Juniata Formation

Last updated
Juniata Formation
Stratigraphic range: Late Ordovician
Juniata Fm Blacklog.jpg
Outcrop on U.S. Route 522 at Blacklog Narrows southeast of Orbisonia, Pennsylvania.
Typesedimentary
Underlies Oswego Formation and Tuscarora Formation
Overlies Bald Eagle Formation
Thickness400–1,125 ft (122–343 m)
Lithology
Primary sandstone, siltstone, shale
Location
Region Appalachian Mountains
Extent Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, [1] and West Virginia
Type section
Named for Juniata River in Pennsylvania
Named byDarton and Taff [2]

The Ordovician Juniata Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is a relative slope-former occurring between the two prominent ridge-forming sandstone units: the Tuscarora Formation and the Bald Eagle Formation in the Appalachian Mountains.

Contents

Description

Conformable contact of overlying Tuscarora Formation (white rock, left) with underlying Juniata Formation (red rock, right) at the Narrows along rt. 30 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Tuscarora Formation interbedding 3.jpg
Conformable contact of overlying Tuscarora Formation (white rock, left) with underlying Juniata Formation (red rock, right) at the Narrows along rt. 30 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
Sample from roadcut on U.S. Route 322 near State College, Pennsylvania, showing slickensides Slickensides juniata.jpg
Sample from roadcut on U.S. Route 322 near State College, Pennsylvania, showing slickensides

The Juniata is defined as a grayish-red to greenish-gray, thin- to thick-bedded siltstone, shale, and very fine to medium-grained crossbedded sandstone or subgraywacke and protoquartzite with interbedded conglomerate. [3] [4] The Juniata is a lateral equivalent of the Queenston Shale in western Pennsylvania.

Depositional environment

The depositional environment of the Juniata has always been interpreted as mostly terrestrial or shallow marine deposits resulting in a molasse sequence produced by the Taconic orogeny.

Fossils

Very few fossils exist in the Juniata Formation, but different types of trace fossils such as tracks and burrows can commonly be found.

Age

Relative age dating of the Juniata places it in the Upper Ordovician period, being deposited between 488.3 and 443.7 (±10) million years ago. It rests conformably atop the Bald Eagle Formation in Pennsylvania and the Martinsburg Formation in Maryland, [4] and conformably below the Tuscarora Formation. [5]

Economic use

The Juniata is a good source of road material, riprap and building stone. [6]

Related Research Articles

Bald Eagle Mountain

Bald Eagle Mountain – once known locally as Muncy Mountain – is a stratigraphic ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of central Pennsylvania, USA, running east of the Allegheny Front and northwest of Mount Nittany. It lies along the southeast side of Bald Eagle Creek, and south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates the West Branch Susquehanna Valley from the Nippenose and White Deer Hole Valleys, and Bald Eagle Valley from Nittany Valley.

Brush Mountain (Blair County, Pennsylvania)

Brush Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania, USA, running east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It lies along the southeast side of Little Juniata River and both sides of the Sinking Run, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The western ridge line separates the Logan Valley from the Sinking Valley.

Tussey Mountain

Tussey Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending east of the Bald Eagle, Brush, Dunning and Evitts Mountain ridges. Its southern foot just crosses the Mason–Dixon line near Flintstone, Maryland, running north 130 km (80 mi) to the Seven Mountains of central Pennsylvania, near Tusseyville, making it one of the longest named ridges in this section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates Morrison Cove from the Woodcock Valley and Friends Cove from the Black Valley. Tussey Mountain lies in, and the ridge line forms parts of the borders of, Centre, Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties.

Shawangunk Formation

The Silurian Shawangunk Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It is named for the Shawangunk Ridge for which it is the dominant rock type. The division of the Shawangunk between the Tuscarora Formation and Clinton Group has not been conclusively determined. The shift of nomenclature currently has the divide between Hawk Mountain and Lehigh Gap.

Bloomsburg Formation

The Silurian Bloomsburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. It is named for the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in which it was first described. The Bloomsburg marked the first occurrence of red sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian Basin.

Martinsburg Formation Gelogic formation in the eastern United States

The Ordovician Martinsburg Formation (Om) is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is named for the town of Martinsburg, West Virginia for which it was first described. It is the dominant rock formation of the Great Appalachian Valley in New Jersey (where it is called Kittatinny Valley and Pennsylvania.

Tuscarora Sandstone

The Silurian Tuscarora Formation — also known as Tuscarora Sandstone or Tuscarora Quartzite — is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, USA.

Bald Eagle Formation

The Ordovician Bald Eagle Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in central Pennsylvania, USA. It is a ridge-forming unit in the Appalachian Mountains.

Geology of Bedford County, Pennsylvania

Bedford County, Pennsylvania is situated along the western border of the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, which is characterized by folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of early to middle Paleozoic age. The northwestern border of the county is approximately at the Allegheny Front, a geological boundary between the Ridge and Valley Province and the Allegheny Plateau.

Reedsville Formation

The Ordovician Reedsville Formation is a mapped surficial bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, that extends into the subsurface of Ohio. This rock is a slope-former adjacent to the prominent ridge-forming Bald Eagle sandstone unit in the Appalachian Mountains. It is often abbreviated Or on geologic maps.

The Silurian McKenzie Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Maryland.

Wills Creek Formation Bedrock unit in the Eastern United States

Wills Creek Formation is a mapped Silurian bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Hamilton Group

The Devonian Hamilton Group is a mapped bedrock unit in the United States. The unit is present in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia. In Virginia, it is known as the laterally equivalent Millboro Shale. The group is named for the village of Hamilton, New York. Details of stratigraphic nomenclature for this unit as used by the U.S. Geological Survey are available on-line from the National Geologic Map Database. These rocks are the oldest strata of the Devonian gas shale sequence.

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.

The Mississippian Mauch Chunk Formation (Mmc) is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It is named for the township of Mauch Chunk, now known as borough of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and for nearby Mauch Chunk Ridge where the formation outcrops.

Pocono Formation

The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, in the United States. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia, and the upper part of the Pocono Formation is sometimes called the Burgoon Formation or Burgoon Sandstone in Pennsylvania. The Pocono is a major ridge-former In the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States

Pottsville Formation

The Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States. The Pottsville Formation is conspicuous at many sites along the Allegheny Front, the eastern escarpment of the Allegheny or Appalachian Plateau.


The Triassic Stockton Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It is named after Stockton, New Jersey, where it was first described. It is laterally equivalent to the New Oxford Formation in the Gettysburg Basin of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Tonoloway Formation

The Late Silurian Tonoloway Formation is a mapped limestone bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Canoe Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It is forms a continuous ridge with Brush Mountain to the west.

References

  1. Paleozoic Sedimentary Successions of the Virginia Valley & Ridge and Plateau
  2. Darton, N.H., and Taff, J.A., 1896, Description of the Piedmont sheet (West Virginia-Maryland): U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Atlas of the United States, Piedmont folio, no. 28, 6 p.
  3. 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.
  4. 1 2 "Allegheny Plateau and Valley and Ridge". Geologic Map of Maryland. Maryland Geological Survey. 1968. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  5. Berg, T.M., et al., (1983). Stratagraphic Correlation Chart of Pennsylvania: G75, Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
  6. Doden, Arnold G.; Gold, David P. (2008). "Bedrock Geologic Map of The Mc Alevys Fort Quadrangle, Huntingdon, Centre, and Mifflin Counties, Pennsylvania" (pdf). Pennsylvania Geological Survey.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

See also