NYSGA 1972
THE NEW YORK STATE GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
CO-HOSTED by COLGATE UNIVERSITY and UTICA COLLEGE
44th Annual Meeting
SEPTEMBER 15, 16, 17, 1972. HAMILTON and UTICA, NEW YORK
FIELD TRIP GUIDEBOOK
James McLelland, Editor
Department of Geology, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
and
Department of Geology, Utica College, Utica, New York
Published by the New York State Geological Association.
Additional copies available from the permanent secretary,
Philip C. Hewitt, Chairman, Department of Geology and Earth Science, State University College at Brockport,
Brockport, New York 14420. DEDICATION
The Guidebook for the 44th Annual Meeting of The New York State Geological Association is dedicated to G. Arthur Cooper
Colgate Alumnus
Eminent Contributor to North American Paleontology
PREFACE
This year's guidebook reflects the preponderance of sedimentary and glacial geology in the Utica-Hamilton area. It is a geologically classical region, first made famous by James Hall. It is also the area in which G. Arthur Cooper began his paleontological studies while an undergraduate at Colgate University. It is with great pride that we dedicate this year's guidebook to Dr. Cooper.
In the past the New York State Geological Association Meeting has been convened in the spring. This year we are holding it in the fall for several reasons. Amongst these is the rededication of Lathrop Hall at Colgate University. Lathrop Hall has long been the combined home of both the Geology and the Physics Department. In 1970-1971 the old edifice (1909) was renovated, and a new link was added between McGregory and Lathrop Halls. The current facility is both spacious, attractive and functional.
We are honored to have as guest speakers and panelists for the rededication G. Arthur Cooper, M. King Hubbert, and J. Tuzo Wilson. They will be joined by two Colgate physics alumni: Guyford Stever, Director of the National Science Foundation; and Harvey Picker, Dean of the School of International Relations of Columbia University. We welcome these men, and we welcome all of you to the rededication ceremonies and to the other functions of this weekend.
-James McLelland, Editor

A: EAST-WEST FACIES CHANGES IN THE CLINTON GROUP (MIDDLE SILURIAN) OF EAST-CENTRAL NEW YORK
H. S. Muskatt
Utica College
INTRODUCTION
The only completely conformable, exposed sequence of the Clinton Group (Middle Silurian) of New York State is located in its type area in the east-central part of the state. The Group is characterized by a heterogeneous lithology that includes pebbly sandstones, impure and clean sandstones, shaly, green and gray mudstones, carbonates and ironstones. Except for the Medina Group of upper Lower Silurian age, the Clinton Group, at its type locality, contains the only major sequence of detrital clastics in the Silurian of central and western New York.

A: EAST-WEST FACIES CHANGES IN THE CLINTON GROUP (MIDDLE SILURIAN) OF EAST-CENTRAL NEW YORK

Petrified Creatures on right.

Route to South would take you to Cooperstown, etc.
Right turn (S) off Rte.20 goes to Glimmer Glass State Park located on the northern end of Otsego Lake. Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame is located on the southern end of the lake.

View of Mohawk Valley and Adirondacks
Nice view of Mohawk Valley in middle distance and Adirondacks in far distance.

STOP 1. (30 min.) Wagner Hill Rd., Sta 33
Otsquago Formation (Picture Stop)
Nine feet of cross-bedded, ripple marked Otsquago red beds are exposed on the east side of the road. Another 35 feet of the unit is exposed in the woods across the road, northwest of the stop.
The outcrop is small but spectacular. Please stand back to allow others to take photographs first. This is a picture stop.

Outcrops of Otsquago sandstone on left (W) side of road, Station 29.

STOP 2. (45 min.) Otsquago Formation, Sta. 28
Forty-two feet of the Otsquago is exposed. The first 15 feet, on the east side of the road, shows medium-to coarse-grained, cross-bedded red sandstones with some interbeds of green and gray shales which may be part of the Sauquoit. The remainder of the section is found on the west side of the road. Tracks and trails are common in this exposure, particularly Cruziana.

STOP 3. Otsquago Formation, sta. 27
Fifteen feet of cross-bedded, pebbly, coarse-grained sandstones art exposed. Three cross-bedded units are present. Lenses of conglomerate and some phosphate pebbles are also seen. Graded beds, fining upward, is evident.

STOP 4 Aney Hill Rd at intersection with Tri-Town Rd., station 22
Willowvale Shale, Kirkland Iron Ore, and Jordanville Member of Herkimer Formation.
This outcrop was recently exposed by a new road cut and has not been previously reported. It is one of the very few readily accessible exposures where contact of the Kirkland with the underlying Willowvale and overlying Jordanville may be seen. The contacts are located at the northern end of the exposure, downhill. A little digging and weeding may be required.
The Kirkland is approximately 11 inches thick and is fossiliferous. Palaeocyclus is common. (PLEASE DO NOT STRIP THE EXPOSURE. ABUNDANT SAMPLES OF THE KIRKLAND MAY BE TAKEN AT THE LAST STOP). Digging exposed about 2 feet of Willowvale below the Kirkland.
About 40 feet of Jordanville is exposed above the Kirkland; the uppermost 5 feet is in the field to the east. The lower 8 feet of the Jordanville is a "transition" zone showing alternating beds of reddish, blackish, and greenish sandstones with some thin grayish shale interbeds. Above this zone is the "typical" white orthoquartzite of the member. A 2 inch thick layer of gray shale is seen about 8 feet above the "transition" zone. No fossils were seen in the shale. Cross bedding, channeling, ripple marks, shale pebbles, and lenses of pebbly sandstone and conglomerate are present. A few trails were found. Glacial striae and chatter marks on the Jordanville in the field strike N85W.
LUNCH (45 min.) Mr. Aney has kindly offered the use of his front lawn for our use. PLEASE KEEP IT CLEAN.

Frankfort Shale (Middle Ordovician) exposed on both sides of road.

Frankfort Gorge, rte. 171, Exposure of Frankfort Shale (Middle
Ordovician) along the route.

STOP 5 (1 hr.) Rte. 171, Frankfort Gorge, Moyer Creek, station 11
CAUTION This road is fairly well traveled and is one of several in the area considered as the racers delight.
Frankfort Shale, Oneida Conglomerate, Otsquago Sandstone
Exposures are seen on both sides of the road. The Oneida disconformably overlies the Frankfort Formation (upper Middle Ordovician). A minor amount of channeling may be seen at the contact.
Pebbles of Frankfort Shale are incorporated in the lower part of the Oneida. The basal 5 feet of the Oneida is conglomeratic with the lowermost few inches containing abundant pyrite. The remaining 22 feet of Oneida is mostly medium-to coarse-grained white sandstones with some interbeds of pebbly sandstone and conglomerate. On the south side of the road some thin greenish shale lenses and clay galls to 4 inches are present.
Twenty-seven feet above the Oneida-Frankfort contact the Oneida grades into the reddish to blackish Otsquago. Cross bedding is very common. A few unidentifiable brachiopods are present in some beds.
The well known South Moyer Creek section (Grossman, 1953) starts about 300 yards south of the junction of that tributary with Moyer Creek about 100 yards west of the bridge over Moyer Creek.

Heading down east wall of Sauquoit Valley, a glacial trough.

Climbing west wall of Sauquoit Valley
Climbing west wall of Sauquoit Valley, look behind to east for a view of the glacial trough.

Last operating iron mine in central NY
Building foundation at left is that of the last operating iron mine in the central New York area which closed in the early 1960's

STOP 6 (3 hrs.) New Rd, Dawes Creek, station 3
Sauquoit Formation, Westmoreland Iron Ore, Willowvale Shale, Dawes Dolostone, Kirkland Iron Ore, Joslin Hill Member of the Herkimer Formation.
This section starts below the bridge on New Rd. that crosses Sherman Brook but locally referred to as Dawes Creek.
WE WILL REBOARD BUSES UPSTREAM WHERE IT CROSSES DAWES AVE.
Going upstream, 46 feet of the Sauquoit is exposed. The unit consists of greenish shales with discontinuous interbeds of calcareous sandstones and very-fine grained sandstones. Some of the interbeds show cross lamination on a fresh surface.
About 15 feet above the last exposure of Sauquoit turn left (N) up a normally dry tributary valley. At the foot of the tributary 3 feet 3 inches of the oolitic Westmoreland Iron Ore is exposed. (Abundant ore for samples may be taken at the top of the tributary.) Above the Westmoreland 23 feet of the Willowvale Shale is exposed. The lower part of the Willowvale is predominantly greenish shale with a few beds of calcareous siltstone and sandstone. The upper part is mainly grayish silty shale with some interbeds of calcareous siltstone, sandstone and sandy dolostone. Between the upper and lower parts of the unit is a 4 foot transition zone which starts approximately 10 feet from the base of the unit. Fossils are present.
At the top of the tributary turn left (W) about 25 feet.
Dawes Dolostone
Contact of the Dawes with the underlying Willowvale is not seen here. Across the valley the contact is visible and the Dawes, there, as well as upstream, is cross-bedded. Here 7 feet 8 inches of the Dawes is exposed. The unit consists predominantly of sandy dolomitic limestone and dolostone with some interbeds of shale, siltstone, and calcareous sandstone. Some fossils are present.
The Dawes grades into the overlying fossiliferous Kirkland Iron Ore. Only 3 feet 2 inches of the ironstone is exposed here. Further upstream the Kirkland (5 feet thick) is seen to grade from the Dawes and into the overlying Joslin Hill.
Turn around and follow the path east along the valley top to Dawes Picnic Grove. Go past the buildings and follow the road to the parking lot. The floor of the parking area is on the Joslin Hill. Abundant Rusophycus is scattered about. North of the parking area is an abandoned quarry. The Joslin Hill is composed chiefly of gray intercalated shale, siltstone, dolomitic sandstones, and sandy dolostone. Ripple marks and fossils are present.
(IF TIME PERMITS RETURN TO PICNIC TABLES FOR OPEN DISCUSSION)
Continue upstream along the Joslin Hill. A total of 36 feet of Joslin Hill is exposed along the stream. Ripple marks are fairly common and mud cracks rare. Go directly upstream until you reach the first waterfall east of the bridge that is on Dawes Ave. Several ripple marked beds are present as you continue upstream. The wave length of some reach 44 inches.
Bridge on Dawes. Ripple mark sets beneath bridge and continuing upstream. Wave lengths to 44 inches.

B: SEDIMENTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE SALINA GROUP (UPPER SILURIAN) IN EAST-CENTRAL NEW YORK
Michael Treesh
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Abstract
The available evidence from outcrops suggests that the Salina Group of east-central New York was deposited in peritidal environments of a transgressing epeiric sea. Sedimentologic criteria suggest that the depositional environments were hyper-saline with evaporites including halite deposited. The lithofacies of the Salina Group and the restricted fauna are characteristic of hyper saline conditions. The units underlying and overlying the Salina Group are "normal" marine carbonates.
Evidence from outcrops and subsurface studies indicates that the evaporites were deposited in environments which may have ranged from shallow water to supratidal. Thick accumulations of Salina Group rocks resulted from structural activity within the depositional area rather than from infilling of a deep topographic basin.

B: SEDIMENTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE SALINA GROUP (UPPER SILURIAN) IN EAST-CENTRAL NEW YORK

STOP 1. Vernon Shale
Start at Junction N.Y. 51 & Jerusalem Hill Road. The exposures on the south side of Jerusalem Hill along the creek are near the bottom of the Vernon Formation. The Vernon here is a massive red shale. A few green spots can be seen in the red shale. These apparently result from reduction around particles of organic matter; dark carbonaceous debris occasionally can be found in the center of these green spots. Green color is also present along joints indicating color change due to ground water action.
The contact of the Vernon with the underlying Lockport Formation is exposed along the west side of Steele Creek about 1000 feet north of this exposure. The Lockport is a medium-bedded dolomite with mudcracks and current ripples. The contact of the Lockport with the Vernon is sharp but may be conformable. The thickness of the Vernon in Ilion gorge is 120 to 160 feet.

STOP 2. Syracuse Formation
Pull off just west of Bridge where creek crosses road. Outcrop is 0.1 miles further west.
This stop exposes a nearly complete section of the Syracuse Formation. The lower contact of the Syracuse with the Vernon is not exposed. The contact with the overlying Camillus is gradational. The section is as follows:
Camillus Fm.
Syracuse Fm. (94 ft.)
| Upper Dolomite Mbr. (14 ft.)
| Upper Clay Mbr. (7 1/2 ft.)
| Middle Dolomite Mbr. (7 1/2 ft.)
| Lower Clay Mbr. (11 ft.)
| Transition Mbr. (54 ft.)
Ripple marks and mudcracks can be found throughout the Syracuse and Camillus Formations at this locality. Ostracodes and other fossils are present in the Middle and Upper Dolomite Members, and algal heads in the Upper Dolomite Member. Note also the finely laminated nature of the dolomites and dolomitic sediments; these laminations are characteristic of peritidal deposits.

STOP 3. Camillus Formation Quarry on left (S) side of road.
The section to be examined is in the quarry on the south side of Jerusalem Hill Road. About 80 feet of Camillus are exposed in this quarry. The total Camillus thickness in this area is about 180 feet. The section in this quarry is typical of the middle and upper Camillus. The lower portion of the Camillus, however, is more dolomitic. With the exception of a few mud-cracks, sedimentary structures and fossils are generally absent.

