Puddingstone (rock)

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A polished section of Hertfordshire puddingstone Polished Section of Hertfordshire Puddingstone, Hertford Museum (geograph 3874623).jpg
A polished section of Hertfordshire puddingstone

Puddingstone, also known as either pudding stone or plum-pudding stone, is a popular name applied to a conglomerate that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colours contrast sharply with the colour of the finer-grained, often sandy, matrix or cement surrounding them. The rounded pebbles and the sharp contrast in colour gives this type of conglomerate the appearance of a raisin or Christmas pudding. [1] [2] There are different types of puddingstone, with different composition, origin, and geographical distribution. Examples of different types of puddingstones include the Hertfordshire, Schunemunk, Roxbury, and St. Joseph Island (Drummond Island) puddingstones.

Contents

Hertfordshire puddingstone

Hertfordshire puddingstone is a silica-cemented conglomerate composed of rounded flint pebbles and cobbles with matrix of fine sand and silica cement. The Hertfordshire Puddingstone is characterized by silica-cemented flint gravel that is brown to deep red in colour and often exhibits black exteriors and thin rinds on cut or polished surfaces. It typically occurs scattered across the land surface as isolated concretion-like masses in the areas of Hertfordshire and Plumstead Common, England. Large masses of Hertfordshire Puddingstone often occur within local Pleistocene glacial tills. More than a dozen large blocks of this puddingstone were recovered from Paleogene sediments during construction of the A10 bypass from Thundridge to Puckeridge in 2004. This indicates that the loose blocks of Hertfordshire Puddingstone were probably eroded out of these sediments. Although it is hypothesized that it is groundwater silcrete, its origin remains unresolved. [3] [4]

Schunemunk puddingstone

Schunemunk conglomerate Schunemunk conglomerate and pine.jpg
Schunemunk conglomerate

The Schunemunk puddingstone, which is exposed extensively on Bearfort Mountain, Boonton, Rockaway Township and Schunemunk Mountain, is a conglomerate in New York and New Jersey that is part of a 3,000 feet (910 m) thick geologic formation formally known as the Skunnemunk Conglomerate. This puddingstone is a distinctive, Late Devonian, grayish-purple to grayish-red, thin to very thick-bedded, cross–bedded, conglomerate. Within the Skunnemunk Conglomerate, it is interbedded with grayish-purple to grayish-red sandstone, thin-bedded, medium-gray sandstone, and greenish-gray and grayish-red shale with mudcracks. This conglomerate consists of pebbles and cobbles of white vein quartz, red and green quartzite, sandstone, red and gray chert, and red shale. The grayish-purple to grayish-red conglomerate and sandstone is cemented largely by hematite and microcrystalline quartz. The cobbles that it contains range in size from 2.5 in (6.4 cm) to 6.5 in (17 cm). [5] [6] Pieces of Skunnemunk Conglomerate are easy to recognize and have been found in glacial deposits throughout the lower Hudson Valley region. [7]

Roxbury puddingstone

Roxbury puddingstone Roxbury conglomerate.jpg
Roxbury puddingstone

The Roxbury puddingstone is a massive, Ediacaran, clast-supported pebble and cobble conglomerate that occurs within the Brookline Member of the Roxbury Conglomerate that is exposed around Boston, Massachusetts region. This conglomerate is composed of a grey feldspathic sand matrix and well-rounded pebbles and cobbles of quartzite, granite, felsite, and quartz monzonite. The beds of ‘puddingstone’ are complexly interbedded with layers of massive diamictite and laminated and graded argillite and sandstone. It likely accumulated as turbidites and submarine slumps within a submarine fan or outer slope environment within a deep rift basin submerged by marine waters. [8] [9]

Jasper conglomerate

Jasper-quartz pebble conglomerate from Ontario, Canada Jasper-quartz pebble conglomerate (Lorrain Formation, Paleoproterozoic, ~2.3 Ga; Ottertail Lake Northeast roadcut, near Bruce Mines, Ontario, Canada) 38 (32766102277).jpg
Jasper-quartz pebble conglomerate from Ontario, Canada

