Vincennes Basin

Location

See text below

References

Droste et al. 1975, Droste and Shaver 1980, 1987, Whitaker 1988

Description

The name Vincennes Basin is applied to an inferred trough or embayment that existed during the Silurian and Devonian Periods. The authors listed above differ on details but agree that an area of deeper water lay in southeastern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky from the Alexandrian Epoch (Early Silurian), at least through the Early Devonian Epoch. This trough was closed on the north, probably was open on the south, and had a north-south axis. The Vincennes Basin, like the older Reelfoot Basin, can be regarded as an ancestor of the present Illinois Basin. A nongeographic term such as proto-Illinois Basin can serve equally well for such features.