STOP 4. Bertie Formation
Junction of Jerusalem Hill Road and Cedarville Road, Town of Litchfield Maintenance Building on left (S) side of road. Outcrop is across Cedarville road from building.
This is a brief stop to examine the Fiddlers Green and Forge Hollow Members of the Bertie Formation. These units will be examined in more detail at the next stop. Mudcracks and eurypterids are common in the massive bed at the top of the Fiddlers Green. Poor outcrops in the field above the roadcut may be in the Cobleskill Formation. About 13 feet of the Fiddlers Green Member and 25 feet of the Forge Hollow Member are exposed here. The composite thickness of the Salina Group along the Jerusalem Hill Road in Ilion gorge is about 450 feet.

STOP 5. Camillus and Bertie Formations
Outcrop on left (E) side of road in passage gulf.
The section in this roadcut is as follows:
Bertie Fm. (40 ft.)
| Forge Hollow Mbr. (23 ft.)
| Fiddlers Green Mbr. (17 ft.)
Camillus Fm. (25 ft.)
The Camillus-Bertie contact can be examined at this stop. This contact is quite sharp. Below the contact, the Camillus consists of gray and green dolomitic shales with mudcracks. The overlying Fiddlers Green Mbr. of the Bertie Formation is medium- to thick-bedded dolomite. Mudcracks are present throughout, especially in the two foot massive bed at the top of the Fiddlers Green Member; this bed also contains eurypterids. The Forge Hollow Member is a shaly dolomite with some mudcracks and is exposed in the gentle slope just above the massive bed.

STOP 6. Syracuse and Camillus Formations
Road cut on east side of road. Another exposure about 0.1 mile south on west side.
The Salina Group in this area has thinned to less than 150 feet from the 450 feet measured in Ilion gorge. The Vernon Formation is not present as the result of depositional onlap. The easternmost exposure of Vernon shale is about eight miles to the west, north of Jordanville.
About 45 feet of Clinton sandstones, shales, and hematite beds are exposed below the Syracuse Formation. The contact with the Syracuse is at the top of a poorly consolidated conglomeratic sandstone (Herkimer). This contact is disconformable.
The Syracuse at Van Hornesville is about 80 feet thick. Although member designations are difficult, the lower 55 feet appears to consist of the transition and Lower Clay Members. The Middle Dolomite Member is about 10 feet thick; the Upper Clay Member, eight feet; and the Upper Dolomite Member, 15 feet. Mudcracks are present throughout the Syracuse Formation. Halite crystal casts associated with mudcracks have been found on some talus slabs. Algal heads and burrow trails are present in the Upper Dolomite Member. Some lenses of fine-grained non-laminated dolomite are present in the well-laminated Upper Dolomite Member. Eurypterid fragments are also found in this member.
The Syracuse Formation grades upward into the Camillus Formation. The Camillus is a grayish-green to dull red dolomitic shale. In places, fragments of the grayish-green sediment can be found contained in a red matrix. This is the easternmost exposure of the Camillus Formation; the correlative interval to the east is designated Brayman Shale.

STOP 7. Syracuse and Brayman Formations
Quarry set off road (on east side) about 100 feet.
The Syracuse Formation has thinned to less than 30 feet at this quarry from nearly 100 feet in Ilion gorge 25 miles to the west. In addition to thinning eastward through overlap, the sedimentology of the Syracuse Formation at Stop VII is quite different from Ilion gorge (Stop II). The Syracuse consists of thin-bedded laminated shaly dolomites with very abundant nodules throughout. The nodules are now filled with calcite which probably is secondary after gypsum or anhydrite. Around these nodules the dolomite has been brecciated. In addition to the nodular fabric, mudcracks are quite abundant in the Syracuse Formation. Some ripple marks, cross laminations, and fossils (ostracodes, gastropods, and brachiopods) are also present. The exposure is probably quite near the eastern depositional limit of the Syracuse Formation and more frequent subaerial exposure should be expected. The abundance and types of sedimentary structures and the nodular fabric suggest a supratidal or near supratidal environment of deposition.
The overlying Brayman Formation is a massive greenish gray shaly dolomite and dolomitic shale. Well-rounded sand grains can be found in this unit; these sand grains may be eolian. A 12 inch dolomite bed near the top of the quarry may represent the influence of Fiddlers Green sedimentation even though the Bertie Formation is not recognizable this far east. The thickness of the exposed Brayman at this locality is about 20 feet.

C: STRATIGRAPHY OF THE MARINE LIMESTONES AND SHALES OF THE ORDOVICIAN TRENTON GROUP IN CENTRAL NEW YORK
Barry Cameron
Department of Geology
Boston University
INTRODUCTION
For about 150 years the Ordovician rocks of the Mohawk Valley region have been under study. Many geologists and paleontologists of the 19th and 20th centuries have studied the limestones, shales, and fossils of the Black River Group and the Trenton Group in the Black River, West Canada Creek, and Mohawk River valleys (see Kay, 1937, for an historical review of early work). As a result, these rocks have become well-known as part of the medial (middle time of a three-fold subdivision) Ordovician standard section of North America.
However, the geology of the Trenton Group, as well as the Black River Group, still poses several relatively complex and interesting stratigraphic problems. Exposures are occasionally complete, but many are not. The repetitious nature of the sedimentary layers of the Trenton Group often mask significant variations critical to correct lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, and paleo-ecologic interpretations. The modern approaches to the study of paleoenvironments of carbonate rocks have just recently been applied with emphasis to parts of the medial Ordovician sequence in central and northwestern New York. Many previous investigators who have studied these formations have been, by necessity, primarily concerned with lithostratigraphy, such as statistical analysis of rock types (especially Chenoweth, 1952, and Lippitt, 1959), biostratigraphy and correlation, and mapping. Present and future work depends and will depend heavily on that of earlier workers who prepared the way by determining the basic lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic frameworks which will be examined and evaluated on this field trip. The interests of this author center around establishing a detailed time and lithic microstratigraphic framework for the Trenton Group in central and northwestern New York. This would form the basis and provide the confidence for reconstructing the environments of deposition and determining the paleogeography. At present, special emphasis is being placed on statistical analysis of the rock types from both detailed field measurements and carbonate petrography, small scale physical and biological correlation, primary sedimentary structures, trace fossils, fossilization, and fossil community analysis. This information should better document the initial and subsequent wider transgressions and regressions of the Trentonian sea.
The purposes of this field trip to the Trenton Group limestones of central New York are to: 1) Demonstrate the stratigraphic succession and lateral facies changes. 2) Discuss and evaluate the age relationships and time correlations. 3) Examine and evaluate the criteria for determining the conditions and environments of deposition and paleogeography.
This field trip guide will summarize previous work on the Trenton Group in central and northwestern New York. The order of localities has been chosen to be as conveniently as possible for economy of travel along a southeast to northwest traverse that also essentially climbs up the stratigraphic succession.

C: STRATIGRAPHY OF THE MARINE LIMESTONES AND SHALES OF THE ORDOVICIAN TRENTON GROUP IN CENTRAL NEW YORK

STOP 1. Canajoharie Creek
Walk straight ahead on road, keeping to right of green house, until you reach the first wooden posts on the right that are blocking a macadam path. Take this macadam path do,m to the west bank of Canajoharie Creek. The Sugar liver Limestone is exposed along the path. At the end of the path, walk about 100 feet onto the flat area to get a better look at the exposure.
Three formations will be seen along Canajoharie Creek at the southern edge of the village of Canajoharie: Chuctanunda Creek Dolostone, Sugar River Limestone, and Canajoharie Shale. The Chuctanunda Creek is a stromatolite-bearing, otherwise unfossiliferous, early Ordovician (Canadian) dolostone disconformably underlying 17 feet of Sugar River Limestone. The latter is succeeded conformably by the Canajoharie graptolite-bearing black shales. At this locality the Sugar River probably represents more shallower water conditions than the relatively deeper water, more-burrow reworked, Sugar River lithologies to the northwest. The base contains atypical shelly calcarenite and a pararippled bed, followed by a concentration of calcisiltites. The middle contains more typical burrow-reworked non-Shelly calcarenite. Near the top, along the macadam path, several thick, shelly calcarenitic lenses occur that probably represent channels.

STOP 2. Route 55 South of Little Falls
Walk to quarry 100 feet to the right (north) side of road. Then return to highway and examine exposures along south side of Route 5S.
Along the west-facing hillside, a quarry and roadside exposures may be found. The quarry contains about 2.5 feet of Gull River Limestone (middle Black River Group) succeeded by about 18 feet of very fossiliferous Kings Falls Limestone. The latter contains shelly and non-shelly calcarenites with current laminations alternating with thin shales and burrow-reworked horizons. Along the roadside, there are 15 feet of Sugar River non-shelly, somewhat burrowed calcarenites with horizontal and cross-laminations visible. This is succeeded by about 10 feet of Dolgeville Facies which is composed of 6 feet of alternating thick black shales and black, argillaceous calcisiltites followed by about 4 feet of shale.

STOP 3. City Brook (locality #C1):
Walk across bridge and down steps on upstream side of bridge leading to stream bed. Then, climb back to bridge and walk up the opposite bank of City Brook. Obey no tresspassing signs farther upstream.
The Gull River Limestone of the Black River Group lies disconformably on the quartz arenite-rich late Cambrian Little Falls Dolomite below the bridge. The lower falls is supported by the upper Gull River Limestone, and the upper falls (Craig, 1941, fig. 5; Kay, 1953, fig. 11) is supported by the middle Kings Falls Limestone. The Rathbun member at the top of the Sugar River Limestone and the superjacent Denley Limestone will not be examined because we will have to respect the NO TRESPASSING signs.
Gull River Limestone. The lower 8 feet are tan weathering, gray, quartz-arenite-rich, ostracod-bearing, impure, thick-bedded, medium-textured, argillaceous limestones interbedded with a few calcareous shales up to 3 inches thick. Vertical burrows are abundant. A 3-inch thick metabentonite occurs at 6' 9" (Kay, 1943, 1953).
The upper 19.5 feet of the Gull River is composed of relatively pure, light gray weathering, dove gray, conchoidally fracturing calcilutite (sublithographic) and some calcisiltites. Stylolites are abundant from 11 to 16 feet. Thin shales are frequent between 13 and 16 feet, at the 13th foot, and especially between 19.5 and 21.5 feet where the limestones are very argillaceous (Fig. 3). Vertical burrows (Phytopsis) are abundant between 11 and 16 feet and in the top foot. Mudcracks occur above and below the 25th foot. An intertidal to lagoonal origin is probable for these limestones.
Kings Falls Limestone. Sediment from a coquinal calcarenite bed at the base of the Kings Falls fills some of the burrows in the highly burrow-reworked calcilutite bed at the top of the Gull River. The Kings Falls is characterized by coquinal calcarenites, as at the previous locality, in contrast with the non-coquinal calcarenites of the superjacent Sugar River Limestone. Cross-laminated and pararippled beds are frequent.
At 7 feet a deep reentrant marks where a metabentonite is weathering out. Less than a mile north, at Buttermilk Creek, this clay is 9 feet above the base of the Kings Falls (Kay, 1953). If this altered volcanic ash near the base of the Kings Falls between Stony Creek and Buttermilk Creek is part of a single bed, then it represents a synchronous time surface indicating that this formation is onlapping the Gull River eastward. Therefore, the base of the Kings Falls becomes progressively younger eastward, increasing the gap in time marked by the black River-Trenton boundary in that direction.
Sugar River Limestone. The contact between the Kings Falls and Sugar River limestones is drawn where shale becomes more abundant. This coincides with a contact drawn where non-coquinal calcarenites become persistently abundant and coquinal calcarenites almost disappear. The Sugar River at this exposure is mainly composed of interbedded coarse-grained calcarenites and calcareous shales. These calcarenites are encrinitic and rich in bryozoa, especially cryptostomes. The shales are especially abundant in the lower 10 feet, thus further accentuating lithic contrast with the upper Kings Falls below. The Sugar River Limestone contains the Cryptolithus tesselatus Zone which is characterized by C. tesselatus and the relative abundance of Prasopora. Unusually large Prasopora occur near the top.

STOP 4. Rathbun Brook
Walk to right, down farm road and be careful as you go through barbed wire fence.
The upper Sugar River and lower Denley limestone will be seen on Rathbun Brook. The 2.5 feet of very fossiliferous, burrow-reworked, argillaceous, black, hard Trocholites subzone beds of the base of the Denley form the top of the waterfall. Immediately succeeding these, one can see the typical fine-grained calcisiltite beds of the lower Poland Member in the stream bed. About 50 feet of Poland and about 52 of Russia are incompletely exposed over a long distance upstream. About 55-60 feet of Utica shale outcrops farther upstream after about 30 feet of covered interval. Beneath the Trocholites subzone in a stepwise fashion the Sugar River Limestone is fully exposed with the 9 foot thick Rathbun Member at the top. Note the shelly calcarenites of the Rathbun contrasting with the non-shelly calcarenites of the lower member of the Sugar River below and the Poland above. Also note the relatively thick calcisiltite beds of the Rathbun which contrast with the lower Sugar River and show similarities with the Poland above.
Return to cars. Be sure gate in barbed wire fence is closed!

