Weverton Formation

Last updated
Weverton Formation
Stratigraphic range: Cambrian
Type Formation
Unit of Chilhowee Group [1]
Sub-unitsBuzzard Knob Member, Maryland Heights Member, and Owens Creek Member [2]
Underlies Harpers Formation
Overlies Catoctin Formation and London Conglomerate
Lithology
Primary sandstone, quartzite,
Other shale, siltstone
Location
Region Appalachia, Mid-Atlantic United States, and Southeastern United States
Country United States
Extent Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia [3]
Type section
Named for Weverton, Maryland

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. [1] The Weverton Formation dates back to the Cambrian period.

Contents

Description

The Weverton Formation is composed of three members: the Buzzard Knob Member, Maryland Heights Member, and Owens Creek Member. [2] The Buzzard Knob member is a coarse-grained quartzite with pervasive cross-beds. The Maryland Heights member consists of metamorphosed siltstone, coarse-grained metamorphosed greywacke, and quartzite. The Owens Creek Member is a coarse-grained to conglomeratic metamorphosed greywacke. [2] [4] The formation was deposited in an alluvial environment. [4]

The Weverton Formation is considered the main ridge forming unit in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Maryland. [2]

History

The Weverton Formation is sometimes incorrectly spelled Weaverton and has been called the Weverton Sandstone or the Weverton Quartzite. [1] [5] [6] It was divided into three members originally called the lower, middle, and upper member. [1] [2] These members were informally called the Loft Mountain Member, the Oregon Hollow Member, and the Dismal Hollow Member before receiving their formal names in 1992. [2]

Related Research Articles

Gneiss Common high-grade metamorphic rock

Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. Gneiss is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures and pressures than schist. Gneiss nearly always shows a banded texture characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands and without a distinct cleavage.

Old Rag Mountain

Old Rag Mountain is a 3,284 feet (1,001 m) mountain near Sperryville in Madison County, Virginia. A part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the peak is located within Shenandoah National Park and is the most popular hiking destination within the park.

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.

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.

The Chilhowee Group is a sedimentary body composed of early Cambrian siliciclastic sedimentary rocks which crop out along the eastern margin of the Blue Ridge province in Alabama, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. They represent a rift to passive margin sequence, with mostly coarse, feldspathic sandstones and conglomerates in the lower member and shales and phyllite in the upper members. The Chilhowee Group contains four formations; the Loudoun Formation, Weverton Formation, Harpers Formation and Antietam Formation. Another name for the Harpers formations is the Hampton formation, and the Antietam Formation is also known as the Erwin Formation. The Hampton Formation has minor economic importance in the area near the James River Face Wilderness. As of 1982 there were three quarries operating near the James River Face Wilderness. Those quarries produced roofing shale, light weight aggregate, and various materials for brick making. The Antietam Formation also had a minor economic importance, particularly from 1945 up until 1966. There were three quarries producing crushed quartzite, which was used to produce concrete aggregates, road metal and railroad ballast.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 South Pass greenstone belt is located within the Wyoming craton in the US. The region was the site of Wyoming's initial gold discovery in 1842.

Conglomerate Ridge is a ridge, 1 nautical mile (2 km) long, located 4 nautical miles (7 km) east-southeast of Mount Bursik in the Soholt Peaks, Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. The ridge trends northwest–southeast and rises to about 1,650 metres (5,400 ft). It was so named from the conglomerate composition of the ridge by Gerald F. Webers, leader of the United States Antarctic Research Program Ellsworth Mountains Expedition, 1979–80.

Canoe Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It forms a continuous ridge with Brush Mountain to the west. To the south, across the water gap formed by the Frankstown Branch Juniata River, the ridgeline continues as Lock Mountain.

