Bear Valley Strip Mine

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View of the Bear Valley Strip Mine from the north wall facing southeast, with the "Whaleback" in center Bear Valley Strip Mine 1.jpg
View of the Bear Valley Strip Mine from the north wall facing southeast, with the "Whaleback" in center

The Bear Valley Strip Mine is an abandoned coal strip mine located in Coal Township, Northumberland County, to the southwest of the town of Shamokin, Pennsylvania. It lies in the Western Middle Field of the Anthracite belt in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, where the Pennsylvanian Llewellyn Formation is exposed. The property is owned by the Reading Anthracite Company. [1]

Contents

Structural geology

The coal and other overlying rock has been removed by mining down to a resistant sandstone bed, revealing the three-dimensional structures of folding and faulting caused by the Alleghany Orogeny. Students of geology have visited the location for decades due to the quality of exposures.

The central anticline in the valley is often called the "Whaleback".

The sequence of structural deformation is outlined as follows: [1]

StageDeformation event
I Joint formation in coal
IIJoint formation with quartz fiber fillings in sandstone and ironstone
III Pressure solution and primary crenulation cleavage
IVConjugate wrench and wedge faults form
VLarge-scale folding
VIExtensional jointing and faulting

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References

  1. 1 2 Sequence of structural stages of the Alleghany orogeny at the Bear Valley Strip Mine, Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Nickelsen, R. P. (Dept. of Geology, Bucknell University) Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—Northeastern Section, 1987

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