STOP 5. Bridge at Trenton Falls Gorge
Walk across road (watch for traffic) and down to the exposures along the east bank just upstream from the bridge.
About 13 feet of Middle Poland limestone and thin shales are exposed upstream from the bridge on West Canada Creek. Note that the middle Poland is coarser grained and more fossiliferous than the lower Poland at Rathbun Brook (Stop #4). Burrowed fine-grained limestones are still characteristic of this member, however.

STOP 6. Lower Trenton Falls Gorge
Walk about 200 yards down this gravel driveway to the exposures by the powerhouse at its end.
Poland (about 50 feet thick) and Russia (about 75 feet thick) members of Denley limestone can be seen on the opposite bank from the road at the powerhouse. Two reentrants 9 feet apart in the upper Poland represent metabentonites. At the powerhouse gate, the Poland-Russia contact is about 12 feet above the road. The coarser-grained, more rubbly, burrow-reworked, more fossiliferous Russia Member can be examined along the hillside exposures on the walk back to the cars.

STOP 7. Dam at Trenton Falls Gorge
Walk back to road and go uphill, walking around fence gate (opening on left side slightly concealed). Continue uphill for about a quarter of a mile to the dam.
The lower Steuben Limestone and much of the Rust Member of the Denley Limestone can be seen after crossing the dam. By the spillway, the 26 feet of massively bedded, horizontally and cross-laminated, encrinitic Steuben Limestone can be examined from the top of the dam. The contact with the Rust is clearly visible from the reservoir and in the spillway wall. In the spillway, the slump structures in the upper Rust can be examined. Below the spilling the very fossiliferous calcarenites of the upper part of the 115 feet of Rust are excellently exposed. See text above for a detailed description of the Rust at this exposure.

D: GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN CHENANGO RIVER VALLEY
Donald H. Cadwell
Regional Setting
The field trip area (Fig. 1) is located in the northern reaches of the Chenango River, a tributary of the Susquehanna River drainage system. The region is covered by parts of the Munnsville, Morrisville, Hamilton, Earlville, Norwich, Sherburne, and Holmesville 7.5 minute U.S.G.S. topographic quadrangles. The area has a total relief of 980 ft (1000 to 1980 ft). The bedrock is predominantly Devonian shale, siltstone, and sandstone (Broughton, et.al., 1962).

D: GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN CHENANGO RIVER VALLEY

Valley Heads moraine
This road crosses the valley train of the Valley Heads moraine. Note the many kettles.

Crest of Valley Heads Moraine
The crest of the Valley Heads moraine is immediately south of town; all drainage in this area is north into the Mohawk Valley.

Clay beds are ponded lacustrine deposits
The clay beds 1 mi north of Pratts Hollow are ponded lacustrine deposits formed during the retreat of the ice from the Valley Heads moraine.

STOP 1. Valley Heads Moraine Exposure
This is an exposure of glaciofluviatile and glaciolacustrine sediments in an ice contact zone. These materials, therefore, were deposits adjacent to large blocks of ice.
In this pit there are examples of several depositional environments: horizontally stratified sands and gravel, cross-bedded sands and gravels with 10 ft of relief, finely cross-bedded sands, and clays dipping northward at the north side of the exposure.
The lithologies in this pit are of typical Valley Heads composition. The provenance of the exotics indicates a source from the Adirondacks and Canada.
Percentage composition:
9% | red sandstone
26% | limestone and chert
39% | locals
26% | exotics

STOP 2. View of Valley Heads Moraine
This is a view of the Valley Heads moraine area. This is the Stockbridge valley, with the towns of Stockbridge and Munnsville to the north. The stratified drift of the Valley Heads moraine is not limited to the Stockbridge valley as well data suggests there is at least 220 ft of sand and gravel in the uplands on the west valley wall.
A question remains as to when and how this moraine was formed:
Hypothesis 1: This moraine was formed as a recessional moraine during the retreat of the same ice sheet that deposited the glacial features to the south, between Binghamton and Earlville.
Hypothesis 2: This moraine was formed during a readvance of the ice; a readvance of a Late Woodfordian ice sheet.

Highest level of the Valley Heads moraine.
Note the large boulders in exposures along the east side of the road.

Valley train materials
Valley train materials that grade to the south away from the Valley Heads moraine.

Kame terrace along the west valley wall.
This kame terrace is 40 ft higher than the Valley Heads valley train.
Is there a relation between this kame terrace and the Valley Heads terminal moraine?
Was this terrace formed during a glacial episode previous to the Valley Heads?

STOP 3. Bradley Brook Ice Margin
This stop illustrates the character of an upland ice margin, see also Figures 3 and 4 in the text. Bradley Brook flows to the east and stratified drift is exposed along the north-facing hillslope. Ablation till mantles the south-facing slope.
The spring near the exposed face west of the road has good drinking water. PLEASE BE CAREFUL TO KEEP IT THAT WAY as several persons still obtain their drinking water from this spring.
The stratified drift was deposited during wastage of an upland ice margin. The sediments are subhorizontally stratified, with perhaps a slight dip to the east. The materials were deposited lateral to the ice and the valley walls, as meltwater flowed to the east in the Bradley Brook valley toward the Chenango River. See also Plate 1.
With continued retreat of the ice front into the next valley to the north, a thin veneer of dead ice remained on the south-facing slope in the Bradley Brook valley. The dead ice deposited a thin ablation till on a perhaps much thicker lodgment till.
The lithologies include red sandstone, lime•stone, chert, igneous and metamorphic exotics, and local sandstones, siltstones and shales. The percentages are:
17% | red sandstone
19% | limestone
47% | locals
18% | exotics

Sand, gravel, and till can be seen in road cuts to the right.

Sand, gravel, and bedrock are exposed to the right.

Kame terrace and esker
While descending this valley wall note the kame terrace and esker. This terrace is 40 ft above the valley floor.
Note the kame and kame terrace on the opposite (east) valley wall.
These kames and kame terraces were deposited when meltwater streams flowed between the ice and the valley walls. At this time there was an ice tongue in the valley extending at least several miles to the south. Additional diagram in the text (Fig.2).

Kame delta units to the right.
This is an exposure in one lobe of a delta. There evidence for lobes in adjacent areas.

Hummocky, stagnant ice topography behind the Sandy Acres Farm.

STOP 4. The Bundy Concrete Company
This pit contains one of the most useable sand and gravel deposits in Chenango County and has been in operation for about 50 yrs. There are local zones and layers of sand and gravel that are cemented. The cemented arch is disintegrating rapidly: two years ago the pillars were twice as thick.
All of the gravel is bright and exotic rich. There are, however, dull sections that result from an increase in the percentage of clays.
Percentage composition:
bright
19% | red sandstone
26% | limestone
34% | locals
21% | exotics
duller
31% | limestone
Problem 1: What is the origin of the cemented zones?
Problem 2: When did cementation occur? immediately postglacially? Recent?

The bedrock hills to the right and behind you are umlaufbergs.
The bedrock hills to the right and behind you are umlaufbergs. These are bedrock hills within the Chenango River valley and are entirely surrounded with stratified drift.
This road traverses several good examples of kame terraces. Others can be seen along the west valley wall.

Entrance into the Whapanaka State Forest
You are on the correct road if just after the turn you see two old railroad tank cars in the weeds to the left.
Entrance into the Whapanaka State Forest and the State Forest Truck Trail.

STOP 5. State Forest Frost Wedge
Walk up into the bedrock quarry. This pit is used by the State for maintenance of the truck trails. The face of the exposure is oriented N20E along one of the joint planes. The frost wedges are developed along the other joint plane N75W.
One frost wedge is well developed. A second wedge, to the north, is partially developed.
Results of digging along the upper surface of the well developed wedge indicate the feature persists with depth. It is known to persist for at least 3 ft to the east.
What is the origin of these features?
Hypothesis-1: That these frost wedges formed during more rigorous climatic conditions after the retreat of the last glacier.
Hypothesis 2: That these frost wedges resulted from several cycles of rigorous climatic conditions and perhaps from several ice advances.
Hypothesis 3: That these are not really frost wedges, but are frost cracks or some other periglacial phenomena.
Hypothesis 4: (This hypothesis was proposed by two local farmers) that these features formed as a result of a series of gas explosions, while man was drilling for oil and gas.

Cross the Chenango River. The umlaufberg is to your right.
The next stop is in the sediments deposited at the southern tip of the umlaufberg.

STOP 6. Chenango County Sand Pit
This is the best sand pit in Chenango County.
The upper section of this pit is composed of lake silts, sands and clays, with many ripple drift laminations. These are well stratified.
The lower section is elusive. It may not be well exposed at the time of the trip; however, it is there. In this section there are examples of strata with vertical bedding; horizontal bedding that abruptly ceases into an unstratified zone; and cross-bedded sands with inclinations of up to 85 degrees. We may have to dig to re-expose these features. See Plates 2, 3,and 4, elusive contorted, discontinuous, vertical bedding in pit.
The lithologies present include red sandstone, limestone and chert, local sandstone, siltstone and shales, and igneous and metamorphic exotics.
Percentage composition:
Hypothesis 1: The lower section was deposited as a kame terrace lateral to a
retreating ice mass. There was an ice readvance causing the rotation of blocks and the discontinuous units. Subsequent to the ice readvance there was a lake followed by the development of the upper lake units.
Hypothesis 2: There was ice adjacent to the lower unit during sedimentation. With the melting of the ice some of the sediments were rotated, while still frozen. This could explain the rotated and discontinuous blocks, and also those with high inclinations. A lake then developed above these sediments.
Hypothesis 3: Some outrageous hypothesis.

STOP 7. Cossitt Concrete Products, Inc.
This sand and gravel pit has the largest drag line operation in the Chenango River valley area.
Exposures in this pit illustrate the following environments of deposition: deltaic foresets; lake bottom units; braided stream deposits; and evidence of deposition near an ice margin--as faulting and slumping in an ice contact zone.
The lithologies include: red sandstones, limestone and chert, local sandstones, siltstones and shales, and igneous and metamorphic exotics.

STOP 8. Hitchcock Sand and Gravel Pit
This pit is a large delta complex of sand and gravel.
This delta formed in a lake that existed between the ice tongue in the Hamilton valley and the ice at Moraine Lake. The Moraine Lake ice was a slowly melting remnant ice tongue whose source had been cut off.

STOP 9. Picture Stop - Hitchcock delta and Hamilton Valley
This is a view of the Hitchcock delta and the Hamilton valley.

E: GEOLOGY OF THE CANADA LAKE NAPPE, SOUTHERN ADIRONDACKS
James McLelland
Colgate University
Introduction
The results of the present study (1965-1972) show that the southern Adirondacks are underlain by at least one regional isoclinal structure (Canada Lake nappe) that has been folded about several other axes. There probably exist three major periods of folding and each has occurred on a large scale. Axial traces can be followed over tens of miles. Two of the fold events (Fl and F2 ) appear to be coaxial and trend NW with a gentle plunge to the SE. The other is a NE trending fold (F? ) whose existence is postulated in this report. In addition to these folds there exists at least one other event (F3) that has resulted in gentle warping of all other axes.
Locations of the stops were obtained by turning Figure 8 into a Google Earth overlay, manipulating it to accommodate the differences in projection, etc., and then estimating the placemark locations. This was necessary as the caption read: "Fig. 8. Location of stops in Road Log. A complete log with mileage will be found in NEIGC Guidebook for 1969."

STOP 1. The Peck Lake Formation
Roadcut of garnetiferous quartz-biotite-oligoclase gneiss. Minor amphibolite and calc-silicate bands. These gneisses are the dominant lithology of the Peck Lake formation which is exposed here on the south limb of the F1 fold. Needles of sillimanite and/or fibrolite can be seen in some specimens.
In a little overhang near ground level there is a minor fold with an axial trend of N50W, plunging 15 SE. Axial plane cleavage and lineation cut across the compositional layering of this fold. It appears that such folding and cleavage are prevalent throughout outcrops of Peck Lake gneiss. Often these features are obscured by poorly developed compositional banding. Polishing and staining reveal both folds and cleavage in many specimens and, therefore, suggest that their abundance vastly exceeds their recognition.
The entire outcrop is a "large minor" fold. Note the change of dip from one end to the other. The accompanying equal area plot is for poles of foliation in this roadcut and in outcrops directly NE of the road.
The lithologies and structures represented in this cut are typical of the Peck Lake formation. It is the structural complexities that make the Peck Lake formation difficult to work with and subdivide. It is, by far, the least competent unit in the sequence.

