Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
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      • Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
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    • Fossils of Oaky Woods
    • Collections & Stewardship of Georgia’s Fossils
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
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  • Education Material
    • My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • The Natural History & Fossils Record of Houston County, GA
    • Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record
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    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
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  • Meteorites
    • Did I Find A Meteorite?
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  • 1: Georgia's Oldest Fossils; Archaeocyathids, At 513 Million Years Old
  • 2: Trilobites; 500 Million Years Ago
    • 2A; Murray County Stromatolites
    • 2B; A Trilobite Nest in Georgia
  • 3: Geologic Time
  • 4: Our Oldest Vertebrate?
  • 5: Georgia Before the Dinosaurs
    • 5A; Georgia’s Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
    • 5B: Carpentertypus durhami, Georgia’s Giant Insect, 315 Million Years Ago
  • 6: 200 Million Years Ago
    • 6A: Birth of the Atlantic Ocean
  • 7: Cretaceous Georgia, Dinosaurs & more
    • 7A: Georgias Pterosaur
    • 7C: Coelecanths
    • 7B: So Many Sharks
    • 7D: Xiphactinus vetus
    • 7E: Side-necked turtles
    • 7F: Marine Reptiles
    • 7G: Dinosaurs in Georgia
    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
    • 7L: Bill Montante's Mega "Gator" Tooth Discovery
    • 7K: The Pio Nono Formation
    • 7J: The Eutaw Formation
    • 7H: Deinosuchus schwimmeri in Recognition of Dr. David Schwimmer
  • 8: Suwannee Current, Gulf Trough, & Bridgeboro Limestone
  • 9: The Clayton Formation Report; By Hank Josey
    • 9A: The Georgia Turtle
  • 10: The Eocene; Georgia's Oldest Mammals
    • 10A: The Origins of Whales
  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
  • 12: Basilosaurids; The First Modern Whales
    • 12A: Basilosaurus cetoides
    • 12B: Basilotritus
    • 12C: Cynthiacetus (Revised)
    • 12D: Chrysocetus
    • 12E: The Redmond Mandible of Albany Ga
    • 12F; Houston County, GA Basilosaurus to the Smithsonian
  • 13: Ziggy and The Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, GA
  • 14: Late Eocene
    • 14A: Eocene Fossils & Stratigraphy
    • 14B; Fossils, Impacts, & Tektites Dating the Clinchfield Formation
    • 14C: The Tivola Limestone
    • 14D: Twiggs Clay Vertebrates
    • 14F; Sandersville Limestone, By Hank Josey
    • 14E: Ocmulgee Formation Vertebrates
    • 14I: Dating Late Eocene Sediments
    • 14J: Georgia's Tektites; Georgiaites
    • 14K; Shell Bluff; Georgia's Most Historic Paleontology Site
    • 14L; Taylors Bluff, Paleo Paddling the Ocmulgee River
    • 14M; Eocene Terrestrial Mammals From Gordon, GA
    • 14N: Fossil Ridge, A Stratigraphic Study in Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area
    • 14O; Georgia's First Entelodont
    • 14P: Historic Rich Hill
    • 14Q; Bibb County's Christy Hill, Clinchfield Formation Hilltop
  • 15: Early Oligocene
    • 15A: The Marianna Limestone
    • 15B; The Glendon Limestone
    • 15C: Undiffereniated Oligocene Residuum
    • 15D; Brissus bridgeboroensis; A New Echinoid Species From Georgia’s Bridgeboro Limestone
    • 15E: The Curious Steinkern Sea Biscuits of Red Dog Farm Road
    • 15F: Early Oligocene Gordian Knot
  • 16: Bonaire GA Entelodont
  • 17: The Whale Eating Shark
  • 18: Miocene Epoch; 23.3 to 5.3 Million Years Ago
    • 18A; Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates
    • 18B; Paul Fell, Rockhouse Cave
    • 18C: The Marks Head Formation
    • 18D: Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates of the Marks Head Formation
    • 18E: The Statenville Formation
    • 18F: South Georgia’s Dugong Metaxytherium calvertense
  • 19: Pliocene Epoch; 5.3 to 2.5 Million years Ago
    • 19A: Two Small Primitive Horses from Taylor County Advance the Science of Georgia Geology
  • 20: The Ice Ages; Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs
    • 20A; Clark Quarry's Mammoths & Bison
    • 20B: Pleistocene Vertebrate List
    • 20C: Georgia’s Eolian Dunes
    • 20D: Georgia’s Carolina Bays
    • 20E: Late Pleistocene Significant Events
    • 20F: Southeastern Thermal Enclave
