Chattanooga Shale facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chattanooga Shale Stratigraphic range: Devonian
Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky
Type	Formation
Underlies	Maury Shale, Boone Formation
Overlies	Unconformity on Ordovician Cumberland Formation Leipers Limestone and other units
Lithology
Primary	Shale
Other	Sandstone
Location
Region	Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi
Country	United States
Type section
Named by	Charles Willard Hayes

The Chattanooga Shale is a geologic formation in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. It preserves conodont fossils dating to the Devonian Period. It occurs mostly as a subsurface geologic formation composed of layers of shale. It is located in Eastern Tennessee and also extends into southeastern Kentucky, northeastern Georgia, and northern Alabama. This part of Alabama is part of the Black Warrior Basin.

The Chattanooga Shale of east Tennessee is reported to be an extension of or correlates with the Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian region to the east. Exploratory drilling of the Chattanooga Shale in east Tennessee indicates that it contains significant amounts of natural gas. This has resulted in interest in and attempts to use hydraulic fracturing to exploit the resource.

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  Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky

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  Chattanooga Shale

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  Pyrite concretion in Chattanooga Shale