Upper Devonian black shales

The 50 million years of the Devonian Period provided sufficient time for over 11,000 feet of sedimentary rocks to accumulate in the Appalachian Basin this accumulation was controlled by pulses of tectonic uplift to the east. A similar control of a northwestern source area by intermittent tectonic movement is suggested as a source for the upper wedges (B/C) in the Michigan and Illinois Basins. The lower black shales (A) of regional type represent quiescent periods of slow deposition followed by relatively more rapid sedimentation occurring in response to uplift and erosion of source areas and to depositional restrictions caused by rising arches. The total thickness of Devonian shales in either the Michigan or Illinois Basin is less than 1000 feet, so that the sediment volume involved in these two basins is far less than in the Appalachian Basin. Thus there was ample time for... 

Upper Devonian Black Shales of the Eastern United States... 

Figure 3, Solid-state 13 C-NMR spectra of kerogen and coal samples from Upper Devonian black shales (right) and from other locations as indicated (left).

Breger, I. A., Hatcher, P. G., Romankiw, L. A., Miknis, F. P., and Maciel, G. E. (1983). Upper Devonian black shales of the eastern United States Organic geochemical studies—past and present. In Geochemistry and Chemistry of Oil Shales (No. 230) (F. P. Mikins and J. F. McKay, eds.). American Chemical Society Symposium Series, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., pp. 181-198. 

The Antrim Shale play is a brown to black, pyritic, and organic-rich shale located in the upper portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan within the Michigan Basin. This Late Devonian-age shale is bounded by shale (Bedford Shale) above and by limestone (Squaw Bay Limestone) below and occurs at... 

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