abstracts: geology 173 



GEOLOGY. — The Palestine salt dome, Anderson County, Texas; The 

 Brenham salt dome, Washington and Austin counties, Texas. 

 Oliver B. Hopkins. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-G. 

 Pp. 28, with maps, sections, and illustration. 1917. 



Viewed as a whole the Palestine dome is a quaquaversal fold on 

 whose flanks are highly inclined beds that dip in all directions away 

 from its center but become approximately horizontal within a few 

 miles; the center of the uplift is extensively faulted, mainly in a north- 

 easterly direction, producing an irregular distribution of the Cretaceous 

 beds and a triplication of the outcrop of the Austin chalk. 



Such an intensive and highly localized vertical uplift of quaquaversal 

 form could be produced only by vertical thrust from below. The 

 results observed are analogous to those produced by driving a punch 

 into a sheet of cold steel: the effects are entirely local. 



The peculiar local nature of salt domes may be due to the effect of 

 dynamic activity at certain points along lines of deformation, aiding 

 in the solution and transportation of salt, gypsum, etc., from deep- 

 lying formations, probably Permian, to the position in which they 

 are found. 



The highly folded, faulted, and eroded condition of the Palestine 

 dome and the general absence of oil and gas as surface seepages and 

 in shallow wells in this area detract from its oil prospects. 



The results of drilling for oil in the Brenham dome have been dis- 

 couraging, except that they have demonstrated the presence of a salt 

 dome. Suggestions are given regarding further drilling at this dome. 



R. W. Stone. 



GEOLOGY. — Oil and gas possibilities of the Hatchetigbee anticline, 

 Alabama. Oliver B. Hopkins. U. S, Geological Survey Bul- 

 letin 661-H. Pp. 33, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917. 

 The geological examination of the area shows that a broad, low anti- 

 cline, the Hatchetigbee anticUne, 'extends from a point north of Jack- 

 son, Ala., northwestward across Tombigbee River to the Alabama- 

 Mississippi state line and beyond; that the disturbance of the earth's 

 crust which produced this fold also produced a fault, the Jackson 

 fault; that the Hatchetigbee anticline has in general stronger dips on 

 its southwestern slope than on its northeastern; that two areas along 

 the crest of the fold are particularly favorable, structurally, for the 

 accumulation of oil and gas, and other areas along the crest of the 