Unkar Group

The Unkar Group is a sequence of strata of Proterozoic age that are subdivided into five geologic formations and exposed within the Grand Canyon, Arizona, Southwestern United States. The 5-unit Unkar Group is the basal member of the 8-member Grand Canyon Supergroup. The Unkar is about 1,600 to 2,200 m thick and composed, in ascending order, of the Bass Formation, Hakatai Shale, Shinumo Quartzite, Dox Formation, and Cardenas Basalt. Units 4 & 5 are found mostly in the eastern region of Grand Canyon. Units 1 through 3 are found in central Grand Canyon. The Unkar Group accumulated approximately between 1250 and 1104 Ma. In ascending order, the Unkar Group is overlain by the Nankoweap Formation, about 113 to 150 m thick; the Chuar Group, about 1,900 m (6,200 ft) thick; and the Sixtymile Formation, about 60 m (200 ft) thick. These are all of the units of the Grand Canyon Supergroup. The Unkar Group makes up approximately half of the thickness of the 8-unit Supergroup.

Hakatai Shale

The Hakatai Shale is a Mesoproterozoic rock formation with important exposures in the Grand Canyon, Coconino County, Arizona. It consists of colorful strata that exhibit colors varying from purple to red to brilliant orange. These colors are the result of the oxidation of iron-bearing minerals in the Hakatai Shale. It consists of lower and middle members that consist of bright-red, slope-forming, highly fractured, argillaceous mudstones and shale and an upper member composed of purple and red, cliff-forming, medium-grained sandstone. Its thickness, which apparently increases eastwards, varies from 137 to 300 m. In general, the Hakatai Shale and associated strata of the Unkar Group rocks dip northeast (10°-30°) toward normal faults that dip 60° or more 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 and dikes cut across the purple to red to brilliant orange strata of the Hakatai Shale.

Shinumo Quartzite

The Shinumo Quartzite also known as the Shinumo Sandstone, is a Mesoproterozoic rock formation, which outcrops in the eastern Grand Canyon, Coconino County, Arizona,. It is the 3rd member of the 5-unit Unkar Group. The Shinumo Quartzite consists of a series of massive, cliff-forming sandstones and sedimentary quartzites. Its cliffs contrast sharply with the stair-stepped topography of typically brightly-colored strata of the underlying slope-forming Hakatai Shale. Overlying the Shinumo, dark green to black, fissile, slope-forming shales of the Dox Formation create a well-defined notch. It and other formations of the Unkar Group occur as isolated fault-bound remnants along the main stem of the Colorado River and its tributaries in Grand Canyon.

Typically, the Shinumo Quartzite and associated strata of the Unkar Group 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.

Catoctin Formation

The Catoctin Formation is a geologic formation that expands through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. It dates back to the Precambrian and is closely associated with the Harpers Formation, Weverton Formation, and the Loudoun Formation. The Catoctin Formation lies over the a granite basement rock and below the Chilhowee Group making it only exposed on the outer parts of the Blue Ridge. The Catoctin Formation contains metabasalt, metarhyolite, and porphyritic rocks, columnar jointing, low-dipping primary joints, amygdules, sedimentary dikes, and flow breccias. Evidence for past volcanic activity includes columnar basalts and greenstone dikes.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 King, Philip B. (1950). "Geology of the Elkton area, Virginia" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. 230: 17–19. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brezinski, David K. (1992). "Lithostratigraphy of the western Blue Ridge cover rocks in Maryland" (PDF). Maryland Geological Survey Report of Investigations. 55: 9–18. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  3. Paleozoic Sedimentary Successions of the Virginia Valley & Ridge and Plateau
  4. 1 2 Southworth, Scott; Brezinski, Donald K. (1996). "Geology of the Harpers Ferry quadrangle, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin. 2123: 12–13. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. Williams, G. H.; Clark, W. B. (1893). Maryland, its resources, industries, and institutions; geology. Baltimore, MC: Sun job printing office. p. 68. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  6. Burton, William C.; Froelich, Albert J.; Pomeroy, John S.; Lee, K. Y. (1995). "Geology of the Waterford quadrangle, Virginia and Maryland, and the Virginia part of the Point of Rocks quadrangle" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin. 2095: 15–16. Retrieved 29 June 2018.