STOP 2. Royal Mt. pyroxene-quartz-plagioclase gneiss
Just to the south of the road are good exposures of the Royal Mt. pyroxene-quartz-plagioclase gneiss. This locality is near the outer contact of the Royal Mt. unit, and the latter displays its fairly well banded border phase. Most of the banding is due to this amphibolites. Also present are bands and veins of granite and/or pegmatite.
These exposures show a number of interesting features. In the first place boudinage is developed in most of the amphibolite bands. Some of the boudinage represents rather classical examples while other instances seem unusual. Consider the example exposed at the base of the large boulder just inside the woods. This is shown in the accompanying diagram.
Another example is displayed in the ledge at the top of the hill.
Neither of these features replicates the conventional concept of boudinage. Indeed, they give the appearance of igneous disruption. However, the igneous hypothesis is superfluous for these outcrops contain a good many examples of bona fide boudinage which coexist with, and are part of the systems shown above. Furthermore, the igneous hypothesis lacks merit based on the lack of disruption of some extremely thin amphibolite bands. Of course, the country rock may have been near, or at, temperatures of partial fusion. It seems more plausible that cases of peculiar looking boudinage may be of the "chocolate tablet" type (Ramsey, "Folding and Fracturing of Rocks", p. 113). This suggestion gains credence from the observation that some boudins appear to lack extension into a third dimension. In addition to this, some examples of boudinaged folds are present (Ramsey, ibid, fig. 3-59, p. 116). Still another type of boudinage results from systematic offset along shears:
In most cases the shear fractures are barely visible in the country rock. This implies that the quartz-plagioclase gneiss was in a mobile state at the time of shearing.
At the north end of the outcrop, an example of an F1 recumbent fold is observed. The fold axis trends N40 - 50W and plunges gently south. A set of drag folds is developed on the F1 fold.

STOP 3. Contact between Canada Lake and Irving Pond formations
To the south of the road are several small ledges of Canada Lake charnockitic gneisses and associated quartzo-feldspathic rocks. These exhibit the typical pinkish color of weathered outcrops in the woods. Fresh surfaces are generally dark in color.
Proceed north along the old logging road to the north of the paved highway. At the intersection of it with a second logging road (grass covered) enter the woods. Here there are a number of small outcrops of quartzites and quartzo-feldspathic gneisses of the Irving Pond fm.. The contact between the two formations runs approximately along the paved road.
Immediately to the south of the small cliffs discussed above are quartzites and leucogneisses of the Green Lake formation.

STOP 4. Irving Pond fm. at the Core of Canada Lake Nappe
Parking area on west side of road. On the east side of the road, there is an old logging road that goes east for about 1 mile. This road has been marked with tin can tops nailed to trees. At the eastern end of the road there is a tin can top with a square dug out around it. Upon seeing this mark, turn right and proceed directly up the hill.
(1) About 50' up on the hillside there occur good exposures of Irving Pond quartzite and feldspathic quartzite. Interbedded with these are layers of calc-silicate granulites. In this outcrop the pyroxenitic layers are particularly marked. The largest band of calc-silicate runs about 2' above ground level. It strongly resembles a fold (see figure below). However, the feature is a boudin. This contention is supported by the fact that what appear to be drag folds at, and near, the nose of the pyroxenitic layer, have an orientation of N20E, 15 S, whereas tight minor folds in the outcrop trend N60W, 15 SE. The lineation trends approximately N60W, 15 S. It is possible to argue that this shows only that the pyroxenite represents a fortuitously F0 fold. However, the evidence inveighs against this. At other places on the hillside there are features which are definitely pyroxenite boudins. The axes of these boudins trend NS to N20E and plunge down dip southward. A half a day on this hill provides strong evidence that what appear to be tight folds cored by pyroxenites are really elongate boudins.
(2) Proceed on up the hillside. Several minor folds are exposed. These have axes that range from EW to N30W. All Plunge gently(10° -15°) to the south. All have axial planes within the plane of the foliation.
(3) Follow the trail markers to a well exposed EW ledge. Here there is exposed both boudinage and F1 folding, marked by a large layer of calc-silicate. A sketch of these features is given below, and an equal area projection of the poles to foliation is also given.
(4) Exposed in the cliff face are several excellent boudins of pyroxenitic granulite. The boudin axes trend N20E and plunge 10 S. Note the marked similarity between these boudins and the feature at station 1.
(5) Proceed down the hill and over a 20' cliff. In the cliff face one can see a portion of a large fold. Vertical dips trend N40W. Presumably these dips are associated with an F1 fold.
(6) Follow the marked trail to a small ledge where two F1 folds are exposed. These are typical examples of F1 folding. Because of weathering, one can easily measure the axes as N50W, 20S.
Just a few feet father on is station (1). For those not desiring to make the above hike, there are good exposures of the Irving Pond formation a short distance northward along 29A-IO. These show the gradation from pure quartzite into garnetiferous quartzo-feldspathic gneisses near the contact with charnockitic gneisses of the Canada Lake formation. This is the same contact seen at STOP C and at STOP J. Note the excellent development of minor folds with drag folds.

STOP 5 Canada Lake fm.
Large roadcuts in the Canada Lake formation expose typical examples of the charnockitic (mesoperthite gneisses) that comprise this thick and competent unit.
The rocks exposed here are good representatives of Adirondack "syenites" and "quartz-syenites". Not only is this genetic nomenclature misleading, but it is locally incorrect since the present rocks contain some 25-30% modal quartz (most of which is highly strung out).
Compositional layering is not particularly well developed in the Canada Lake charnockites and this observation is consistent with their proposed metavolcanic origin.
Orthopyroxene is locally developed in the roadcuts.
Note the difference in appearance of fresh and weathered surfaces. Also note the strong resemblance of the charnockitic gneisses to the pyroxene-quartz-plagioclase gneisses of the Royal Mt. unit. It is often necessary to employ staining in order to properly distinguish these two lithologies. In stained specimens a hand lens examination often reveals the perthitic nature of the feldspars.

STOP 6 Royal Mt. gneiss on north limb of F1
Across from the Canada Lake Store and Post Office, there is a large ledge of Royal Mt. pyroxene quartz-plagioclase gneiss. As at STOP C, these gneisses tend to be homogeneous except for bands of amphibolite. Unlike STOP C, the evidence here favors igneous disruption of the amphibolite bands. The most satisfactory way of explaining the features seen at road level is by partial fusion of the pyroxene-quartz-plagioclase host rock.

STOP 7. Green Lake fm.
Proceed east along the road between Green Lake (N) and Canada Lake (S). Looking north, note the rugged mountain known as Camelhump. The break between the two humps marks the contact between the Royal Mt. quartz-plagioclase gneiss and the quartz-biotite-oligoclase gneisses of the 29A formation. Green Lake itself straddles the contact between the Royal Mt. gneiss and a narrow band of Green Lake quartzites. Rising above the east shore of Green Lake is a steep hillside of Canada Lake charnockitic gneiss.
At the east end of Green Lake, enter the woods and observe a well exposed section of Green Lake quartzites. Proceeding up the hillside, note the well exposed contact between the microperthite gneiss and the quartzites. Near the base of the hillside is a well exposed F1 minor fold whose axial elements are clearly developed on the weathered quartzite band. This fold has an axial trend of N40W, 10 S. Farther up the hillside, folds in the charnockite have axial trends N50E, 10 S, etc. It is believed that these aberrant orientations are due to the influence of a small metagabbro intrusion that defines the peak of Green Lake Mountain.

STOP 8. Rooster Hill megacrystic gneiss
On either side of the road, new roadcuts provide good examples of fresh and weathered surfaces of Rooster Hill megacrystic gneiss. The megacrysts consist of K-feldspar which occurs most generally as microperthite; however, orthoclase (cryptoperthite?) and microcline are also present. Microcline is best developed where shearing is most intense. Plagioclase is restricted to the groundmass where it occurs as single crystals and as mortar aggregates. Compositionally, the plagioclase ranges around calcic oligoclase. Quartz content ranges from 20-30%. This latter parameter places the rock out of the syenite or quartz-syenite clan to which others have assigned it (Cannon, Miller, & Nelson). Mafics include biotite, hornblende, and orthopyroxene (variable occurrence). Garnet is developed locally. Myrmekite is common. The rock can be assigned a position in the charnockite family.
An interesting feature is the variable appearance of the gneiss on fresh and on weathered surfaces. Furthermore, the color of the megacrysts may be either dark green, pink, or white.
Throughout most of its occurrence, the megacrystic unit remains relatively homogeneous and unbanded. Foliation is usually defined by planes of fracture and mineral flattening and orientation. Locally, banding increases where bands of Peck Lake gneiss occur. This is especially true near the outer contacts. Banding also occurs in the interior, but it is rare.

STOP 9. Peck Lake fm. on north limb of F1
Large roadcuts of biotite-quartz-oligoclase gneiss of the 29A formation. A cursory examination shows that these gneisses are lithologically identical to those seen at stop B. Note the leucocratic character of the apparently anatectic material. Also note the garnets in some of it.
Beginning at the east end of the outcrop, the dips change in a fashion that indicate a recumbent Z-shaped fold whose axis trends N70W and which plunges gently (5°) to the east. Of particular interest is the degree to which lineation and rodding are developed in the outcrop. On some surfaces the foliation is almost obliterated and the texture approaches that of a pencil gneiss. Good examples of F1 minor folds are present.

STOP 10. Northern Contact of Irving Pond and Canada Lake fms.
Stewart's Landing. Along the shores of Sprite Creek are exposures of Irving Pond quartzites and feldspathtc quartzites. In this area quartzo-feldspathic and pelitic layers increase in abundance because of proximity to the contact with the Canada Lake formation charnockitic gneisses. More typical of the Irving Pond unit are the white and rose quartzites in the side of the stream bank. West of the bridge, the percentage of quartzite increases markedly.
Just below the dam, there is a beautifully exposed Z-fold. This fold is rather open, and is thought to represent a minor F2 fold. Drag folds in the outcrop reflect the major fold orientation. Note the development of axial plane cleavage in the fold.
On the west shore just above the dam, clean quartzites contact garnetiferous and biotite rich layers that occur near the outer contacts of the Irving Pond formation. This contact is exposed alongside the dirt road heading uphill. This exposure demonstrates the variable response of different competencies to a given force field.

STOP 11 F1 folded by F2. Axial region of F2
In Sprite Creek below highway bridge. Exposed along the creek are boulders and outcrops of Canada Lake microperthite and charnockitic gneisses. The dark layers are pyrobolic. Both ortho and clinopyroxene occur in the charnockites.
The point of major interest at this stop is the excellent exposure of F1 folds folded along F2 axes. Note the presence of shear slippage along one of the F2 axes. Note also that the F1 and F2 axes appear to be parallel to subparallel. Lineation is strongly developed.

F: PALEONTOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF THE HAMILTON GROUP (MIDDLE DEVONIAN)
H.B. Rollins, N. Eldridge, R.M. Linsley
The stratigraphy of the Hamilton Group of theMiddle Devonian of New York State was most recently treated in its entirety by Cooper (1930, 1957). The Hamilton Group of the Chenango Valley (see chart 1) consists primarily of fine clastic sediments and occupies a mid position in this wedge shaped body of rock. In the east the wedge is thickest (about 1,680' in Schoharie Valley (Gruban, 1903, p. 213) and it thins to 285' at Lake Erie in the west (Cooper, 1930, p. 121). In the Chenango Valley the Hamilton Group is 1,465' thick (op. cit. p. 121) and has a dip to the southwest of 65-75 feet per mile (op. cit. p. 119). The Hamilton Group lies unconformably on the Onondaga Limestone and is overlain unconformably by the Tully Formation.
In a very crude sense the Hamilton Group of the Chenango Valley is composed of fine-grained black shales and limestones at the base (the Marcellus Formation) and more clastic units in the upper portion (Skaneateles, Ludlowville and Moscow Formations). However within each of these formations there exists considerable variation from true mud shales through siltstones and up to fine-grained sandstones. The nature of the substrate obviously had a great effect on the faunas associated with them. The black shales are typically associated with a Leiorhynchus fauna, gray shales and siltstones with a Tropidoleptus fauna and the fine-grained sandstones are dominated by bivalves.
A more detailed discussion of some of these problems will follow in sections relating to each of the three stops of this trip.

