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Read Ebook: Inside Illinois: Mineral Resources by Illinois State Geological Survey
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Educational Series 9
STATE of ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT of REGISTRATION and EDUCATION
ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY John C. Frye, Chief URBANA, ILLINOIS
Printed by Authority of State of Illinois, Ch. 127, IRS, Par. 58.25.
Although Illinois has been nicknamed the "Prairie State," many parts of it are hilly and scenic. The idea of large areas of the state being nothing more than broad, flat prairies has come about because the major highways have been built to take advantage of the comparatively low, gently rolling landscape rather than the rougher more scenic areas.
Physiography is the study of the creation and gradual change of land surface forms . Thus, the land surface as we see it today in each of the physiographic provinces has had a particular history of development.
Illinois is about 385 miles long from north to south and about 218 miles wide. It has an area of 55,947 square miles. The average elevation of the state is about 600 feet above sea level. Charles Mound, however, in the northern part of Jo Daviess County in extreme northwestern Illinois, has an elevation of 1,241 feet above sea level and is the highest point in the state.
Cheap water transportation is available to Illinois industry through Lake Michigan, the Illinois Waterway, and the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers. These major rivers of Illinois collect the surface drainage of the state from a network of about 500 streams.
WHAT IS THE EARTH MADE OF BENEATH THE GROUND SURFACE?
The earth is made of a large number of different rocks and minerals . These materials are divided into three zones: core, mantle, and crust .
DRIFTLESS AREA WISCONSINAN MORAINES ILLINOIAN TILL PLAIN MISSISSIPPI RIVER WABASH RIVER SHAWNEE HILLS OHIO RIVER
Crust Mantle Outer core Inner core
WHAT IS CORE?
The core is the innermost zone of the earth. It is mainly iron with some nickel and cobalt. The inner core probably is solid, but the outer core may consist of the same elements in a molten form. The core is the most dense of the three zones.
HOW DOES THE MANTLE DIFFER FROM THE CORE?
The mantle, which surrounds the core, is a rigid zone of materials rich in iron and magnesium. These materials are not as dense as those found in the core.
WHAT IS THE CRUST OF THE EARTH AND HOW IS IT DISTINGUISHED FROM THE MANTLE AND THE CORE?
The crust, the top part of which includes the ground we walk on, is the hard, outer surface layer of the earth. Although the crust is about 6 to 30 miles deep, the scale of figure 2 allows it to be drawn only as the thin outer line. The rocks and minerals that we are all acquainted with are found in the crust. These rocks are not as dense and do not have as high an iron content as do the rocks of the mantle and the core.
WHAT IS THE EARTH'S CRUST UNDER ILLINOIS MADE OF?
The earth's crust under Illinois is made of: sedimentary rocks deposited by water, wind, or glaciers ; igneous, or melted rocks ; and metamorphic, or altered sedimentary and igneous rocks . These various types of rocks have a relatively thin covering of broken or weathered material called mantle rock and soil.
WHEN AND HOW WAS THE LAND SURFACE OF ILLINOIS FORMED?
The ground surface over most of Illinois was formed during the ice age which lasted from about one million years ago up to nearly 5,000 years ago. As much as 90 percent of the state was covered by one of several sheets of glacial ice . The glaciers smoothed down and covered much of the old, rocky, hilly land surface and filled old valleys with loose, unconsolidated deposits.
WHERE DID THE LOOSE, UNCONSOLIDATED DEPOSITS COME FROM AND WHAT ARE THEY MADE OF?
In Canada vast thicknesses of snow and ice accumulated until the weight of the ice finally caused it to flow slowly outward, mainly to the south . Rocks and surface materials of all types were picked up and carried by the glaciers for great distances before being deposited. Pieces of granite, quartzite, and native copper among the many local rocks and minerals are found in glacial deposits and indicate that at least part of these deposits came from the Great Lakes Region. The materials deposited range from clay-size minerals to large boulders.
a. Inferred limit of NEBRASKAN glaciation b. Inferred limit of KANSAN glaciation c. ILLINOIAN glacial advance d. SANGAMONIAN major drainage e. Maximum WISCONSINAN glacial advance f. Late WISCONSINAN Valparaiso front and Kankakee Flood
HOW DID ILLINOIS GET ITS SOILS?