    • 20G; Diamond Back Terrapins
    • 20H; A Kaolin Mine Beaver Dam
    • 20I; Pleistocene Vertebrate Fossils On Georgia’s Piedmont
    • 20J; Watkins Quarry Pleistocene Vertebrates, Glynn County, GA
  • *NEW* 20K: Pleistocene Vertebrates from Coastal Georgia
  • 21: Humans in Georgia
  • 22: Geology of the Coastal Plain, 1911
    • 22A: 1911 Cretaceous Fossil Locations
    • 22B: 1911 Eocene Fossil Locations
  • 23: Coastal GA Locations (1957)
  • 24: Needed; The Georgia Geologic Survey
  • Building This Site
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Contributing Artists
    • Black & White Sketches

7K: The Pio Nono Formation
By Thomas Thurman
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The type locality for the Pio Nono Formation is located on the west side of the parking lot of Brad Henderson Memorial Stadium on Anthony Road in Macon. When the author visited the site there was construction going on, the Pio Nono Formation was still accessible but a fence had been erected at the parking lot entrance so it may become gated.
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​The Pio Nono Formation correlates to the Eutaw Formation and is about 84 million years old. It was identified, described, and named by Paul Huddlestun and John Hetrick in 1991. It has preserved no fossils but is important in understanding Georgia’s natural history. ​
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It is a colorful, kaolin bearing, variably sandy to pebble and even gravel bearing clay bed. It rests directly atop Piedmont basement rocks and underlies the Gaillard Formation. The name “Pio Nono” is taken from Pio Nono Ave in Macon, GA where there are several small outcrops. Pio Nono Ave was named, in turn, for Pope Pious the 9th. It’s unusual for a Southeastern town to name a road after a pope and the explanation rest in the fact that there was once a convent in the area of Macon’s Pio Nono Ave. 
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​It is described as “highly pigmented, thin to thick bedded, variably horizontal bedded to undulatory-bedded to cross-bedded, moderately to poorly sorted, variably feldspathis and micaceous, sporadically pebbly or gavelly (especially near the Fall-Line where it resembles Quaternary river terrace deposits) kaolinitic sand, sandy kaolin, sandstone, sandy kaolinitic claystone, and kaolinitic sandstone. Quartz sand is the dominant component of the Pio Nono Formation but kaolin is also significant at some sites.”  
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The Pio Nono is the primary formation outcropping at the Fall Line from the vicinity of Jones County in the east, to around Junction City in the west. 
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​An excellent exposure can be observed 2.35 miles north of Robert, Georgia in Crawford County at the intersection of Georgia Highway 341 and US 80. At the northwest corner of the intersection the Pio Nono Formation stands 20 feet high. On the Southeast corner you can see the deeply weathered saprolite of the underlying piedmont basement rocks. 
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The Pio Nono is part of the Oconee Group of sediments.
The Oconee Group is defined as pre-Upper Eocene, river deposited (fluvial), kaolin and kaolin-rich sands in the Fort Valley plateau and Fall Lines Hills district of Georgia’s Coastal Plain. The Oconee Group also applies to the fall Line Hills of Alabama, South Carolina, & North Carolina.
In Georgia the Oconee Group includes.
            Huber Formation
            Gaillard Formation
            Pio Nono Formation
​                      
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In the Macon area the Pio Nono Formation is especially kaolinitic and fine grained but in the vicinity of the Flint River it becomes sandier. West of the Flint River from Butler in Taylor County to Junction City in Talbot County the formation is extensively mined for sand. 
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Reference;
  1. Huddlestun, Paul F.; Hetrick, John H.; The Stratigraphy of the Fort Valley Plateau and the Central Kaolin District; 26th Annual Field Trip Georgia Geological Society, Georgia Geological Society Guidebooks Volume 11, Number 1, October 1991
You can download and read the original paper below.
ft._valley_plat_strat_ggs1991.pdf
File Size: 28778 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


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