Abstract

Major gravel deposits occur in the northeast areas, the western regions, and the southern parts of the State of Mississippi. This undergraduate research project includes a study of lithological characteristics of pebble to cobble size fragments in Hammett Gravel Mine in Holmes County, Mississippi. This gravel occurrence belongs to a band of recent gravel deposit in the western part of the state, during the Pleistocene Epoch. The gravel layer at the mine is about 10–15 m thick and occurs beneath a loess layer. The gravel layer is highly unsorted and consists of grains ranging in size from sand to boulders.

Gravel sized samples were collected from the gravel layer as well as gravel piles at the Hammett Mine. Samples ranged in size from 2 cm to 25 cm and ranged in color from white, to gray, to red, to black. Regardless of their sizes, all samples are well rounded. However, they occurred in different shapes. The length to width ratio ranges from one to twenty. Four lithologies were recognized in the 92 samples collected: (1) chert (29%), (2) highly cemented sandstone (45%), (3) silicified limestone (29%), and (4) petrified wood (4%). Interestingly, pristine carbonate fragments were not found. They must have existed at the source area because of the abundance of sedimentary rock fragments among gravel samples studied. Their absence indicates either they were pulverized and dissolved during the transport.