[Antentcan Journal, oF Science, Vor. 263, June 1965, P. 465.493]
American Journal of Science
JUNE 1965
EXPLOSIVE IGNEOUS ACTIVITY ALONG
AN ILLINOIS-MISSOURLKANSAS AXIS
F. G. SNYDER* and PAUL E. GERDEMANN**
ABSTRACT. Eight distinct geologic events, cheracterized by intrusive or
hneous activiiy and/or intense localized. deformation, are
trending structural zone across southern Illinois, Missouri, and eastern Kansas. The geol-
gic features defining this zone ate, {rom east to west:' Hicks dome in Illinois; Avon
diatremes, Furnace Creck voleanie crater, Crooked Creek disturbance, Hazel Green vol-
gguies, Decatonilc ditebanes, and Weavblons faut ne in Misouri and the ose
‘The Furnace Creck structure in Washington County, Missouri represents a period of
oxtrusive vuleanism in Upper Cambrian time. Extensive core drilling revealed a crater
approximately 7000 fest jn diameter and at lesst G00 fect deep in Lamotte sandstone, The
cater is flled with baste volcanic ejecta and fragments of basement rocks, Surrounding
the erater isa thin layer of voleanie ash, The ash hed is in the lower part of the Bonne:
terre formation, and ash and erater are overlain by a normal Bonneterre section.
‘The Hazel’ Green voleanics in Laclede County, Missouri, represent a similar period of
voleanie activity in early Lamotte time
Considered 9s isolated, unrelated phenomena, the individual features along this strue-
tural exe ave oon inerpreted x erprovolanio explosions, meteorite pact scars, ig
neous intrasives, and complex fault structures. Details of structure end lithotogy, sub-
rfaco information from core drilling, the remarkable eljgnment of the features, and the
frequent association with basic jgneaus rocks suggest that these structures. are closely
related in mode of origin and that they represent intermittent deep-seated faulting and
Jntrision through a Tong period of time.
rusive ig-
igned in a 400-mile eastovest
INTRODUCTION
During the last few years, interest in lunar research has stimulated study
of the relatively small, intensely disturbed areas variously interpreted as crypto-
volcanic structures. cryptoexplosion structures, or meteorite impact scars. Two
well-known structures in south-central Missouri, the Crooked Creek and De-
caturville disturbances, are of this type.
Generally, the structures seen hy the writers or reported in the literature
reveal no definitive criteria of mode of origin. The problem of origin is com-
pounded by the tendency of many authors to regard each small, intensely dis-
turbed area as an isolated complete entity, independent from and foreign to
regional structural relationships. Regarded as a unit complete in itself, the
individual structure may be plausibly explained by recourse to extra-terrestrial
forces. The Crooked Creek and Decaturville structures appear as roughly ofr-
cular disturbed areas, each with an intensely brecciated core, a well defined
ring pattern, and a central zone containing abundant shatter cones. Studied as
individual, isolated phenomena they offer no conclusive evidence of mode of
origin. The choice of hypothesis is a matter of personal preference of the one
examining the structure. However, when considered in relation to their regional
structural environment, they appear to be expressions of deep-seated, often ex-
¥ G08 South Gables Boulevard, Wheaton, Illinois,
** St. Joseph Lead Company, Bonne Terre, Missouri.
465,466 F.G. Snyder and Paul E. Gerdemann
plosive, volcanic activity along a 400-mile zone extending across southern
Mllinois, Missouri, and eastern Kansas.
The features delineating this structural axis include, from east to west:
Hicks dome in Ilinois; the Avon diatremes, the Furnace Creek volcanic crater,
Crooked Creck, the Hazel Green volcanics, Deeaturville, and the Weaubleau
structure in Missouri; and the Rose dome area in Kansas (fig. 1).
DESCRIPTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURES
Several of the features along this axis have been described in recent litera-
ture and are fairly wellknown; others are known only from subsurface infor-
mation derived from St. Joseph Lead Company drilling. The drilling reveals
extensive early Paleozoic volcanic activity and a probable deep-seated relation-
ship between what appear to be isolated events.
‘The major characteristics of the eight structural features are summarized
below.
Hicks dome—Hicks dome in Hardin County, Illinois, is a circular uplift
appreximately 10 miles in diameter (fig. 2). Devonian shales outeropping at
the core are ringed by Mississippian and Pennsylvanian formations, exposing
approximately 4000 feet of stratigraphic section. The ring structure is well de~
fined on the north and west sides of the dome and is further emphasized by
ring faulting: on the southeast side the ring structure is obscured by later
faulting, Hicks domes lies near the northerly end of a northwest-trending anti-
cline and a short distance south of the east-west Rough Creek-Shawneetown
fault zone.
In 1952, the St. Joseph Lead Company drilled a hole, the Hamp well, at
the center of the dome, The drill hole collared in the Clear Creek formation of
Devonian age and revealed a normal stratigraphic section to 1600 feet depth.
From this depth to 2944 feet, where the hole was bottomed, the rock inter-
sected was a breccia composed of limestone. dolomite, and shale fragments and
sand grains with fluorite, calcite, quartz, and sulfides as veins and replacements
of the breccia (pl. 1-A). Details of the drill record were reported by Brown,
Emery, and Meyer (1954) with their interpretation of the dome as an incipient
or uncompleted cryptovoleanic structure. No primary igneous material was
recognized in the breccia, Fragments of Maquoketa shale were found 1000 feet
below normal position for the formation. Sand grains from the St. Peter were
present from a position 400 fect above its normal occurrence to the bottom of
the hole, a vertical interval of 1100 feet.
and on the flanks of the dome, several pipelike or dike-like
intrusive masses of similar brecoia have been mapped as explosion dikes
(Weller, Grogan, and Tippie, 1952). These consist of angular to sub-angular
rock fragments in a matrix of rock flour, The fragments include feldspar,
quartz, and granite brought up from the basement. Weller, Grogan. and Tippie
}) assigned a thickness of 12,000 feet to the Paleozoic section of southern
Illinois; consequently, the fragments of Precambrian were carried upward some
8000 feet. The evidence indicates that in the pipe conduits breccia fragments
moved both upward and downward stratigraphically.
Within the limits of the dome and for 20 miles to the north-northwest andExplosive Igneous Activity Along an Mlinois-Missouri-Kansas Axis 467
‘sTRUCTURES
LEGEND
rauur
Tpowanas ory
i me
i -f Zz
Ly q
x
Fig. 1. Cryptoexplesion