Meriden Group

Last updated
Meriden Group
Stratigraphic range: Jurassic
Type Group
Location
RegionFlag of Connecticut.svg  Connecticut
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States

The Meriden Group is a geologic group, part of the Newark Supergroup, in Connecticut. It preserves fossils dating back to the Jurassic period. [1]

The group consists of the East Berlin Formation, Holyoke Basalt, Shuttle Meadow Formation, and Talcott Basalt. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

Gwyneddosaurus is a possibly invalid genus of extinct aquatic tanystropheid reptile. The type species, G. erici was described in 1945 by Wilhelm Bock, who identified it as a coelurosaurian dinosaur related to Podokesaurus. Its remains were found in the Upper Triassic Lockatong Formation of Montgomery County, eastern Pennsylvania, and the holotype includes skull fragments, several vertebra, ribs, gastralia, partial shoulder and hip bones, and several forelimb and hindlimb elements found in soft shale, while the paratype includes a femur and a tibia. The type specimen is ANSP 15072 and it was discovered by Bock's four-year-old son while the paratype is only listed as ?(ASNP coll.). It was not a large animal; the type skeleton was estimated by Bock as 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long, and its thigh bone was only 23 millimeters long (0.91 in).

<i>Aetosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Aetosaurus is an extinct genus of pseudosuchian reptile belonging to the order Aetosauria. It is generally considered to be the most primitive aetosaur. Three species are currently recognized: A. ferratus, the type species from Germany and Italy; A. crassicauda from Germany; and A. arcuatus from eastern North America. Additional specimens referred to Aetosaurus have been found in the Chinle Group of the southwestern United States, and the Fleming Fjord Formation of Greenland. Specimens of Aetosaurus occur in Norian-age strata.

The Newark Supergroup, also known as the Newark Group, is an assemblage of Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks which outcrop intermittently along the United States East Coast. They were deposited in a series of Triassic basins approximately 190 million years ago as North America separated from Africa. The exposures extend from Nova Scotia to North Carolina. Related basins are also found underwater in the Bay of Fundy. The group is named for the city of Newark, New Jersey.

Forest Sandstone

The Forest Sandstone is a geological formation in southern Africa, dating to roughly between 200 and 190 million years ago and covering the Hettangian to Sinemurian stages of the Jurassic Period in the Mesozoic Era. As its name suggests, it consists mainly of sandstone.

Traprockmountains, ridges, are elevated landscape features made of trap rock, most often basalt. Basalt, due to its high quantity of iron, is a characteristically dark-colored rock that weathers to shades of red and purplish-red when exposed to the air. Basalt is the substance of many elevated topographic features worldwide. Landscape features composed of basalt may include:

Batoka Formation

The Batoka Formation is a geological formation in the Zambezi valley in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is predominantly a volcanic unit comprising mainly basalts. It was formerly thought to contain sand stones containing the dinosaur Vulcanodon, however this was shown to be in error resulting from interpreting folding of the rocks as separate layers, with the sandstone layers actually being from the underlying Forest Sandstone.

The Portland Formation is a geological formation in Connecticut and Massachusetts in the northeastern United States. It dates back to the Early Jurassic period. The formation consists mainly of sandstone laid down by a series of lakes and the floodplain of a river. The sedimentary rock layers representing the entire Portland Formation are over 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) thick and were formed over about 4 million years of time, from the Hettangian age to the late Hettangian and Sinemurian ages.

Dictyopyge is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Late Triassic epoch.

Euscolosuchus is an extinct genus of suchian closely related to crocodylomorphs. Fossils have been found from the Tomahawk Creek Member of the Turkey Branch Formation outcropping in east-central Virginia. The locality from which the material was found dates back to the early Carnian stage of the Late Triassic, based on palynological studies. These strata are known for the abundance of fossil material belonging to tetrapod vertebrates in relation to other sites of the Newark Supergroup in the Richmond Basin that generally lack such material. The site is unique among others in the supergroup and closely resembles localities in the southern hemisphere, as is suggested by the presence of numerous fossils of traversodont cynodonts found from the area. Other tetrapods present include procolophonians, chiniquodontids, and sphenodonts.

<i>Stegomosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Stegomosuchus is an extinct genus of small protosuchian crocodylomorph. It is known from a single incomplete specimen discovered in the late 19th century in Lower Jurassic rocks of south-central Massachusetts, United States. It was originally thought to be a species of Stegomus, an aetosaur, but was eventually shown to be related to Protosuchus and thus closer to the ancestry of crocodilians. Stegomosuchus is also regarded as a candidate for the maker of at least some of the tracks named Batrachopus in the Connecticut River Valley.

