Stockton Formation

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Stockton Formation
Stratigraphic range: Late Triassic
Type Formation
Unit of Newark Supergroup
Underlies Lockatong Formation
Lithology
Primary sandstone
Other siltstone, mudstone
Location
Region Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York
Country United States
Type section
Named for Stockton, New Jersey


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. [1]

Contents

Description

The Stockton is defined as a light-gray to light brown and yellowish medium to coarse grained sandstone and reddish to purplish-brown siltstone and mudstone with shale interbeds; and interbedded argillite. In New Jersey, feldspar pebbly sandstone and conglomerate, and quartz-pebble conglomerate are also mapped. [2]

Depositional environment

The Stockton is described as a bajada. The sediments were a result of the rifting of Pangea. The sediments came from the southeast from a largely granitic terrane and spread across an even plain. [1] Interfingered with the Stockton, the Lockatong Formation are lake sediments, which grew during wetter climatic cycles during the Late Triassic. [1]

Fossils

Some fossils found within the Stockton Formation are fossil ferns including Sphenopteris sitholeyi . (Virginia Museum of Natural History Guidebook, no 1, p83.)

Age

Relative age dating of the Stockton places it in the Upper Triassic System, i.e., deposition between 237 and 207 (±5) million years ago. It rests unconformably a top many different formations of the Appalachian Piedmont. It interfingers with the Lockatong Formation and also rests conformably below the Passaic Formation. There are numerous diabase intrusions into the Stockton with local contact metamorphic rocks. [3]

Related Research Articles

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.

Geology of Pennsylvania Overview of the geology of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania

The Geology of Pennsylvania consists of six distinct physiographic provinces, three of which are subdivided into different sections. Each province has its own economic advantages and geologic hazards and plays an important role in shaping everyday life in the state. They are: the Atlantic Coastal Plain Province, the Piedmont Province, the New England Province, the Ridge and Valley Province, the Appalachian Plateau Province, and the Central Lowlands Province.

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.

Passaic Formation

The Passaic Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was previously known as the Brunswick Formation since it was first described in the vicinity of New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is now named for the city of Passaic, New Jersey, which is near where its type section was described by paleontologist Paul E. Olsen.

Llewellyn Formation

The Llewellyn Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in eastern Pennsylvania. It was previously known as the "coal measures" and the post-Pottsville rocks. The formation is named for the community of Llewellyn in Schuylkill County.

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.

New Jersey is a very geologically and geographically diverse region in the United States' Middle Atlantic region, offering variety from the Appalachian Mountains and the Highlands in the state's northwest, to the Atlantic Coastal Plain region that encompasses both the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Shore. The state's geological features have impacted the course of settlement, development, commerce and industry over the past four centuries.

Juniata Formation

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.

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.

New Oxford Formation

The New Oxford Formation is a mapped bedrock unit consisting primarily of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales. The New Oxford Formation was first described in Adams County, Pennsylvania in 1929, and over the following decade was mapped in adjacent York County, Pennsylvania and Frederick County, Maryland. It was described as "red shale and sandstone with beds of micaceous sandstone, arkose, and conglomerate." The majority of this early mapping was done by George Willis Stose, Anna Isabel Jonas, and Florence Bascom.

The Triassic Lockatong Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It is named after the Lockatong Creek in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Arapahoe Formation

The Arapahoe Formation is a geological formation of latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age that is present within the Denver Basin that underlies the Denver, Colorado, area. The formation includes fossil leaves and dinosaur remains, although none of the latter have yet been referred to a specific genus. It also includes aquifers that are important sources of water for the area.

Towaco Formation

The Towaco Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in New Jersey. It is named for the unincorporated village of Towaco, which is near the place its type section was described by paleontologist Paul E. Olsen.

Feltville Formation

The Feltville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit primarily in New Jersey, with one known outlier in Pennsylvania and another one in New York. It is named for the Deserted Village of Feltville in Watchung Reservation, New Jersey, which is near where its type section was described by paleontologist Paul E. Olsen.

Boonton Formation

The Boonton Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in New Jersey, formerly divided between the Boonton and Whitehall beds of the defunct Brunswick Formation. It is named for the town of Boonton, New Jersey, which is near where its type section was described by paleontologist Paul E. Olsen.

The Gettysburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit consisting primarily of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales.

Geology of New York (state) Overview of the geology of the U.S. state of New York

The geology of New York State is made up of ancient Precambrian crystalline basement rock, forming the Adirondack Mountains and the bedrock of much of the state. These rocks experienced numerous deformations during mountain building events and much of the region was flooded by shallow seas depositing thick sequences of sedimentary rock during the Paleozoic. Fewer rocks have deposited since the Mesozoic as several kilometers of rock have eroded into the continental shelf and Atlantic coastal plain, although volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the Newark Basin are a prominent fossil-bearing feature near New York City from the Mesozoic rifting of the supercontinent Pangea.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Faill, R.T., (2004). The Birdsboro Basin. Pennsylvania Geology V. 34 n. 4.
  2. Orndorff, R.C., et al., (1998). Bedrock Geologic Map of Central and Southern New Jersey. United States Geological Survey, Scale 1:100,000.
  3. Berg, T.M., et al., (1983). Stratigraphic Correlation Chart of Pennsylvania: G75, Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

See also