F: PALEONTOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF THE HAMILTON GROUP (MIDDLE DEVONIAN)

Road climbs up onto Kame terrace

Outcrop of Pecksport Shale Member, Hamilton Group, on right

STOP 1. Solsville Member, Marcellus Formation, Hamilton Group
Notes on the Paleontology of the Solsville near Morrisville, New York*
Harold B. Rollins University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213
*Scientific Contribution No. DEPS-72-23l
Location Borrow pit on east side of Swamp Road, 2.6 miles north of Morrisville, New York. Morrisville, N.Y. 7 1/2' quad.
Stratigraphy
This small borrow pit exposes an extremely fossiliferous section within the Lower Cazenovian Solsville member of the Marcellus Formation. The only detailed stratigraphic study of Hamilton rocks in the Chenango Valley is that of Cooper (1930), who recognized six members of the Marcellus Formation. In ascending order, these are the Union Springs limestone and shale, the Cherry Valley limestone, the Chittenango black shale, the Bridgewater shale, the Solsville calcareous shale and sandstone, and the Pecksport shales and siltstones. Cooper also noted that the Bridgewater, Solsville and Pecksport undergo a facies change to the west of the Chenango Valley and are there collectively represented by the dark gray Cardiff shale. A detailed study of this facies complex has never been undertaken. This locality is situated beyond the western extremity of the Solsville as delimited by Cooper (1930). Some of the faunal elements are, however, distinctively Solsville, again according to Cooper. These include Nephriticeras maximum, Paracyclas lirata, Gosselettia triquetra, and Cornellites flabellum. It was primarily on the basis of this faunal assemblage that Rollins, Eldridge and Spiller (1971) considered this exposure to be in the Solsville facies.
Fig. 1 presents a very generalized stratigraphic section of the Solsville at this locality. Note the indicated layers of fossil shell concentrations.
Paleontology
This locality has, in the last few years, contributed much to our knowledge of the paleontology of the Hamilton Group. Preservation of the fossils at this locality is perhaps unsurpassed anywhere in the Middle Devonian of New York State. For example, the molluscan shell microstructures are still preserved. Even ghost structures of originally aragonitic shell material can be discerned under thin section and polished-etched slab examination (Rollins, Eldredge and Spiller, 1971). If you carefully examine shell fragments of the large bivalve Gosselettia triquetra, you can see with the naked eye preservation of coarse prismatic shell layers. Naturally etched surfaces of Cornellites flabellum quite often also display coarse shell microstructure. This exposure has also provided the earliest occurrence of preservation of the body of a tubiculous spionid polychaete worm (Cameron, 1967). The worm was interpreted as commensal with the bivalve Cornellites flabellum (Hall). Shell borings of this polychaete are also common in specimens of Spinocyrtia granulosa, Gosselettia triquetra, etc., especially in the upper terrace of the exposure. Apparently, only the epifaunal organisms were colonized by this polychaete. The worm tubes are not found on the infaunal bivalves, such as the nuculids. A coaction, perhaps commensal, is indicated, rather than post-mortem colonization of the host shells by the worms.
Critical stages in the evolution and dispersion of the trilobites Phacops iowensis and Phacops rana were preserved in this small exposure, as discussed by Eldredge (1972, and elsewhere in this guidebook).
Also found at this locality is one of the best preserved and most diverse molluscan faunas in the Hamilton rocks of Central New York State. To date, only the gastropods and monoplacophorans have been studied in detail (Rollins, Eldredge and Spiller, 1971). The pleurotomariacean Bembexia sulcomarginata (Conrad) is very abundant, and can be found throughout the entire exposed section. Spiller (unpublished ms, 1971), following factor analysis of populations of B. sulcomarginata, has determined that this species exhibits sexual dimorphism.
Excellent specimens of Ruedemannia trilix (Hall), another pleurotomariacean, can be obtained from the upper terrace of this exposure. Ruedemannia is considered ancestral to the very common and well-known Worthenia of the Upper Paleozoic.
The lower dark calcareous shales at this locality have provided most of the available specimens of the unusual bellerophontacean gastropod Praematuratropis ovatus (Rollins, Eldredge and Spiller). This little snail is interesting for at least two reasons. First, it retains throughout ontogeny a very pronounced median keel that would have drastically restricted the available space within the shell and presumably would have made impossible total retraction of the cephalopedal mass. This, in conjunction with an extensive inductura, suggests that this gastropod had an internal shell. Secondly, Praematuratropis ovatus is one of the few Hamilton forms "missed" by the great James Hall in his monographic treatment of the Paleontology of New York.
Near the top of the exposure can be found slabs of a highly weathered calcareous siltstone which contains beautifully preserved molds, largely mollusks. The greatest diversity of gastropod species was recognized from this thin interval. Diligent collecting should provide you with a rare specimen of the monoplacophoran Cyrtonella mitella (Hall), complete with internal mold, preserving the muscle scars. A complete tabulation of the gastropods found to date at this exposure is included in the accompanying faunal list.
It should not be assumed that the paleontological potential of this little borrow pit in the Solsville has been exhausted. The beautifully preserved bivalve fauna has not yet been carefully studied, for example. Also of interest is the occurrence of epizooites. If you look closely at some of the brachiopods and mollusks you collect, you'will see epizoic bryozoa, corals, and inarticulate brachiopods, besides the aforementioned worm borings. Gastropod-bryozoan symbiosis is present from the Paleozoic to the Recent, and is very obvious at this locality.
Partial Faunal List
Peterborough South Quarry
Solsville Member, Marcellus Formation
Hamilton Group
Coelenterata |
| Conularia undulata
Bryozoa |
| Paleschara incrustans
| Hederella filiformis
| Monotrypella abruptus
| Reptaria stolonifera
| Taeniopora exigua
| Aulopora sp.
Brachiopoda |
| Orbiculoidea media
| Lingula delia
| Cupularostrum congregata
| Mucrospirifer mucronatus
| Spinocyrtia granulosa
| Ambocoelia umbonata
| Chonetes scitulus
| Spinulicosta spinulicosta
| Rhipidomella penelope
| Mediospirifer audaculus
| Protoleptostrophia perplana
| Tropidoleptus carinatus
Mollusca - Bivalvia |
| Grammysioidea alveata
| Grammysia arcuata
| Grammysia bisulcata
| Grammysia circularis
| Grammysia obsoleta
| Nucula lirata
| Nuculites oblongatus
| Nuculites cuneaformis
| Cornellites flabellus
| Gosselettia triquetra
| Modiomorpha mytiloides
| Modiomorpha concentrica
| Modiomorpha subulator
| Paracyclas lirata
| Goniophora hamiltonensis
| Leptodesma spinigerum
Cephalopoda |
| Tornoceras discoideum
| Michelinoceras constrictum
| Bactrites aciculum
| Spyroceras crotalum
Gastropoda |
| Bembexia sulcomarginata
| Glyptotomaria (Dictyotomaria) capillaria
| Gyronema lirata
| ?Holopea hebe
| Mourlonia subzona
| Murchisonia micula
| Naticopsis sp.
| Palaeozygopleura hamiltoniae
| Patellilabia (Phragmosphaera) lyra
| Platyceras (Platyceras) erectum
| Platyceras (Platyostoma) sp.
| Praematuratropis ovatus
| Ptomatis rudis
| Retispira leda
| Ruedemannia trilix
| Sinuitina brevilineatus
| Trepospira (?Angyomphalus) peneglabra
| Tritonephon rotalinea
Monoplacophora |
| Cyrtonella mitella
Arthropoda |
| Phacops rana
| Greenops boothi
| Echinocaris sp.
Echinodermata |
| Ancyrocrinus spinosus

STOP 2 "Pierceville" Quarry (Bradley Brook Quarry)
Paleoecology of the Ludlowville Formation, Hamilton Group
By R. M. Linsley
This quarry exhibits three distinctive facies of the Ludlowville Formation. The lowest unit (the Chonetes facies) is exposed in the front ledge of the quarry nearest Soule Road and consists of about fifteen feet of dark gray shale with small amounts of silt. Faunally this unit is dominated by brachiopods, and the total faunal content will be discussed more fully later. Lying on top of this unit is a thin (six inch) calcareous shale unit (the Spinocyrtia facies). This unit is exposed in a very low ledge about twenty feet back from the front face of the quarry. It consists of densely packed brachiopods (Spinocyrtia, Athyris and Mucrospirifer). calcite from the shells of these animals has permeated the surrounding sediment and transformed what was probably a fairly soft shale into a durable, hardened calcareous shale. The uppermost unit (the bivalve facies) is exposed in the upper quarry floor and the back wall of the quarry. This unit is a fine grained siltstone and the fauna is dominated by a wide variety of epifaunal and infaunal bivalves.
Partial Faunal List Pierceville Quarry
Ludlowville Formation, Hamilton Group
Coelenterata |
| Aulopora elleri
| Favosites sp.
Bryozoa |
| Sulcoretepora incisurata
Brachiopoda |
| Petrocrania hamiltoniae
| Lingula punctata
| Lindstroemella aspidum
| Oehlertella pleurites
| Mucrospirifer mucronatus
| Spinocyrtia granulosa
| Mediospirifer audaculus
| Ambocoelia umbonata
| Athyris spiriferoides
| Tropidoleptus carinatus
| Rhipidomella penelope
| Protoleptostrophia perplana
| Devonochonetes coronatus
| Longispina mucronatus
| Devonchonetes syrtalis
| Chonetes vicinus
| Spinulicosta spinulicosta
| Cyrtina hamiltonensis
| Elytha fimbriata
Mollusca -Bivalvia |
| Solemya vetusta
| Orthonota undulata
| Grammysia bisulcata
| Grammysia arcuata
| Grammysia cuneata
| Grammysia globosa
| Nucula corbuliformis
| Nucula opima
| Nucula lirata
| Nuculites oblongata
| Nuculites triqueter
| Palaeoneilo constricta
| Palaeoneilo emarinata
| Palaeoneilo fecunda
| Palaeoneilo muta
| Palaeoneilo plana
| Parallelodon harniltoniae
| Actinoptera decussata
| Actinoptera. boydi
| Cornellites flabellus
| Leiopteria sayi
| Leiopteria rafinesquii
| Aviculopecten fasciculatus
| Lyriopecten rnacrodontus
| Pterinopecten undosus
| Modiomorpha cencentrica
| Modiomorpha mytiloides
| Pholadella radiata
| Cypricardella tenuistriata
| Cimitaria recurva
| Goniphora hamiltonensis
Gastropoda |
| Ptomatis rudis
| Naticonema lineata
| Palaeozygopleura hamiltoniae
| Ruedernannia trilix
| Platyceras sp.
| Dictyotomaria capillaria
Cephalopoda |
| Tornoceras discoidea
| "Orthoceras" sp.
| Spyroceras crotalurn
Hyolithida |
| Hyolithes neapolis
Tentaculitida |
| Styliolina sp.
Arthropoda |
| Greenops boothi
| Phacops rana
| Dipleura dekayi
| Echinocaris punctata
| Rhinocaris columbina
Annelida |
| Taonurus
Plants |
| Protolepidodendron sp.

STOP 3. Moscow Formation, Hamilton Group
Notes on the Trilobites of the Hamilton Group of the Chenango Valley Region
Niles Eldredge
The American Museum of Natural History
There are but three trilobite species commonly occurring in the Hamilton Group in the Chenango Valley region: Phacops rana (Green, 1832), Greenops boothi (Green, 1837), and Dipleura dekayi (Green, 1832). As indicated, these three species were among the first trilobites to be described in North America, and with the possible exception of Elrathia kingii (Meek) from the Middle Cambrian Wheeler shale of Utah, one of these -- Phacops rana --has come to be perhaps the most familiar of all trilobites of this continent.
All presumably valid trilobite species of the Hamilton Group of New York are listed in Table 1. A comparable list for the midwest is given by Stumm (1953). Hall and Clarke (1888) remains the most complete and indispensable source of information on the morphology of these trilobites. Of the remaining species not mentioned above, only the proetid Dechenella rowi (Green, 1838) is likely to be encountered in the Chenango Valley area, especially in the Stone Mill limestone exposed in the quarry along Roberts Road in West Eaton. This and other remaining taxa will be discussed only insofar as they bear on the biogeography and provenance of the Hamilton fauna.
Partial Faunal List
Deep Spring Quarry
Moscow Formation, Hamilton Group
Bryozoa |
| Stictopora
| Reptaria stolonifera
Brachiopoda |
| Lingula Eunctata
| Rhipidomella penelope
| Tropidoleptus carinatus
| Cupularostrum congregata
| Devonochonetes coronatus
| Atrypa "reticularis"
| Ambocoelia umbonata
| Elytha fimbriata
| Mucrospirifer mucronatus
| Spinocyrtia granulosa
| Athyris spiriferoides
Bivalvia |
| Grammysioidea alveata
| Grammysia arcuata
| Grammysia bisulcata
| Grammysia elliptica
| Grammysia cuneata
| Grammysia globosa
| Grammysia lirata
| Grammysia constricta
| Orthonota undulata
| Tellinopsis subemarginata
| Parallellodon hamiltoniae
| Palaeoneilo muta
| Nucula corbuliformis
| Nucula opima
| Nucula bellistriata
| Nucula lirata
| Nuculites oblongatus
| Prothyris lanceolata
| Cornellites flabellus
| Aviculopecten fasciculatus
| Actinoptera decussata
| Actinoptera boydi
| Pterinopecten undosus
| Leiopteria rafinesquii
| Glyptodesma erectum
| Modiomorpha concentrica
| Modiomorpha mytiloides
| Goniophora rugosa
| Cypricardella bellistriata
| Paracyclas elliptica
| Sphenotus truncatus
Gastropoda |
| Mourlonia lucina
| Dictyotomaria capillaria
| Platyceras sp.
Nautiloidea |
| Spyroceras crotalum
| Paradiceras
Hyolithida |
| Hyolithes ligea
Arthropoda |
| Phacops rana
| Greenops boothi
| Dipleura dekayi
| Echinocaris punctata
Plants |
| Protolepidodendron sp.

G: PALEOECOLOGY OF A BLACK LIMESTONE, CHERRY VALLEY LIMESTONE, DEVONIAN, NEW YORK STATE
John Cottrell
University of Rochester
The Cherry Valley Limestone is documented in the literature as early as 1842 when Vanuxem referred to the "Goniatites" or "Agoniatites Limestone" of the Marcellus Formation in his publication of Geology of New York: Third Geologic District. In 1903. Clarke proposed the name of Cherry Valley Limestone for the "Agoniatites Limestone"; named for the excellent exposure in Cox's Ravine just south of the village of Cherry Valley. This section was presumed to be typical of the Marcellus Formation throughout western New York.
The Cherry Valley Limestone is known to extend for 160 miles across central New York from its westernmost outcrop in Flint Creek near Phelps, Ontario County to the easternmost outcrop in Onesquethaw Creek near Clarksville, Albany County. The Cherry Valley overlies the Union Springs Member of the Marcellus Formation and is capped by the Chittenango Shale Member. To the east the Cherry Valley grades into the Stoney Hollow Sandstone and to the west joins with the upper beds of the Onondaga Limestone.
Perhaps the Cherry Valley is best known for its unique assemblage of cephalopods as documented by Flower (1936). Previous work has been done mainly by Clarke (1901), Grabau (1906), Cooper (1930,1933), Smith (1935), Flower (1936, 1943), and Rickard (1952).

