STRUCTURE OF BURNING SPRINGS ANTICLINE 769 



STRUCTURE OF THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE EUREKA-VOLOANO- 



BURNING-SPRINOS ANTICLINE, IN PLEASANTS, WOOD, AND 



RITCHIE COUNTIES, WEST VIRGINIA 



BY F. Q. CLAPP 



(Al)stract) 



A geological examination of the northern portion of this anticline, followed 

 bj the plotting of its structure on the government topographic maps, shows 

 that the anticline is not even approximately straight or of uniform height or 

 width, as had generally been assumed by geologists and oil operators ; on 

 the contrary, it is very irregular. The strike of this portion of the anticline 

 ranges from north 20 degrees east to north 10 degrees west. The width of its 

 flat crest ranges from an eighth to half a mile, while the maximum altitude of 

 any given formation on the axis varies several hundred feet in different por- 

 tions of the anticline, thus making a series of alternating domes and saddles. 

 Since the oil development here is largely a matter of the past, the relations of 

 the oil pools to the structure can be studied to good advantage. It was found 

 that the productive portions of the anticline correspond closely with the domes, 

 while between them the saddles were always barren of oil for distances, some- 

 times, of more than 2 miles along the axis. As a rule, the shallower oil sands 

 were productive on an anticlinal crest, while the deeper ones were dry there, 

 but productive farther and farther from the crest, according to relative depth. 

 Since this paper was written, the statements made regarding complexity of 

 the anticlinal structure here have been corroborated by the West Virginia 

 Geological Survey in their mapping of the structure. 



Discussion 



Dr. I. C. White : The same results described in this interesting paper of Mr. 

 Clapp's have also been found by Prof. G. P. Grimsley, one of my assistants, 

 whose report on Wirt, Wood, and Ritchie counties is now passing through the 

 press. Also, during the present summer, another of my assistants, Mr. Roy V. 

 Hennen, has traced this same arch southwestward from Burning Springs, 

 dying down, but curving westward and passing through the great Walton oil 

 field. Prof. E. B. Andrews was the first geologist to describe the anticline in 

 1861, in a paper published in the American Journal of Science, and its study 

 led him to the discovery of the anticlinal or structural theory of oil and gas 

 accumulation. 



GENERALIZED SECTION THROUGH THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS OF 



MARYLAND 



BY CHARLES K. SWARTZ 



(Abstract) 



A generalized section was given through the Appalachian Mountains on the 

 Maryland-Pennsylvania state line, with a detailed section through the central 

 Appalachians. It was shown that certain types of structure characterize the 

 region discussed, being observed both in its major and its minor features. It 

 was further shown that these characteristics are to be seen in the general 



