Yorktown Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Early to Middle Pliocene | |
Type | sedimentary |
Unit of | Chesapeake Group |
Sub-units | Sunken Meadow Member, Rushmere Member, Morgarts Beach Member, Moore House Member, Tunnels Mill Member |
Underlies | Croatan Formation |
Overlies | Eastover Formation |
Lithology | |
Primary | sand, clay |
Other | shells |
Location | |
Region | Atlantic Coastal Plain of North America |
Extent | Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina |
Type section | |
Named for | Yorktown, Virginia |
Named by | Clark and Miller, 1906 [1] |
The Yorktown Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in the Coastal Plain of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It is overconsolidated and highly fossiliferous.
The Yorktown is composed largely of overconsolidated sand and clay with abundant calcareous shells, primarily bivalves.
The Yorktown unconformably overlies the Miocene Eastover Formation, and conformably underlies the Pliocene Croatan Formation. [2]
The Yorktown was divided into members by Ward and Blackwelder (1980). These are in ascending order: Sunken Meadow Member, Rushmere Member, Morgarts Beach Member, and Moore House Member. [3] The uppermost Tunnels Mill Member is recognized in Maryland only.
Hazel (1971) revised the age of the Yorktown from Miocene to Late Miocene to Early Pliocene using ostracod biostratigraphy. [5] The age was revised by Gibson (1983) to extend into the Middle Pliocene based on foraminifera. [6] Further biostratigraphic work with ostracods and foraminifera was completed by Cronin (1991), which also summarized previous investigations. [7]
Chesapecten is an extinct genus of scallop known from marine strata from the early Miocene to the early Pleistocene of the Eastern United States.
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This list, 2013 in molluscan paleontology, is a list of new taxa of ammonites and other fossil cephalopods, as well as fossil gastropods, bivalves and other molluscs that have been described during the year 2013.
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