Chestnut Ridge, Bedford County

Last updated
2016 Landsat image of Chestnut Ridge Chestnut Ridge LC08 L1TP 016032 20161114 20170219 01 T1.jpg
2016 Landsat image of Chestnut Ridge
Oblique air photo of Chestnut Ridge, facing northeast. Chestnut Ridge Bedford Co aerial.jpg
Oblique air photo of Chestnut Ridge, facing northeast.

Chestnut Ridge is an elongate hill trending northeast-southwest in west-central Bedford County, Pennsylvania. It is partially forested with rural homes, farms, and notably apple orchards. Four small towns surround it: Schellsburg, New Paris, Fishertown, and Pleasantville. Shawnee State Park and Shawnee Lake lie immediately to the south of the ridge.

Contents

Chestnut Ridge School District is named after the ridge.

Geology

Geologically, Chestnut Ridge is a doubly plunging anticline. The bedrock along the axis is the Devonian Onondaga Formation and Old Port Formation, consisting primarily of sandstone. [1] The crest of the hill is at approximately 1,700 feet (520 m) elevation.

The New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co., Inc. New Paris Quarry (inactive) is located on the northwest flank of the ridge. Early Devonian Limestone of the fossiliferous Keyser Formation is quarried there.

See also Geology of Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

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Hamilton Group

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The Devonian Mahantango Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It is named for the North branch of the Mahantango Creek in Perry and Juniata counties in Pennsylvania. It is a member of the Hamilton Group, along with the underlying the Marcellus Formation Shale. South of Tuscarora Mountain in south central Pennsylvania, the lower members of this unit were also mapped as the Montebello Formation. Details of the type section and of stratigraphic nomenclature for this unit as used by the U.S. Geological Survey are available on-line at the National Geologic Map Database.

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The Late Silurian to Early Devonian Keyser Formation is a mapped limestone bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Foreknobs Formation

The Devonian Foreknobs Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Brallier Formation

The Devonian Brallier Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.

The Devonian Harrell Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.

References

  1. Berg, T.M., Edmunds, W.E., Geyer, A.R. and others, compilers, (1980). Geologic Map of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, Map 1, scale 1:250,000.

Coordinates: 40°06′05″N78°37′34″W / 40.1014°N 78.6260°W / 40.1014; -78.6260