G: PALEOECOLOGY OF A BLACK LIMESTONE, CHERRY VALLEY LIMESTONE, DEVONIAN, NEW YORK STATE

STOP 1.
The Cherry Valley Limestone outcrops for several hundred feet along the roadside and is one of the most extensive outcrops available for study. This location was chosen as the type section for the study conducted during the summer of 1968. The contact hetween the Cherry Valley and the Union Springs member below is gradational over a distance of 0.2 feet. The lowermost portion of the Cherry Valley contains abundant brachiopods and ammonoids. It is a medium grained dark gray skeletal limestone separated from the middle beds by a thin zone of Aulopora. The central unit is a nodular bed composed of medium grained limestone interbedded with argillaceous layers. The limestones, up to 0.6 feet thick, are broken into nodules; a case of sedimentary boudinage. The central unit is only slightly fossiliferous. The zone above the central unit is similar to the basal unit in that it contains a thin zone of Aulopora which separates it from the massive bed above. The uppermost unit of the Cherry Valley is a massive medium to coarse grained limestone with abundant orthocone nautiloids and brachiopods. The brachiopods found in the uppermost layers vary from those found in the basal layers. The Cherry Valley is gradational with the shales above which are extremely fossiliferous with brachiopods and bryozoans.

STOP 2.
The Cherry Valley Limestone has thinned from a thickness of 4.2 feet at the type section to 2.9 feet at this Gulf Road section. Again the Cherry Valley is gradational from the underlying shales and cephalopods and brachiopods are present in the lowermost layers. Here we see the first introduction of trilobites to the Cherry Valley fauna. Fragments of cephalon, thorax, and pygidium can be found in the lower unit. The Aulopora zone at the top of the lower unit is not as well defined, and Aulopora seems to be present within the middle unit only. The middle unit has thinned from 1.9 feet at the type section to 0.8 feet and retains its nodular appearance. A few brachiopods and Aulopora comprise the fauna of the middle unit. The upper unit is gradational from the overlying shales and contains abundant brachiopods and cephalopods. It is a fine to medium grained black limestone with some replacement of shell material with coarse grained rusty calcite. The shales and limestone layers of the Union Springs member below show some evidence of folding.

STOP 3.
The Cherry Valley Limestone outcrops for several hundred feet along Falls Road and along the banks of Oneida Creek. The thickness of the section fluctuates between 2.1 and 2.8 feet with the greatest variation being seen in the upper unit. Again trilobites are present in the lower unit and crinoids make their first appearance in the western sections. They appear as single crystals of calcite in the medium grained black limestone of the lower beds. Brachiopods and cephalopods also comprise the fauna of the lower beds. The middle unit is separated from the upper and lower units by irregular surfaces and maintains its nodular appearance. A few brachiopods and Aulopora are the only noticeable fauna. The upper unit consists of a fine to medium grained limestone which grades into the shales above. Cephalopods and brachiopods are abundant.

The final stop on the field trip is perhaps the most picturesque. The Cherry Valley Limestone outcrops in a stream bed approximately 300 yards from the road. Actually two outcrops may be seen at this location as the stream splits and allows for two exposures, The left branch of the creek offers the better section. The lower unit of this section is a fine grained black to brown limestone with a fauna consisting of mainly brachiopods and trilobites. Some evidence of crinoids is seen in single crystals of calcite within the fine grained limestone. The large ammonoids and orthocones are missing from the fossil assemblage. The middle unit consists of a nodular black fine to medium grained limestone with apparent secondary calcite replacement. There are few fossils present and some very thin shaley interbedding. The upper unit consists of a basal bed which closely resembles the middle unit in lithology. It has the nodular appearance of the middle unit yet lacks the shaley interbedding. It has a scattered fauna of brachiopods and corals. The middle layer of the upper unit is the most fossiliferous with abundant brachiopods and cephalopods. Corals and crinoids are present also. The uppermost layer of the Cherry Valley is a dense fine grained black limestone gradational from the shales above. Very few fossils are present.

H: SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE TRANSGRESSIVE EARLY TRENTONIAN SEA (MEDIAL ORDOVICIAN) IN CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN NY
Barry Cameron, Stephen Mangion, and Robert Titus
Dept. of Geology, Boston University
INTRODUCTION
The fossiliferous marine limestones and shales of the Ordovician Trenton Group of New York has been studied by many paleontologists and stratigraphers for well over 150 years. Along with the underlying Black River Group (fig. 2), it has become well-known among geologists as part of the medial Ordovician standard reference section of North America. However, the geology of the Trenton Group still poses several relatively complex problems of interpretation for the application of stratigraphic, paleontologic, and paleoecologic principles. Specifically, there is still "•••confusion and disagreement regarding the correlation of the upper Black River and lowest Trenton in New York and Ontario" (Kay, 1942, p. 599) (see also Fisher, 1962; Textoris, 1968; Cameron, 1969a, 1969b; Walker and Laporte, 1970).
The modern approaches to the paleoecologic study of carbonate rocks, such as sedimentary petrography (Cameron, 1968), fossil community analysis (Porter and Park, 1969; Park and Fisher, 1969, Cameron and Mickevich, 1972), population paleontology (Ross, 1967), primary sedimentary structures (Chenoweth, 1952; Cameron, 1968), have just recently been applied with emphasis to parts of the medial Ordovician Trenton group of central and northwestern New York. Many previous investigators who have studied these formations have been, by necessity, primarily concerned with lithostratigraphy, such as statistical analysis of rock types (especially Chenoweth, 1952, and Lippitt, 1959), biostratigraphy and correlation, and mapping.
Although many faunal lists have been made for the New York sections (e. g., Cameron, 1968; Fisher, 1957; Chenoweth, 1952; Kay, 1953, 1937, 1933), most major fossil groups are in need of thorough restudy, using modern paleontologic approaches and techniques. However, a few groups in New York have received careful attention and revision in recent years. These include the Brachiopoda (Cooper, 1956), Ectoprocta (Ross, 1964, 1967), conodonts (Schopf, 1966), and calcareous algae (Cameron and Awramik, in preparation).
This field trip will illustrate and summarize a detailed time, lithic, and faunal microstratigraphic framework for the lower Trenton Group, i.e., the Rocklandian, Kirkfieldian, and Shorehamian stages, in central and northwestern New York. The limestones of the upper Black River Group beneath the lower Trenton Group will also be examined at several stops. This will then form the basis and provide the confidence for reconstructing the environments of deposition and determining the paleogeography. Special emphasis will be placed on statistical analysis of the rock types both from detailed field measurements and carbonate petrography, small scale physical and biological correlation, primary sedimentary structures, trace fossils, fossilization, and fossil community analysis. This information should better document the initial and subsequent wider transgression of the Trentonian sea.
The specific purposes of this field trip are to:
1) Demonstrate the stratigraphic succession and its lateral variations.
2) Discuss and evaluate the age relationships and time correlations of the various formations by
a) Examining the diverse faunas and
b) Demonstrating the lateral continuity of major lithic and biologic characteristics.
3) Examine and evaluate the criteria for determining the extent and significance of the disconformity along the Black River-Trenton boundary.
4) Examine and evaluate the criteria for determining the conditions and environments of deposition and paleogeography.
5) Examine fossilization and reconstruct fossil communities
6) Determine temporal and spatial relationships between fossil communities and sedimentary environments in a transgressive sequence.
This field trip guide will summarize previous work on the lower Trenton Group in the Little Falls Port Leyden and surrounding 15' quadrangles and incorporate new data in support of reinterpretations of the stratigraphy and sedimentary environments of the lower Trenton Group in this area. The Little Falls quadrangle is located along the southwestern margin of the Adirondack Mountains and is included in southern Herkimer County. The Port Leyden quadrangle is located in Oneida County north of Boonville, New York, west of the Adirondacks. Good exposures of medial Ordovician limestones are to be found along the Mohawk River, East Canada Creek, West Canada Creek, and Black River valleys and those of their tributaries. Stops for this trip are located in the quadrangles mentioned. Many small abandoned limestone quarries in the Little Falls quadrangle contain excellent exposures of the Black River-Trenton boundary.

H: SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE TRANSGRESSIVE EARLY TRENTONIAN SEA (MEDIAL ORDOVICIAN) IN CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN NY

Poor exposures of Napa-nee Limestone on left.

STOP 1. Inghams Mills (Locality #C99):
Walk to right, through the grass, and proceed to the right of the wire fence, walking beneath the power lines.
At the stone wall along the edge of the field, bear left and walk along the wire fence. CAUTION: Poison ivy often grows in abundance along this path.
Opposite the brick building, turn right and proceed very carefully over the boulders and across the creek towards the base of the outcrop. The boulders you will have to walk over to get to this exposure are sometimes unstable and tend to move when stepped or climbed upon. Be careful!
Four medial Ordovician formations are exposed at this outstanding outcrop on East Canada Creek. Lithologies, sedimentary structures, fossil assemblages, formational boundaries and paleoecology will be examined.
Gull River Limestone. About 29.5 to 30 feet of Gull River Limestone are excellently exposed here and overlie the Little Falls Dolomite of late Cambrian age. A thick dove gray shaly limestone is present at the base. Within the lowest 3 feet is a slump breccia which possesses limestone blocks up to 2.5 feet in diameter. This probably formed as a result of instability over the irregular depositional surface of the Little Falls Dolomite. The next 16.5 feet contain horizontally laminated (algal?), dove gray calcilutites with abundant vertical burrows (Phytopsis), a few ostracods, and frequent stylolites. Frequent mudcracks confirm an intertidal or lagoonal origin.
Thin shales are common in the lower 10 feet. The folded limestone layers reported by Cushing (1905a, pl. 6) from the lower Gull River Limestone at this exposure apparently formed as a result of settling over compacting thick shale lenses (Cameron, 1969b, fig. 6).
Between l6.5 and 22.5 feet an apparently subtidal, irregularly burrowed essentially non-laminated, massively bedded, dark gray to black calcisiltite zone contains Foerstephyllum halle, Lambeophyllum profundum, Hormotoma, Loxoplocus, Isotelus, cryptostome bryozoa, straight nautiloids, and pelmatozoan debris. Most of these species were interpreted as being subtidal by Walker and Laporte (1970).
Immediately above these deeper water sediments, the intertidal or lagoonal facies begins to reappear. This is a vertically burrowed, horizontally laminated (algal?), limestone intraclast-bearing, fossiliferous calcilutite and calcisiltite zone. Fossils from this interval include Tetradium cellulosum, Eoleperditia fabulites, Lambeophyllum profundum, Isotelus, cryptostome bryozoa, and pelmatozoan fragments. Near the base of this zone a sediment filled tidal meander (?) or channel up to 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep is excellently exposed in two faces of the outcrop. Note the structure and composition of the sediment filling it.
At about 27 feet, a 9 inch thick calcilutite bed contains scores of whole Tetradium cellulosum colonies in life position, representing a wave baffle community as described by Walker (1969). They cover 50% to 90% of the bed which contains a thin veneer of limestone pebble conglomerate. One can readily see how the fine-grained sediment was trapped in and around these delicately branching tabulate corals.
The top of the Gull River Limestone is riddled with burrows (dominantly vertical) partially filled with the black lustrous carbonaceous mineral anthroxolite. Several inches of irregular relief over the top of this bed marks the disconformity between the Black River Group and the Trenton Group.
"Napanee Limestone"-The lowest 13 feet of the Trenton limestones can be divided into 7.5 feet of chocolate brown weathering interbedded calcareous shales and argillaceous calcisiltites above. The contact between these two subdivisions is slightly gradational. The surfaces of the limestone layers exhibit extremely well-developed loading casts. In addition, the lower subdivision contains an unusually well-developed and fully exposed intraformational fold (Fig. 10) similar to those described by Chenoweth (1952) from the Sugar River Limestone in northwestern New York. Fossils are common (see text above) in these protected subtidal limestones.
Kings Falls Limestone -Twenty-three feet of the Kings Falls Limestone disconformably overlies the Napanee (Cameron, 1969b). A polymictic conglomerate (dominantly limestone clasts) and shelly calcarenites mark the base of the formation. The upper contact with the Sugar River is determined by a sharp decrease in brachiopod shell calcarenites and an increase in encrinitic bryozoan rich calcarenites (Cameron, 1969b). These field observations are supported by 5 point moving average curves constructed from point-counts of thin-sections (Fig. 17) and analysis of the lithology of each bed of the Kings Falls and Sugar River Limestone (Fig. 16).
Pararipp1ed and/or conglomeratic shelly calcarenites with some horizontal burrows are common in the first 4 feet of the Kings Falls. The succeeding 19 feet of the formation represents rapidly fluctuating environments. Scour-and-fill intraclasts pararipples and laminated beds indicate shallow waters for most of this interval, but there are several feet of rubbly weathering, burrow reworked strata within this interval that reflect deeper water conditions also.
The brachiopods, especially Dalmanella, dominate the assemblages of the lower 20 feet of the Kings Falls formation at Inghams Mills. Other common brachiopods include Sowerbyella, Dinorthis and the strophomenids. Snails are locally abundant in this interval among these are Hormotoma, Loxoplacus, Liospira and Sinuites. The alga Solenopora was common in the lowest bed but has been overly collected. Other common species of the Kings Falls at Inghams Mills include the trilobite Flexicalymene, the bryozoa Stictopora and one crinoid.
Sugar River Limestone: Fourteen feet of the Sugar River Limestone are exposed. The top of the outcrop at the base of the dam is probably near the top of the pre-Rathbun Sugar River because large Prasopora are found there. At this locality the Sugar River has many relatively massive, laminated beds.
Pararippled, sheet and cross-laminated beds and scour-and-fill structures are common in the lower few feet along with thin-bedded, burrow-reworked zones. Higher up there is an alternation of laminated and burrow-reworked horizons.
Diversities in the Sugar River formation are much lower than in the Kings Falls or in the Sugar River elsewhere. Large colonies of the bryozoan Prasopora and Eridotrypa are common and dominate the assemblages. Snails are absent and brachiopods are much less diverse and abundant. The cryptostome bryozoa and the pelmatozoans are more diverse and common. The trinucleate trilobite Cryptolithus which is the Shorehamian index fossil, is present in the Sugar River. The inarticluates Trematis and Lingulasma are present near the top of the outcrop.

