Media, the Orthotetes keokuk bed of the Keokuk limestone outcrops. Its position in the type section, with respect to the base of the Burlington limestone, is known and so the altitude of the base of the Burlington at Biggsville can be calculated. This altitude varies from 458 to 500 feet, more than 200 feet below the altitude of the same hori- zon at the crest of the Media anticline. Oil and Gas Possibilities In area) extent and amount of closure the Media anticline appears ade- quate to have influenced the accumulation of oil and gas in commercial quantities. Showings of oil and gas in the top of the Devonian limestone were found in the Richey, Rankin and Pogue wells which are all near the crest of its western part. These wells were drilled into the Kimmswick ("Trenton") limestone without rinding commercial production and accord- ingly this part of the structure seems to be condemned. The structural high to the southeast of Media has not yet been tested and the steeper dips on the basinward side of this structure make it appear somewhat more favor- able as an oil structure than that part of the Media anticline which has al- ready been tested. For this reason it appears to merit test drilling. Recom mendations A favorable location for a test of the eastern part of the Media anti- cline appears to be in the area inclosed by the 700-foot contour in see. 2! and the adjacent part of sec. 23, T. !) N., R. 4 W. In view of the oil show- ings found in the upper part of the Devonian limestone this formation ap- pears to offer the best chance of being productive of oil. The Galena-Platte- ville also has possibilities of oil production for it is correlated with the THE MEDIA ANTICLINE, HENDERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS it Kimmswick or "Trenton" which produces oil in the Waterloo pool, Mon- roe County, and the Westfield pool, Clark County, Illinois, and, to a greater extent, in Indiana and Ohio. However, in many places where it has keen drilled in this part of Illinois it does not contain porous strata, and for this reason is less favorable as a prospective oil horizon than is the Devonian limestone. There is some suggestion that a porous zone may he looked for near the top of the Galena-Platteville formation, inasmuch as at Bushnell, 25 miles southeast of Media, 11 feet of sand was reported at this horizon. In order to test the whole of the Galena-Platteville it would he necessary to drill through it to the to]) of the St. Peter sandstone, which may he ex- pected to he at a depth of about 800 feet in the area recommended for test- ing. 'The advisability of testing the whole of this formation (275 feet) is, however, open to question, as it is doubtful whether or not the prospects of production warrant the considerable additional expense involved. In view of the possibility of a porous zone in the upper In or 1.5 feet of the Galena-Platteville. as suggested above, it might be worth while to test this much of the formation. The top may be expected at a depth between 500 and 550 feet in the area recommended for testing. In some of the oil fields of Illinois and other states it has been found that the oil sands lie on the flanks of anticlinal structures without extend- ing over the tops. A dry hole on the top of a structure, therefore, does not necessarily condemn the flanks. Localized lenses of Hoing sand might exi^t on the sides of the Media anticline. Accordingly the territory included be- tween the 670- and 700-foot contours on the part of the structure to the east of Media is considered to have possibilities of production if Hoing sand is present. As the dips are steeper around this eastern part of the anticline than to the west of Media, it is recommended that the eastern part lie tested first. If production should be obtained on either the top or flanks of the eastern part of the Media anticline, testing might be continued on the flanks to the west of Media. Casing For the benefit of those who may undertake drilling in the area, the following suggestions concerning casing are included. To prevent the entrance of surface water and ground water from the glacial drift and Burlington, 10 inch conductor pipe might be used. Prob- ably not more than 10 feet of lo inch pipe would be needed. With s' 4 inch casing set on to]) of the Devonian limestone (at a probable depth of about 275 feet i the hole would be dry and in good condition for testing the De- vonian limestone. If production is not found here the most advantageous point for setting the (iin inch casing depends on whether or not the lloin<, r -and is present. If Hoing sand, is found and if water is coming in. then the 6-^j inch casing should he set on top of the Hoing sand. If Hoing sand 10 ILLINOIS PETROLEUM is not found the G^ inch casing might be set on top of the Galena-Platteville limestone. The following table gives the probable maximum casing requirements for a test to the upper Galena-Platteville in the area recommended. 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