The East Berlin Formation is an Early Jurassic geological formation in New England. Dinosaur footprints and trackways are abundant in this formation. These tracks include Eubrontes, Anchisauripus, and Anomoepus. Several museums, parks, and tourist attractions are based around the East Berlin Formation's dinosaur tracks, including Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut and Powder Hill Dinosaur Park in Middlefield, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nankoweap Formation</span> Neoproterozoic geologic sequence of the Grand Canyon Supergroup

The Neoproterozoic Nankoweap Formation, is a thin sequence of distinctive red beds that consist of reddish brown and tan sandstones and subordinate siltstones and mudrocks that unconformably overlie basaltic lava flows of the Cardenas Basalt of the Unkar Group and underlie the sedimentary strata of the Galeros Formation of the Chuar Group. The Nankoweap Formation is slightly more than 100 m in thickness. It is informally subdivided into informal lower and upper members that are separated and enclosed by unconformities. Its lower (ferruginous) member is 0 to 15 m thick. The Grand Canyon Supergroup, of which the Nankoweap Formation is part, unconformably overlies deeply eroded granites, gneisses, pegmatites, and schists that comprise Vishnu Basement Rocks.

Bass Formation Lithostratigraphic unit found in Arizona, US

The Bass Formation, also known as the Bass Limestone, is a Mesoproterozoic rock formation that outcrops in the eastern Grand Canyon, Coconino County, Arizona. The Bass Formation erodes as either cliffs or stair-stepped cliffs. In the case of the stair-stepped topography, resistant dolomite layers form risers and argillite layers form steep treads. In general, the Bass Formation in the Grand Canyon region and associated strata of the Unkar Group-rocks dip northeast (10°–30°) toward normal faults that dip 60+° toward the southwest. This can be seen at the Palisades fault in the eastern part of the main Unkar Group outcrop area. In addition, thick, prominent, and dark-colored basaltic sills intrude across the Bass Formation.

The Midland Formation is a Mesozoic geological formation in the Culpeper Basin of Virginia. It is a sedimentary unit which formed in a short period of time between the first two basalt flows in the basin: the Hickory Grove and Mount Zion Church basalts. The most common rocks in the formation are dark reddish interbedded sandstones and siltstones, representative of fluvial (stream) environments. Rare but fossiliferous calcareous shale and limestone also occurs, representing recurring lacustrine (lake) conditions. The Midland Formation is considered equivalent to the Shuttle Meadow Formation of the Hartford Basin, the Feltville Formation of the Newark Basin, and the Bendersville Formation of the Gettysburg Basin.

The Cumnock Formation is a Late Triassic-age geologic formation in North Carolina. It is found in the of the Sanford sub-basin of the Deep River Basin, the southernmost of the large Mesozoic basins forming the Newark Supergroup. It is the middle unit of the Chatham Group, overlying the Pekin Formation and underlying the Sanford Formation. Both of these encompassing formations are primarily red sandstone. The Cumnock Formation, on the other hand, represents a sequence of darker lacustrine (lake) or paludal (swampy/marshy) sediments deposited in a tropical climate. These primarily include shales and coal, with some thin layers of coarser sediment such as siltstone and sandstone.

The Chatham Group is a Triassic-age geologic group in the eastern United States. It is one of the most fossiliferous sections of the Newark Supergroup, preserving much of the Late Triassic up until the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction. The group was originally named to refer to Triassic rocks specifically within the Deep River Basin of North Carolina. Later studies have utilized it to encompass Late Triassic strata in most other sedimentary basins in the Newark Supergroup.

Ringold Formation Sediment formation in Washington, United States

The Ringold Formation is a geologic formation in Eastern Washington, United States. The formation consists of sediment laid down by the Columbia River following the flood basalt eruptions of the Columbia River Basalt Group reaching up to 1,000 feet (300 m) thick in places. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.

Moraga Formation

The Moraga Formation or Moraga Volcanics is a Pliocene epoch volcanic geologic formation in the Berkeley Hills of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Tunnel Mountain Formation

The Tunnel Mountain Formation is a geologic formation that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the Canadian Rockies of western Alberta. Named after Tunnel Mountain near Banff, it was deposited during the Early Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous period.

The Catharpin Creek Formation is a Late Triassic geologic formation in Maryland and Virginia. It is found along the western edge of the Culpeper Basin, one of the largest sedimentary basins in the Newark Supergroup. Compared to the underlying Bull Run Formation, the Catharpin Creek Formation is dominated by much coarser sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and conglomerate. The base of the formation is reddish arkosic sandstone, which grades into drabber thin-bedded siltstone and shale in cyclical sequences.

References


  1. 1 2 Weems, Robert E; Olsen, Paul E (1997). "Synthesis and revision of groups within the Newark Supergroup, eastern North America". GSA Bulletin. 109 (2): 195–209. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1997)109<0195:SAROGW>2.3.CO;2.