Jasper conglomerate, which is also denominated "pebble jasper conglomerate", "Saint Joseph Island puddingstone", "Drummond Island puddingstone", or "Michigan(ian) puddingstone", occurs in Saint Joseph Island and the vicinity of the Saint Mary's River, north and northwest of the Bruce Mines of Northern Ontario, Canada, circa 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. In these locales, it occurs as thick beds of Paleoproterozoic pebble conglomerate within the medial part of a geologic formation that is named the Lorrain Formation of the Cobalt Group. The jasper conglomerate consists of subrounded pebbles of red jasper, black chert, white quartzite, hematite, and semi-transparent quartz in a matrix of coarsely grained quartzite. It contains circa 30% to 90% of pebbles. Within the deposits of Lorrain Formation, the jasper conglomerates occur principally as the sedimentary fills of erosional troughs and channels of what are interpreted to be either alluvial fans or deposits of braided river. [10] [11] These deposits are inferred to be nonglacial in origin and immediately postdate the Paleoproterozoic Makganyene glaciation. [12]

Elsewhere, e. g. in Drummond Island, Michigan, United States, jasper conglomerate, there denominated "Drummond Island puddingstone", occurs as loose gravel within Pleistocene glacial drift. These fragments of jasper conglomerate are glacial erratics that continental ice sheets from Northern Ontario eroded and then spread throughout Michigan, including in Drummond Island, and as far south as Ohio and Kentucky during repeated glacial advances and retreats. [13]

Other examples

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandstone</span> Type of sedimentary rock

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quartzite</span> Hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone

Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink and red due to varying amounts of hematite. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conglomerate (geology)</span> Coarse-grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of rounded to sub-angular fragments

Conglomerate is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-size clasts. A conglomerate typically contains a matrix of finer-grained sediments, such as sand, silt, or clay, which fills the interstices between the clasts. The clasts and matrix are typically cemented by calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, or hardened clay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertfordshire puddingstone</span> Conglomerate sedimentary rock

Hertfordshire puddingstone is a conglomerate sedimentary rock composed of rounded flint pebbles cemented together by a younger matrix of silica quartz. The distinctive rock is largely confined to the English counties of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire but small amounts occur throughout the London Basin. It is quite commonly found in fields in and around Chesham, where pieces can be seen as boundary stones and in rockeries. Despite a superficial similarity to concrete, it is an entirely natural silcrete. A fracture runs across both the pebbles and the sandy matrix as both have equal strength unlike concrete where the pebbles remain whole and a fracture occurs only in the matrix. Like other puddingstones, it derives its name from the manner in which the embedded flints resemble the plums in a pudding. It forms the local base of the Upnor Formation of the Lambeth Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasper conglomerate</span>

Jasper conglomerate is an informal term for a very distinctive Paleoproterozoic quartz and jasper pebble conglomerate that occurs within the middle part of the Lorrain Formation of the Cobalt Group of the Huronian Supergroup. It is also known by other names including pebble jasper conglomerate, St. Joseph Island puddingstone, Drummond Island puddingstone, Michigan puddingstone. The jasper conglomerate occurs on St. Joseph Island and the St. Mary's River area north and northwest of the Bruce Mines of Northern Ontario, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Sault Ste. Marie. This conglomerate consisted originally of gravelly sands and sandy gravels composed of subrounded pebbles of red jasper, white quartzite, semi-transparent quartz, and black chert, with coarse-grained sand matrix. Typically it contains between about 30% to as much as 90% pebbles. It has been cemented and partially metamorphosed into a quartzitic conglomerate. The beds of jasper conglomerates fill erosional troughs and channels of what are interpreted to be either alluvial fan or braided river deposits of the Lorrain Formation. These deposits are interpreted to represent nonglacial deposits that immediately postdate the Makganyene glaciation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torridon Group</span>

In geology, the term Torridonian is the informal name for the Torridonian Group, a series of Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic arenaceous and argillaceous sedimentary rocks, which occur extensively in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The strata of the Torridonian Group are particularly well exposed in the district of upper Loch Torridon, a circumstance which suggested the name Torridon Sandstone, first applied to these rocks by James Nicol. Stratigraphically, they lie unconformably on gneisses of the Lewisian complex and their outcrop extent is restricted to the Hebridean Terrane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clastic rock</span> Sedimentary rocks made of mineral or rock fragments

Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus, chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks by physical weathering. Geologists use the term clastic to refer to sedimentary rocks and particles in sediment transport, whether in suspension or as bed load, and in sediment deposits.

