Geology and paleontology of the Haynesville cores: Northeastern Virginia coastal plain

Abstract

The Haynesville cores, obtained from three adjacent stratigraphic test holes in Richmond County in east-central Virginia, provide one of the more complete reference sections currently available for the Tertiary strata of the Virginia and Maryland Coastal Plain. The cored Tertiary section is 537 feet (ft) (164 meters (m)) thick and includes strata of late Paleocene, early and middle Eocene, late Oligocene, middle and late Miocene, and Pliocene ages. The Tertiary beds are separated from the Lower Cretaceous Potomac Formation by an unconformity representing a hiatus of approximately 40 million years (m.y.). Upper Cretaceous and lower Paleocene formations are absent, probably in part because substantial thicknesses of these strata were never deposited in this area, and in part because of relative uplift of the Norfolk arch and beveling of strata associated with episodic marine transgressions across the area.