STOP 2. Buttermilk Creek (locality #CI01)
Walk upstream through the edge of the field on the south side of Buttermilk Creek, climb under wire fence, and continue along north bank of stream until you reach exposures of the Trenton Group.
The Gull River, the Kings Falls and the Sugar River (including 5 feet of the Rathbun Member) limestones are exposed here. There are 40 feet of the Kings Falls and 38 feet of the Sugar River Limestones.
Kings Falls Limestone -The Kings Falls disconformably overlies the Gull River. Pararippled, sheet and cross-laminated, horizontally burrowed beds are common throughout the Kings Falls Limestone. A few beds are vertically burrowed and others contain intraclasts. Some intervals have been extensively burrowed causing weathered beds to have a rubbly appearance, especially at the base of the formation. These intervals are uncommon, however, and a dominantly high subtidal environment is postulated.
The contact between the Kings Falls and the Sugar River is again well-defined petrographically by an increase in encrinitic, bryozoan-rich material and an accompanying decrease in brachiopods and sparry calcite cement (Fig. 17). At City Brook, 1/4 mile to the southeast, shelly arenites decrease markedly at 43 feet above the base of the Kings Falls (Fig. 16), and inferentially at about the same level at this locality.
Assemblages of the Kings Falls are numerically dominated by the brachiopod Dalmanella. Few bryozoa and pelmatozoan species occur. The snails Sinuites, Phragmolites, Loxoplocus, and Liospira occur up to 15 feet. Prasopora begins to occur in small numbers at 10 feet.
Sugar River Limestone -From 40 to 49 feet in the section lithologies and sedimentary structures are gradational between the Kings Falls and the Sugar River limestones. This interval is dominated by thin, burrow-reworked beds, however, and is assigned to the Sugar River formation. Pararippled, sheet and cross laminated beds are common and slightly deeper water conditions are inferred.
Above 49 feet there a few laminated beds and thin, burrow-reworked beds dominate except for the top few feet of the formation. Here several relatively massive beds are found in the pre-Rathbun Sugar River which may indicate shallowing waters.
Several feet into the Sugar River formation at the 44 foot level several species begin to appear which seem characteristic of the deeper water environment. Among these are the articulate brachiopod Platystrophia, the inarticulate Trematis, the trilobite Cryptolithus, and the bryozoa Escharopora. These species continue to occur into the top of the Sugar River formation. The pelmatozoans become more diverse and common in these beds. Above 60 feet fenestrate bryozoa and cystoids plates occasionally appear. Large Prasopora occur in the uppermost pre-Rathbun Sugar River.

STOP 3. Small quarry (locality #C105)
Walk along path (an overgrown old dirt road) for about 400 feet to a small quarry.
The purpose of this stop is to examine a black chert-bearing, subtidal "calcisiltite lithofacies" of lower Trentonian age lying between 9.5 feet of Gull River and one foot of Kings Falls limestones (Fig. 3). This 3.25 foot unit is composed of massively bedded, medium gray weathering, irregularly burrowed, dark gray to black, argillaceous, and somewhat conchoidally to brittlely fracturing limestones with irregular wavy bedding surfaces separating 0.5 to 3 inch thick continuous and discontinuous layers. Its contacts with the Gull River below and Kings Falls above are marked by "corrasion" surfaces. Although diagnostic Trentonian macrofossils have not been identified from this exposure, conodonts (Hasan, 1969) indicate a Trentonian age for this facies and a Bolarian age for the Gull River limestones below.
The Gull River limestones are composed of light dove gray to medium gray calcilutites and calcisiltites. Fenestral fabric, horizontal laminae (algal?), limestone intraclasts, stylolites, and thin shale layers are frequent. The vertical burrow 2 is common, while infrequent body fossils only occur within the upper 2.5 feet, including Eoleperditia fabulites, small ostracods, Loxoplocus, strophomenid brachiopods, and Tetradium cellulosum.

Kings Falls Limestone exposures on both sides of Route 12.
Quarry in the distance off to the right across Sugar River in foreground is in the Watertown and Gull River limestones of the Black River Group.

Exposure of upper Napa-nee and lower Kings Falls ls on left side of Route 12.

STOP 4. Sugar River (locality #C2)
Walk back to bridge and walk upstream along the north bank (nearer side) of Sugar River to the railroad bridge.
Four formations are exposed here: the Napanee, Kings Falls, Sugar River, and the Denley Limestones.
Napanee Limestone -The Napanee Limestone formation at this locality is about 20 feet thick and is wholly within the northern shaly calcisiltite lithofacies. The base is under water and the upper contact with the Kings Falls is marked by a prominent 18 inch thick shelly calcarenite bed (Fig. 13). The lower half is dominated by many almost barren conchoidally fracturing calcilutites and calcisiltites several of which are quite thick. Calcarenites occur sporadically throughout but are more common in the upper half. Horizontally laminated calcisiltites are frequent in the lower half, the top of which is marked by a poorly developed pararipple, while the upper half contains frequent shelly sheet laminated beds. Low angle cross-laminations are found in the middle and become somewhat shelly towards the top. The burrow Chondrites and large and small horizontal burrows are present throughout. Note that most of the laminated beds are burrowed at their tops.
The fauna of the Napanee is described generally in the text above. Dalmanella-dominated bryozoan, brachiopod and trilobite assemblages are present. Cup corals may be found at about 10 feet and snails become more common in the upper half of the exposure along with occasional clams.
Kings Falls Limestone -The Kings Falls is 64 feet thick at Sugar River. The lower 12 feet of the formation is of Rocklandian age as indicated by the presence of the upper Triplesia cuspidata assemblage zone (Cameron, 1968). The upper contact with the Sugar River Limestone is drawn at the top of a prominent pararippled bed at the top of the water fall (Chenoweth, 1952). The field boundary corresponds well with the petrographic criteria cited previously (Fig. 17).
The lower 35 of the Kings Falls is dominated by shelly (Fig. 16) cross-laminated, sheet laminated, and pararippled arenites. Horizontal burrows are common but are not dominant. A high subtidal environment is inferred.
The succeeding 29 feet of strata is transitional in character between the Kings Falls and the Sugar River limestones. The bedding continues to be relatively massive and cross-laminated strata are common. Horizontal burrowing is more abundant and shelly arenites are infrequent (Fig. 16). On the whole this interval is most similar to the Kings Falls. Water conditions are probably deeper than in the first 30 feet of section where cross-laminated beds were much more common.
The Rocklandian brachiopod Triplesia cuspidata and the horn coral Lambeophyllum occur in the lower 12 feet of the Kings Falls. The snails, Sinuites, Liospira, Phragmoloites, Subulites, Loxoplocus and Hormotoma gracilus occur up to 2 feet. The brachiopods Dalmanella and Sowerbyella dominate the beds of the lower Kings Falls, but not to the extent observed in the more nearshore outcrops to the southeast. Between 25 and 50 feet the diversity drops, but between 50 and 65 feet the assemblages resemble those of the lower 25 feet.
Sugar River Limestone -The formation is about 40 feet thick at this locality, its type section. The Camp Member (Chenoweth, 1952) of the Denley Limestone (Kay, 1968) overlies the Sugar River and is poorly exposed on the cliffs above the water fall on the north Side of the river. The Glendale Member (Chenoweth, 1952) of the Denley comprises the top of the cliff. The Sugar River is again dominated by thin, burrow-reworked beds. A few cross-laminated beds are occasionally observed. Relatively calm deeper waters are inferred for the Sugar River Limestone.
Deep water species appear in the Sugar River. The bryozoa and pelmatozoa become more diverse and common. The brachiopods Trematis and Platystrophia appear along with the Shoreharnian trilobite Cryptolithus. In the upper few feet of the formation the bryozoa and pelmatazoan diversity drops and the snail Sinuites appears suggesting a shallowing of the water.

I: SYRACUSE CHANNELS: EVIDENCE OF A CATASTROPHIC FLOOD
Bryce M. Hand and Ernest H. Muller
Department of Geology, Syracuse University
Introduction
Uniformitarianism triumphed over Catastrophism in the days of Hutton and Werner, but skirmishing between modified catastrophist and uniformitarian views has been sporadically renewed down to the present time. Such has been the controversy over the channeled scablands of the Columbia Plateau. Similarly, divergent views have entered into conjecture regarding the meltwater channels south and east of Syracuse --conjecture as to duration of drainage diversion which they record, and as to the relative roles of channel scour and plunge pool migration in their development.
This field trip is planned to present evidence of a limnic hlaup, and episode of truly catastrophic stream erosion and canyon cutting resulting from precipitate down-cutting of a drift dam in Rock Cut Channel. The objective is to present arguments supporting a new look at the Syracuse channels (Muller and Hand, 1972). Very candidly, where the evidence permits alternative interpretations, we shall blandly espouse that interpretation which best fits the view that exceptional catastrophic events as well as normal processes have shaped the channels south and east of Syracuse.
Although the channel system in question was certainly initiated prior to the last major episode of Wisconsin glaciation (Sissons, 1960; Muller, 1964), the focus of this excursion is upon development during recession of the Wisconsin ice sheet and the story begins as the ice margin receded from the Valley Heads Moraine along the southern limits of the field trip route.

I: SYRACUSE CHANNELS: EVIDENCE OF A CATASTROPHIC FLOOD

Drive north on NY 46 and 12B across Valley Heads outwash plain.

Proceed west across Valley Heads outwash plain.
Kames and kettles of early ("advance") phase of Valley Heads Moraine are south of US 20, but the massive, divide-forming moraine ridges are 1.5 miles north. Leave Chenango-Stockbridge trough. Road cuts expose Skaneateles shale members.

Park on shoulder at crest of hill for overview of regional relationships and introduction to meltwater drainage conditions at margin of ice sheet during wastage at the edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Evidence of subglacial and englacial meltwater flow.

Descend steadily northward
Descend steadily northward, passing exposures of Onondaga, Helderberg and Cobleskill Formations. Old Lehigh Valley RR alignment follows meltwater channel east to Cottons.

Postglacial gorge
Constructional topography and thick drift at left ahead fill the former valley of Canaseraga Creek, forcing the creek to cut a narrow rock-walled postglacial gorge through Syracuse Formation and Vernon Shale along Creek Road.

Roadside exposures of red and green Vernon Shale and red shale-crammed lodgment till.

Enter Mycenae.
For approximately the next 3 miles, from Mycenae to Fayetteville, NY 5 follows the well-defined Pools Brook glacial meltwater channel. Inset lodgment till shows a complex history of channel development.

Entrance to Green Lakes State Park
Entrance to Green Lakes State Park, location of Green and Round Lakes, both of which are meromictic and have been the object of intense and diverse limnologic studies. Both are situated in the Green Lake glacial meltwater channel.

STOP 2 Gravel pit on right (west) side of High Bridge Road.
Character and structure of High Bridge Delta built where the High Bridge (White Lake) Channel entered Limestone Trough Lake. Note clast size and dominance of carbonate rocks.

Upper surface of the High Bridge Delta.
For about 0.5 mile from this intersection, the road crosses the constructional upper surface of the High Bridge Delta. During flushing of Rock Cut Channel, the catastrophic discharge escaped eastward through High Bridge Channel. At peak discharge the whole delta may have been covered with water. The main channel is south of the road. Its floor is at about 530 feet above sea level, whereas the top of the delta stands at 600 feet. From this we infer that the water in High Bridge Channel was at least 80 feet deep during delta development.

The road continues along the north side of the main channel
The road continues along the north side of the main channel, occupied by White Lake. Toward the west, the road is located on bedrock.

Descend into scour channel maintained by vortex in lee of Rock Cut Delta.
The near (northeast) wall of this scour channel is bedrock while part at least of the far (southwest) side is the depositional front of the Rock Cut Delta. Delta foreset beds are parallel to the present slope. The material is sand and gravel with boulders several feet in diameter.