Weathering and bacterial decay action have modified many of the loose, unconsolidated surface materials into soils. The present soils of Illinois are fertile partly because they have minerals and trace elements brought in by the glaciers from adjacent parts of the country. The youngest and most fertile soils occur in the northeastern part of the state and along the Illinois and Mississippi River valleys. These young soils are more fertile because the glacial deposits and loess upon which they have developed are younger and fresher. The minerals and trace elements in these deposits have not been dissolved out to the extent that they have in the older glacial deposits and soils in other parts of the state.
ARE ANIMAL AND PLANT REMAINS FOUND IN THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS OF ILLINOIS?
Scattered mammoth and mastodon remains have been found in glacial deposits at various localities in the state. Peat, which is an accumulation of partially decomposed plant materials, has been found, especially in the northern part of the state. It is marketed as an organic soil conditioner.
MINERAL WEALTH
HOW WEALTHY IS ILLINOIS IN MINERAL PRODUCTION?
In 1963, Illinois mineral production totaled approximately 5,000,000. This placed the state first as a mineral producer in the Upper Mississippi Valley and eighth in the nation.
WHAT MINERAL COMMODITIES ARE PRODUCED IN ILLINOIS?
Coal and petroleum, two of the world's most important mineral resources, are produced in Illinois. Iron ore, another mineral of extreme importance, is brought into the steel mills of the Chicago and East St. Louis areas from deposits in Minnesota and Missouri. Some ore from foreign countries is also processed in these mills.
A great variety of mineral commodities are produced in Illinois. In the order of their 1963 value they are crude oil and natural gas, coal, clay products, crushed stone and cement, common sand and gravel, special sands, fluorspar, and metals--zinc and lead.
HOW MANY ILLINOIS COUNTIES PRODUCE MINERAL COMMODITIES?
In 1963, 99 of the 102 counties of Illinois reported mineral production of one kind or another.
Petroleum and Natural Gas 36.3% Coal 31.9% Stone Products 15.2% Clay Products 8.8% Sand and Gravel 5.9% Fluorspar and Metals 1.9%
HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK IN THE MINERAL INDUSTRIES OF ILLINOIS?
In 1963, approximately 27,000 people worked in mines, quarries, oil fields, and direct processing operations such as cement and clay products plants and oil refineries. Many other persons were employed in transporting the materials and in plants and general offices.
HOW DOES THE FARMER IN ILLINOIS BENEFIT FROM MINERAL PRODUCTION?
The farmers of the state are among those receiving direct and indirect benefits from Illinois minerals. In 1963, more than 4,800,000 tons of agstone were spread on Illinois fields to reduce acidity, maintain soil fertility, and improve crop production. Other stone and stone products are used in constructing farm buildings and facilities and in the maintenance of farm-to-market roads. In addition, petroleum products and coal provide energy to power the laborsaving devices that enable the farmer to increase his production and scale of operations.
PETROLEUM
WHAT IS PETROLEUM AND HOW IS IT FORMED?
Petroleum is a dark, oily fluid that is irregularly distributed in sedimentary rocks throughout the world. There are several ideas about the origin of petroleum. The most widely accepted of these is that billions of plants and animals lived and died in widespread seas and their remains decomposed and released fluid, fatty particles. These were distilled into "hydrocarbons" .
HOW AND WHERE DID OIL COLLECT IN ROCKS?
The hydrocarbons, or oil and gas droplets, were buried by countless tons of sediments that accumulated on ancient sea bottoms. As these sediments hardened into sedimentary rocks, the hydrocarbons were squeezed into whatever empty spaces were available in the rocks. As the layers of sedimentary rocks later became folded and broken, oil and gas droplets and salt water moved upward through any interconnecting open spaces. Some droplets escaped to the surface as "seeps," but many were trapped when they came up against a nonporous barrier. Gas, being lighter than either oil or water, was trapped at the top, and oil was stopped in the middle, above the salt water. An accumulation of this kind is termed a "pool" or a "field."
WHERE DID OIL ACCUMULATE IN ILLINOIS?
Conditions under which oil is found in Illinois are as follows: coral reefs, anticlines , "pinching" or "lensing" out of dipping, overlapping porous rock layers, and buried sandstone-filled ancient stream channels.
ARE THERE LAKES OR RIVERS OF OIL UNDERGROUND?
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