Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900Various
History
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The report on the Rock Waters of Ohio concerns, first, those waters,
chiefly in the northwestern and western part of the State, that are
obtained from a considerable depth as compared with ordinary wells, the
knowledge of which was almost wholly derived from wells drilled in the
search for oil and gas, and was necessarily fragmentary and incomplete;
because water was not included among the objects of search, but was
considered a hindrance and obstruction to be got out of the way as well
as possible; and, second, flowing wells, including only those having
considerable head of pressure and those occurring in considerable
areas, all of which belong entirely to the drift. Further, a brief
review is given of some facts of unusual interest that were developed
in the deep drillings concerning the preglacial drainage system of the
part of the State in question. Indications of old river channels, one
of which seems to have been extensive, were found at several points.
Among the curious results of these studies was the conclusion, "seeming
to be already established," "that the Ohio River, as we now know the
stream, is of recent origin, and that the main volume of water gathered
in it at the present time originally flowed across the State to the
northward at least as far as Auglaize and Mercer Counties, where it
turned to the westward toward the present lines of Wabash drainage in
Indiana." Professor Orton seems to have placed considerable emphasis
on the value of a study of the rocky floor of the State, concerning
which all we know at present is derived from the revelations of deep
drillings at haphazard; and he thought it would be a good work for
the State to make use of all accessible data of this kind at once in
constructing a model of the rocky floor of the region under review. The
care and fidelity with which he studied the underground geology are
exemplified in a map attached to the paper on the oil and gas fields,
in which the horizons of the Trenton limestone are indicated and
approximately bounded as they occur by gradations ranging from fifty
to two hundred and fifty feet, from elevations above the ocean level
to one thousand and more feet below. Another contribution of Professor
Orton's which may appropriately be given special notice is his part
of the article on Ohio in the Encyclopædia Britannica, in which a
succinct, clear, and comprehensive account of the geology of the whole
State is given, with its salient features delineated so sharply that
one may almost conceive from it a definite geological picture of the
region.
Of all his scientific work, however, Professor Orton regarded
the fixing of the order of the coal measures of Ohio as the most
important; and he considered the determination of the order of the
subcarboniferous strata, and particularly of the Berea Grit, as
constituting a large permanent service to the study of the geology of
the State.
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