Ridgeley Sandstone

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Ridgeley Sandstone
Stratigraphic range: Pragian [1]
TypeSedimentary
Location
Region Appalachian Mountains
CountryUnited States
Extent Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia

The Ridgeley sandstone is a sandstone or quartzite of Devonian age found in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, United States. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The Ridgeley is fine-grained, siliceous, calcareous in its lower strata, sometimes fossiliferous, and sometimes locally pebbly or conglomeritic. [6] [9] Varying in thickness from 12 to 500 feet (4–150 m), [7] [8] this rock slowly erodes into white quartz sand that often washes or blows away, but sometimes accumulates at large outcrops. [9] When freshly broken, the rock is white, but outcrop surfaces are often stained yellowish by iron oxides. [9]

Ridgeley 522 pan.jpg
Panorama of a roadcut through the Ridgeley sandstone along U.S. Route 522 north of Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, April 2011

The Ridgeley Sandstone [10] was described and named in 1913 from an outcrop in Ridgeley, West Virginia, [2] across the North Branch of the Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland. The type locality was designated at the town of Ridgely (spelling later changed to Ridgeley) in Mineral County, West Virginia. [11] During the early 20th century, there was some dispute about relation between the Ridgeley Sandstone and the Oriskany Sandstone (named after a locality in New York) and the Monterey Sandstone (named after a locality in Virginia). This dispute was resolved by Butts (1940), who stated that the Oriskany Sandstone "corresponds exactly with the Ridgley Sandstone," that the Oriskany Sandstone is the same as the Monterey Sandstone of Virginia, and that the rules of stratigraphic nomenclature dictate that the name Oriskany Sandstone should be applied to these strata. [12]

Outcrops of the erosion-resistant, ridge-forming Ridgeley ("Oriskany") sandstone are conspicuous landscape features in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province from south-central Pennsylvania through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia to Craig County in western Virginia. Ridgely outcrops form part of the lateral structures of North Fork Mountain, New Creek Mountain, and Wills Mountain of the Wills Mountain Anticline, [5] [7] although it is the even more erosion-resistant Silurian-aged Tuscarora Quartzite, not the Ridgely sandstone, that caps most parts of the prominent central ridge of this long geological structure. Other conspicuous Ridgeley outcrops include Caudy's Castle (Castle Rock) [9] and Ice Mountain, [9] both in Hampshire County, West Virginia.

At Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, warm water flows from natural mineral springs in the Ridgeley sandstone of Warm Springs Ridge; spa facilities (now in Berkeley Springs State Park) have long used these waters.

The Ridgeley sandstone is sometimes quarried and crushed to produce quartz sand for glass-making; one such quarry is near Berkeley Springs. [6]

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Ridgeley, West Virginia Town in West Virginia, United States

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Entrada Sandstone

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Ellsworth Mountains

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Cacapon Mountain

Cacapon Mountain runs northwest through Morgan and Hampshire counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, rising to its greatest elevation of 2,618 feet (798 m) above sea-level at High Point. Cacapon Mountain is a folded mountain ridge, belonging to the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province. Cacapon Mountain spans 16 miles (26 km) NNE to the Potomac River near Great Cacapon.

New Creek Mountain

New Creek Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in Grant and Mineral counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The mountain is named for New Creek which rises and flows along its western flanks. It is part of the Wills Mountain Anticline, with Knobly Mountain along its eastern flank. The Allegheny Front rises steeply to the west of New Creek Mountain. Oriskany (Ridgeley) sandstone cliffs ring the entire mountain.

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.

North Fork Mountain

North Fork Mountain is a quartzite-capped mountain ridge in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. Kile Knob, at 4,588 feet, is the mountain's highest point, and Panther Knob and Pike Knob are nearly as high.

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.

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.

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.

Marcellus Formation

The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, in the United States, it extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin.

Old Port Formation

The Devonian Old Port Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, USA. 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. Current nomenclature usage by U.S. Geological Survey restricts the name Old Port Formation to Pennsylvania, but correlative units are present in adjacent states.

Rockwell Formation

The Rockwell Formation is a late Devonian and early Mississippian mapped bedrock unit in West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Brallier Formation

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

The Oriskany Sandstone is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. The type locality of the unit is located at Oriskany Falls in New York. The Oriskany Sandstone extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin.

Chagrin Shale

The Chagrin Shale is a shale geologic formation in the eastern United States that is approximately 365 million years old. The Chagrin Shale is a gray shale that begins thin and deep underground in north-central Ohio. As it proceeds east, the formation thickens, rises to the surface, and contains greater amounts of siltstone.

The Weverton Formation is a quartzite geologic formation in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is considered the basal member of the Chilhowee Group. The Weverton Formation dates back to the Cambrian period.

The Waynesboro Formation is a limestone, dolomite, and sandstone geologic formation in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It some areas it is composed of limestone and dolomite. The Waynsboro Formation is one of the formations that make up the Shenandoah Valley. It dates back to the Cambrian period and is not considered fossiliferous.

The geology of Ohio formed beginning more than one billion years ago in the Proterozoic eon of the Precambrian. The igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock is poorly understood except through deep boreholes and does not outcrop at the surface. The basement rock is divided between the Grenville Province and Superior Province. When the Grenville Province crust collided with Proto-North America, it launched the Grenville orogeny, a major mountain building event. The Grenville mountains eroded, filling in rift basins and Ohio was flooded and periodically exposed as dry land throughout the Paleozoic. In addition to marine carbonates such as limestone and dolomite, large deposits of shale and sandstone formed as subsequent mountain building events such as the Taconic orogeny and Acadian orogeny led to additional sediment deposition. Ohio transitioned to dryland conditions in the Pennsylvanian, forming large coal swamps and the region has been dryland ever since. Until the Pleistocene glaciations erased these features, the landscape was cut with deep stream valleys, which scoured away hundreds of meters of rock leaving little trace of geologic history in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

References

  1. Paleozoic Sedimentary Successions of the Virginia Valley & Ridge and Plateau
  2. 1 2 "Geologic Unit: Ridgeley". National Geologic Maps Database (GEOLEX database). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  3. "Geologic Unit: Old Port". National Geologic Maps Database (GEOLEX database). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  4. "Oriskany Group including Ridgely Sandstone and Shriver Chert". Mineral Resources On-line Spatial Data [Maryland]. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  5. 1 2 Means, John (2010). Roadside Geology of Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press. pp. x + 346.
  6. 1 2 3 "Oriskany Sandstone and Helderberg Group, Undifferentiated". Mineral Resources On-line Spatial Data [West Virginia]. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 Cardwell, Dudley H., Robert B. Irwin, and Herbert P. Woodward, with cartography by Charles W. Lotz (1986). Geologic Map of West Virginia. West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey. p. 2.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. 1 2 "Ridgeley Sandstone, Helderberg and Cayugan Groups". Mineral Resources On-line Spatial Data [Virginia]. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Tilton, John L., William F. Prouty, R.C. Tucker, and Paul H. Price (1927). Hampshire and Hardy Counties. Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia Geological Survey. pp. xiii + 624.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Originally spelled "Ridgely" but changed to "Ridgeley" to conform to usage by the U.S. Postal Service.
  11. Schuchert, C., Swartz, C.K., Maynard, T.P., and Rowe, R.B., 1913, The Lower Devonian deposits of Maryland, in: Lower Devonian - Text (C.K. Swartz, C. Schuchert, and C.S. Prosser, eds.), Maryland Geological Survey, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, p. 67-132
  12. Butts, C., 1940, Geology of the Appalachian Valley in Virginia: Virginia Geological Survey Bulletin 52, pt. 1, 568p.