Bedrock exposed in roadcut along Maple Drive just north of intersection.

You are now on top of the Rock Cut Delta.
The favored lawn ornaments in this housing development are boulders 4 to 6 feet in dimension. These boulders occur here in delta topset beds at an elevation of 600 feet about 50 feet above the floor of Rock Cut Channel from which they were derived.

Channel developed during catastrophic discharge of Rock Cut Channel
Note the broad channel-like depression to the left (south) on the grounds of the Dewitt Fish and Game Club. This channel is 700 to 1000 feet wide; its axis lies about 35 feet below the adjacent delta surface and slopes gently westward, i.e. up-current. We conclude that this channel developed during catastrophic discharge from Rock Cut Channel, at a time when water level stood near 6OO feet in elevation.
Presumably, most, if not all, of the delta surface was under water at one time, but channels accommodated a disproportionate part of the flow. The situation is similar to, but with less pronounced channelization than in the High Bridge Delta.

Fluvial boulder gravels in road cut on left.
The valley into which we are now descending was cut subsequent to formation of Rock Cut Delta and so transects the delta, isolating the remnant we have just crossed from other remnants west of Butternut Creek.

STOP 3. Heavily worked pit exposing remnants of deltaic structure
Heavily worked pit exposing remnants of deltaic structure, part of the delta built by Rock Cut Channel into Butternut Trough Lake. Note boulder size, northeastward-dipping foreset beds and irregular surface upon which the delta was built. The delta surface is more than 60 feet above the floor of Rock Cut Channel.
In contrast to the material in the delta at Stop 1, black shale is a constituent in the gravel here, though black shale is not present as bedrock north of Rock Cut Channel. We conclude that a) Rock Cut Channel had been carved into bedrock prior to the most recent glaciation; b) Black Marcellus Shale had not yet been stripped from the area north of Rock Cut Gorge at the onset of the most recent glaciation; c) Marcellus Shale as well as 30 feet of Onondaga Limestone was stripped from the plateau margin north of Rock Cut Channel by late glacial erosion; d) some of the glacially eroded debris rich in black shale and Onondaga Limestone was deposited as drift fill within Rock Cut Gorge; and e) catastrophic erosion of the drift-fill dam in Rock Cut Channel delivered this material for deposition in the delta built into Butternut Trough Lake.

Boulder gravel at top of the exposure on the right
Boulder gravel at top of the exposure on the right across Butternut Creek is part of a small remnant of the Rock Cut Delta with its surface at about 610 feet above sea level. The gravel displays crude foreset bedding dipping southeast (to the left, out of the exposure face) and graded bedding. The boulder gravel rests upon finer sediments including both lacustrine silt and sand and lodgment till.

Till in roadside exposure on left contains little or no black shale fragments
Till in roadside exposure on left contains little or no black shale fragments in spite of its location south of Rock Cut Channel from which shale-bearing drift was eroded to build the delta at Stop 3. We hypothesize therefore that during the last glaciation, all black shale north of this position had been removed by the time the glacier had changed from an erosional to a depositional regime.

STOP 4. and LUNCH
North of the parking lot is the steep-walled basin of Green Lake (Jamesville Lake). At the west end, twin channels lead to a lip 175 feet above the lake floor. The lake is about 55 feet deep, with unknown thickness of marl and detritus infilling. Eastward a broad channel leads to Butternut trough. About 100 yards west of Green Lake is the smaller basin of Dry Lake, which also bears the appearance of a plunge basin, occupied for a shorter interval and cut perhaps by smaller discharge. The surrounding rock bench at 710 to 720 feet above sea level is relatively bare of either drift or alluvium. North and northeast of Green Lake are several much smaller basins. All have eastward-opening channels leading to Butternut Trough and all are presently controlled by subterranean outflow. The features of Clark Reservation reflect the work of subglacial and glaciomarginal drainage controlled in part of previously developed and subsequently modified solution features.

Excellent view of Rock Cut Channel.
The view is west, i.e. upstream. The gorge is 2000 feet across from rim to rim. Farther west the gorge narrows slightly, but is never less than 1300 feet across. The flat valley floor, averaging about 130 feet below the rim, is 1000 feet wide. Floor and walls are composed of Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian carbonate rocks. The floor, on Fiddlers Green Dolostone is at 555 feet above sea level.
2012: What used to be Nottingham Road here is now called Ram's Gulch Road, and it does not go across the Rock Cut Channel. The route has been adjusted.

Cross axis of Nottingham Channel at oblique angle.

STOP 5. Nottingham Channel
Nottingham Channel leads from a plunge pool near the southwest edge of the golf course and drained into Butternut Trough Lake. At its outlet it appears to be sealed off by boulder gravels of Rock Cut Delta, presenting the anomaly that though located north of Rock Cut Channel, it seems to have ceased to exist prior to final cutting of the Rock Cut Channel.

The plunge basin behind the trailer park
The plunge basin behind the trailer park on the left (south) was carved by a waterfall during an early stage of drainage through the east end of Rock Cut Channel. By that time Clark Reservation Channel had been abandoned, its sill having been some 30 feet higher than the top of the south wall of Rock Cut Channel at this location. Drainage therefore spilled into Rock Cut Gorge from the south wall and flowed eastward within the gorge to Butternut Trough.
For this to occur, Rock Cut must have been incised essentially to its present level during an earlier episode of channel cutting. Most, if not all of the drift that had been deposited in the eastern half of Rock Cut Channel during the prior ice advance was flushed out down to the 600-foot level or lower.
Another less well-developed plunge basin was carved as a scallop in the south wall of Rock Cut 700 feet or so farther west, but is not readily seen from the road.

Boulder gravel exposed behind trailers on left.
These gravels include clasts more than 2 feet in diameter and form a gravel spit built across the plunge pools on the south side of Rock Cut. Large scale cross-bedding has a southward component into the plunge basins.
This spit is interpreted as being a product of the limnic hlaup which introduced the late phase of Rock Cut drainage. The top to the spit is 640 feet above sea level, 90 feet above the floor of Rock Cut Channel at this point, thus placing an upper limit of about 90 feet on the depth of water during catastrophic discharge through Rock Cut Channel.

This is the inferred location of the drift barrier
This is the inferred location of the drift barrier which diverted meltwater northward during the active life of Nottingham Channel. Breaching of this barrier released the waters of the lake impounded in Onondaga Trough and produced the catastrophic flood responsible for many of the features we have seen today. The barrier is presumed to have consisted of drift, which must have been thoroughly saturated and may well have been quite permeable. If the drift was permeable, springs discharging on its east flank may well have contributed to erosion and subsequent failure of the dam. The Onondaga Trough Lake stood at 700 feet and extended to the west flank of the drift barrier. The barrier could not have been much more than 2000 feet wide, separating the lake waters from a potential discharge route 100 feet lower.

Leave Rock Cut Channel at its west end, entering Onondaga Trough.

View of Onondaga Trough on right (west).
Note the broadly rounded, u-shaped cross profile, the result of glacial modification of a pre-existing stream valley. The road here would have been under about 20 feet of water at the time that Clark Reservation waterfall was active. With the shift of discharge to the plunge pools along the south side of Rock Cut Channel, this became the temporary shoreline. Activation of Nottingham Channel dropped lake level about 40 feet below the road. Breaching of the drift barrier in Rock Cut Gorge let the lake drop another 100 feet. Each foot of lowering of lake level during removal of the drift barrier meant an additional 15,000 acre-feet of water to escape through Rock Cut and High Bridge Channels.

West end of Smoky Hollow Channel on left (east).
This is the highest, and the first of the several channels to have been activated by post-Valley Heads glacial recession. When the floor of Smoky Hollow controlled the level of Onondaga Trough Lake, the water must have been about 380 feet deep.

Excellent view of Onondaga Trough.
Looking southward, one can see the juncture of Onondaga and Cedarvale Troughs (arms of a y-shaped, glaciated valley system) and Tully Trough (stem of the "y"). Terraces visible along the flanks of Onondaga Trough and across Cedarvale Trough are remnants of deltas which record changing lake level in Onondaga Trough.

Terrace gravels on near (east) side of Onondaga Trough below road.

STOP 6 in REST AREA for overview, resume and final discussion.

Tully (Valley Heads) Moraine.
Crest of the moraine stands at 1200 feet, but the valley floor drops 600 feet within a half mile to the north. South of the moraine crest the outwash plain spreads for many miles toward Cortland, This is the moraine that separates southward drainage from the formerly ponded northward drainage.

Crest of the Tully Moraine. Outwash plain to south ahead.

J: LITTLE FALLS DOLOSTONE (UPPER CAMBRIAN)
H. S. Muskatt
Utica College
The Little Falls Dolostone (Clarke, 1903, p.16) has an estimated thickness of 200 feet in the Middleville area (Kay, 1953, p. 37). The unit nonconformably overlies greenish syenite gneiss of Precambrian age.
In this area the Little Falls is largely a thick-bedded, sandy, medium-grained dolostone that weathers to a tan or buff color. Chert nodules and stringers are not uncommon. Some sandstones and conglomerates are found near the base of the unit. Except for the abundant colonial algae Cryptozoon, in cabbage head form, the unit seems to be barren in this area. Because of this apparent barrenness, the sequence of dolostones in the Middleville area is tentatively considered as "Little Falls",
Interest in the Little Falls by mineralogists goes back a long time. Eaton (1824, p.73) reports on the well-developed quartz crystals present in this unit. In places there are zones with packets (vugs) of authigenic quartz crystals. The crystals are generally small, short prismatic to almost equant in shape, doubly terminated, and water clear. Occasionally larger crystals (3 to 4 inches or more) are present. These larger crystals are rarely clear and usually are full of inclusions or flawed. Often associated with the quartz is a black lustrous carbonaceous mineral known as anthraxolite with a composition near that of coal but with different physical properties (Dunn and Fisher, 1954). For example, it does not ignite. Locally the quartz crystals have been termed "Little Falls Diamonds", "Herkimer Diamonds", or "Middleville Diamonds". There have been numerous occasions when local inhabitants have brought in these well-formed, clear quartz crystals for examination, refusing to believe they are not real diamonds, and in several cases, not allowing one to remove the specimen from their hand.
Other minerals often found in the Little Falls Dolostone include:
Calcite
Dolomite
Pyrite
Marcasite
Galena
Sphalerite
Chalcopyrite (?)
Hematite
Glauconite (?)
The glauconite (?) was first reported by Cushing (1905, p. 27) and appears as light-green to bluish-green thin coatings and spots and generally is concentrated in zones. The writer is presently examining this material petrographically and awaiting a report on its X-ray analysis.

J: LITTLE FALLS DOLOSTONE (UPPER CAMBRIAN)

Utica College campus seen to left (N).

Factories of Utica Cutlery and Duxbak (outdoor clothing and equipment).

Mohawk River Valley flood plain

Mohawk River

Escarpment face of the Allegheny Plateau.
For the next few miles as you look to the right (S) across the Mohawk Valley physiographic sub-province you will see the northernmost escarpment face of the Allegheny Plateau.

Hummocky glacial topography along this road, many erratics.

Wave-planed hill top to north
In middle distance to left (N) is a presumed wave-planed hill top formed when this area (West Canada Creek valley) was a lake during the Pleistocene.

Slope drops down to West Canada Creek

STOP 1. Exposure of glacial varves about 10 feet thick
Exposure of glacial varves about 10 feet thick seen in the ditch on the right (E) side of the road. There are an average of about 10 couplets per inch which would therefore suggest that this 10 foot exposure took about 1200 years to accumulate. Other varves, stratigraphically higher, are found across the road.

Higher, abandoned flood plain of W. Canada Creek.
Meander scars seen at base of hills to right (W). Eastern Rock Products Middleville Quarry seen to left (E) across West Canada Creek.

STOP 2 Exposures of Precambrian syenite gneiss.
This is considered to be an inlier.

A right turn onto rte. 28S will take you to the Ace of Diamonds
(A right turn onto rte. 28S will take you to the Ace of Diamonds, a commercial "diamond" hunting ground, about 0.5 miles from the inters.)

STOP 3 Quarry of Eastern Rock Products Inc., Plant No.6 Middleville, N.Y.
The quarry is on the right (E) side of the road, the operating plant is on the left (W) side of the road.
The company is a subsidiary of Koppers Corp. The quarry operation, which began in the winter of 1964, achieved its top production during 1971. About 350,000 tons of rock were processed during that year. Almost all production goes into light and heavy construction use. Some is used for rip-rap and some for "cement" blocks. Upon special order a "filter-media stone" is produced to be used for filtration in sewerage treatment plants. The largest percentage of business is for state projects. The plant does the crushing and screening as well as special mixtures according to specifications.
Because of company regulations the quarry has not been carefully examined by the writer. However, cursory examination on several occasions has shown the Little Falls dolostone (Upper Cambrian) to be barren except for "cabbage-heads" of Cryptozoon found in the talus in the southeastern corner of the quarry. In that same corner the greenish spots and coatings of glauconite (?) have been found. Quartz crystals, pyrite, dolomite, and calcite are relatively common along the northwest face of the quarry. Galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite (?) have also been found in this part of the quarry.