Silurian, Devonian, and Mississippian Hydrocarbon-Rich Horizons in Northeastern Kentucky: Perspectives in the Field, Professional Development Field Trip

Situated at the margin of the Bluegrass area in central Kentucky is a dissected escarpment supported everywhere by Devonian and Mississippian shales, siltstones, and sandstones and locally by Silurian carbonates. This escarpment has been called the “Highland Rim” or “Knobs” and it provides an excellent area in which to view outcrops of units that in the subsurface are major hydrocarbon producers. On the eastern side of the Bluegrass area, where our field trip will take place, the Highland Rim section contains local Silurian carbonates, Devonian and Mississippian black shales, called variously the Ohio, New Albany, Chattanooga, and/or Sunbury Shales, overlain conformably by the shales, siltstones, and sandstones of the Lower–Middle Mississippian Borden Formation