Ames Limestone

Last updated
Ames Limestone
Stratigraphic range: Carboniferous
~303.7  Ma
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S
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C
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Fossiliferous limestone (Ames Limestone, Upper Pennsylvanian; Bloom Township, Morgan County, Ohio, USA).jpg
Fossiliferous Ames Limestone (Morgan County, Ohio)
Type Member
Unit of Conewango Group
Sub-unitsNone
Thickness1 - 4'
Lithology
Primary Limestone
Location
RegionFlag of Ohio.svg  Ohio, Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania, Flag of West Virginia.svg  West Virginia
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Type section
Named for Amesville, Ohio

The Ames Limestone is a geologic formation in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is part of the Conemaugh Group. Formerly know at "Crinoidal Limestone" and "Green Fossiliferous Lime" it was renamed to Ames. [1]

Fossils of Echinoderm, Brachiopod, and Gastropoda are commonly found in the Ames. [2]

Description

The Ames is a thin Marker bed of Limestone and/or Fossiliferous limestone. It marks a transition from a predominantly marine environment to predominantly alluvial environment. The Ames serves as a marker for the boundary for the Casselman Formation and the Glenshaw Formation. [2]

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The Casselman Formation mapped sedimentary bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, of Pennsylvanian age. It is the uppermost of two formations in the Conemaugh Group, the lower being the Glenshaw Formation. The boundary between these two units is the top of the marine Ames Limestone. The Conemaugh Group overlies the Upper Freeport coal bed of the Allegheny Formation and underlies the Pittsburgh coal seam of the Monongahela Group.

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The Waynesboro Formation is a limestone, dolomite, and sandstone geologic formation in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In 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 Huntersville Chert or Huntersville Formation is a Devonian geologic formation in the Appalachian region of the United States. It is primarily composed of mottled white, yellow, and dark grey chert, and is separated from the underlying Oriskany Sandstone by an unconformity. The Huntersville Chert is laterally equivalent to the Needmore Shale, which lies north of the New River. It is also laterally equivalent to a sandy limestone unit which is often equated with the Onondaga Limestone. These formations are placed in the Onesquethaw Stage of Appalachian chronostratigraphy, roughly equivalent to the Emsian and Eifelian stages of the broader Devonian system.

References

  1. "Geolex — Ames publications". ngmdb.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  2. 1 2 "Sedimentation in Western Pennsylvania". University of Pittsburgh. September 2023.