The Ancestral Thames is the geologically ancient precursor to the present day River Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxbury Conglomerate</span>

The Roxbury Conglomerate, also informally known as Roxbury puddingstone, is a name for a rock formation that forms the bedrock underlying most of Roxbury, Massachusetts, now part of the city of Boston. The bedrock formation extends well beyond the limits of Roxbury, underlying part or all of Quincy, Canton, Milton, Dorchester, Dedham, Jamaica Plain, Brighton, Brookline, Newton, Needham, and Dover. It is named for exposures in Roxbury, Boston area.

Bunter Pebble Beds is the name formerly given to a set of sandstone deposits within the New Red Sandstone containing rounded pebbles. They are thought to be alluvial deposits and, judging from the rounding of the mainly quartzite pebbles, to have resulted from prolonged transportation in a large and turbulent river, resulting in powerful abrasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Alderley Edge</span> Hill in Cheshire, United Kingdom

One of the classic locations for the study of Triassic sandstones in the UK is at Alderley Edge in Cheshire. Numerous scientists from the early 19th century up to the present day have studied the area and it is a popular field site for universities around the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Tasmania</span> Overview of the geology of Tasmania

The geology of Tasmania is complex, with the world's biggest exposure of diabase, or dolerite. The rock record contains representatives of each period of the Neoproterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. It is one of the few southern hemisphere areas that were glaciated during the Pleistocene with glacial landforms in the higher parts. The west coast region hosts significant mineralisation and numerous active and historic mines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux Quartzite</span> Type of quartzite rock

The Sioux Quartzite is a Proterozoic quartzite that is found in the region around the intersection of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa, and correlates with other rock units throughout the upper midwestern and southwestern United States. It was formed by braided river deposits, and its correlative units are thought to possibly define a large sedimentary wedge that once covered the passive margin on the then-southern side of the North American craton. In human history, it provided the catlinite, or pipestone, that was used by the Plains Indians to carve ceremonial pipes. With the arrival of Europeans, it was heavily quarried for building stone, and was used in many prominent structures in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and shipped to construction sites around the Midwest. Sioux Quartzite has been and continues to be quarried in Jasper, Minnesota at the Jasper Stone Company and Quarry, which itself was posted to the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1978. Jasper, Minnesota contains many turn-of-the-century quartzite buildings, including the school, churches and several other public and private structures, mostly abandoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadomin Formation</span>

The Cadomin Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early Cretaceous age in the western part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is extends from southeastern British Columbia through western Alberta to northeastern British Columbia, and it contains significant reservoirs of natural gas in some areas. It was named after the mining town of Cadomin, which is an acronym of "Canadian Dominion Mining".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enon Formation</span> Jurassic-Cretaceous geological formation in the Uitenhage Group of South Africa

The Enon Formation is a geological formation found in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces in South Africa. It is the lowermost of the four formations found within the Uitenhage Group of the Algoa Basin, its type locality, where it has been measured at a maximum thickness of 480 metres (1,570 ft). Discontinuous outcrops are also found in the Worcester-Pletmos and Oudshoorn-Gamtoos Basins, including isolated occurrences in the Haasvlakte, Jubilee, and Soutpansvlakte Basins near the small town Bredasdorp.

Igneous rocks are found in Bukit Timah, Woodlands, and Pulau Ubin island. Granite makes up the bulk of the igneous rock. Gabbro is also found in the area and is found in an area called Little Guilin, named for its resemblance to Guilin in South China. This area is in Bukit Gombak. Sedimentary rocks are found on the western part of Singapore, which is mainly made of sandstone and mudstones. It also includes the southwestern area. Metamorphic rocks are found in the northeastern part of Singapore, and also on Pulau Tekong, off the east coast of Singapore. The rocks are mainly made up of quartzite, and also make up the Sajahat Formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinumo Quartzite</span> Mesoproterozoic rock formation in the Grand Canyon, Arizona

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skunnemunk Conglomerate</span>

The Skunnemunk Conglomerate is a mapped bedrock unit in New Jersey and New York from the Middle Devonian period. It forms the resistant ridge of Schunemunk Mountain in New York and Bearfort Mountain in New Jersey.

Hollow Run is a tributary of Cooks Creek which is located in Durham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Rock Formation</span>

The Big Rock Formation is a formation that crops out in the Tusas Mountains of northern New Mexico. Detrital zircon geochronology gives a maximum age for the formation of 1665 Mya, corresponding to the Statherian period.

References

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