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ON THE OIL WELLS OF TERRE HAUTE, IND.
By Dr. T. Sterry Hunt.

"In previous publications, I have endeavored to show, that the source of the petroleum in southwestern Ontario, and probably in some other localites, is to be sought in the oleiferous limestones of the Corniferous and Niagara formations, both of which abound in indigenous petroleum. I have, moreover, expressed the opinion, that the overlying sandstones of Pennsylvania are, also, truly oleiferous. In a paper read to this Association, last year, I showed that
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the Niagara limestone, at Chicago, holds imprisoned in its pores an enoumous quantity of oil, and remarked, that the reservoirs which supply the wells in other districts, are fissures along anticlinals, which fissures, though sometimes occurring in strata above the oil-bearing horizon, in Ontario frequently occur in the Corniferous limestone itself. Hence the view held by some that the source of the oil, in that region, is to be sought in the overlying strata, is negatived. In Ontario, there intervenes between the Corniferous and Niagara formations the great saliferous series known as the Onondaga or Salina formation. This, however, is wanting to the westward, where the first two formations come together, and, according to Prof. Cox, where exposed at North Vernon, Indiana, are both oleiferous.
A well lately sunk at Terre Haute, Indiana, in search of fresh water, has shown the existence of a productive source of oil in that region. It was carried nineteen hundred feet, and yields about two barrels of oil daily. A second well, a quarter of a mile east of north from the first, now gives a supply of twenty-five barrels of oil daily. After passing through one hundred and fifty feet of superficial sand and gravel, the boring was carried to a depth of sixteen hundred and twenty-five feet, where oil was struck. According to Prof. Cox, the strata passed through are as follows: Coal measures, seven hundred feet; Carboniferous limestones with underlying sandstones and shales, seven hundred feet; black pyroschists, regarded as the equivalent of the Genessee slates, fifty feet. Beneath, at a depth of twenty-five feet in the underlying Corniferous limestone, the oil-vein was met with. The oil in the first well was found at the same horizon. A third well about a mile to the westward, was carried to two thousand feet, but only traces of oil were found. This locality, on the Wabash river is, according to Prof. Cox, on the line of a gentle anticlinal or uplift, which is traced a long distance to the west of south. This relation of productive oil-wells, to such anticlinals, was pointed out by Prof. Andrews and by myself in 1861."

1870 Table of Contents

Geology Library, Indiana University, Bloomington