B5: NEW INSIGHTS ON RIFT BASIN DEVELOPMENT AND THE GEOLOGICAL CARBON CYCLE, MASS EXTINCTION, AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION FROM OUTCROPS, AND NEW CORE, DRILL HOLES AND SEISMIC LINES FROM THE NORTHERN NEWARK BASIN (NY AND NJ) - Continued
P.E.Olsen, S.T.Kinney, N.V.Zakharova, R.W.Schlische, M.O.Withjack, D.V.Kent, D.S.Goldberg, B.E.Slater
Paul E. Olsen, Sean T. Kinney, Natalia V. Zakharova
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Palisades, NY 10968
Roy W. Schlische, Martha O. Withjack
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ 08854
Dennis v. Kent
and
David S. Goldberg
Brian E. Slater
New York State Museum
Albany, NY 12230
INTRODUCTION
The Carbon Cycle, Global Environments, and the Sedimentary Record It is a viable theory that in the big picture, much of Earth’s geological record of is, in one way or another, a reflection of changes in the carbon cycle, itself uniquely (as far as we know in THIS solar system) and profoundly a reflection of life. Plausibly, because of the interplay between photosynthesis, weathering, CO2, radiative balance, and the thermal gradient of the crust and mantle, the Earth is the only body around our Sun with granite and plate tectonics (Sleep, 2012) and the only body with an atmosphere with significant O2 (Sleep, 2012). This field trip will view the Newark Basin (Fig. 1) and its sedimentary and biotic record though this lens of the carbon cycle. The fact that there is a Newark rift valley at all and that it is filled with largely red beds reflects this profound difference of our planet compared to our companions. Even the packaging of the Newark Basin sedimentary sequence, which is so profoundly cyclical and clearly paced by variations in the Earth’s orbit, seemingly entirely extrinsic to the intrinsic Earth system, must reflect a very strong, nonlinear amplification by feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate. Finally, the end-Triassic mass extinction (ETE) appears to be an example of a carbon cycle perturbation caused by tectonics – the eruption of the giant Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) pumping CO2 and SO2 into the atmosphere. These same rocks may be part of our effort to sequester anthropogenic CO2, itself a product of combustion of a half a billion years of photosynthetic natural carbon sequestration. The fact that the eruptions could occur at all may be a function of the same thermal gradient reflecting the radiative balance that makes our planet hospitable. Much of the theory of the Earth as it relates to life and the carbon cycle is on the fringe of knowledge, but it is useful to ponder how these things might work in order to frame testable hypotheses that may not only help us understand the Earth system from the seemingly arcane vantage of the Newark basin, but also frame hypotheses that have practical consequence for our future.

B5: NEW INSIGHTS ON RIFT BASIN DEVELOPMENT AND THE GEOLOGICAL CARBON CYCLE, MASS EXTINCTION, AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION FROM OUTCROPS, AND NEW CORE, DRILL HOLES AND SEISMIC LINES FROM THE NORTHERN NEWARK BASIN (NY AND NJ) - Continued
P.E.Olsen, S.T.Kinney, N.V.Zakharova, R.W.Schlische, M.O.Withjack, D.V.Kent, D.S.Goldberg, B.E.Slater

STOP 2-1. Cores, Seismic Lines and Posters at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY
Here we will examine cores, down-hole logs, seismic profiles, posters, and some fossils mostly from the Rockland portion of the Newark Basin near the northern terminus of the basin. These exhibits are meant to compliment the Stops of Day 1 and are related directly to the new seismic profiles across the basin in Rockland. These will relate directly to the outcrops will see after this stop.
Core TW4 on the Lamont Campus
We will examine the following features of Core TW4: 1) Diabase and xenolith; 2) Possible Lockatong Formation; 3) Nominal Stockton Formation; 4) High gamma sandstones without organics; 5) Gypsum-bearing red beds; Odd purple interval; Contact with Fordham Gneiss.
Core from the Tandem Lot
Metamorphosed lower Passaic Formation: Approximately 150 ft of core was collected from above and close to the Palisade Sill. Core is characterized by the presence of metamorphic minerals, most obviously epidote, and by peculiar colors, such as green and various shades purple and orange (Slater et al., 2012). Anhydrite, quartz, calcite, and feldspar cements are present. Sedimentary fabrics suggest pedogenic nodular carbonates and fluvial or marginal lacustrine environments.
Cuttings and side wall cores from the Tandem Lot
Compare these cuttings and sidewall cores with the equivalent footages on the logs and with the seismic line to get a comprehensive perspective on the 6880 ft Tandem Lot drill hole.
Passaic Formation: Most Passaic formation washed cuttings look like they are nearly 100% sandstone because the mudstones wash out. We will show examples of the comparison between cuttings and sidewall cores.
Palisades Sill: Cuttings displayed will be from: 1) the upper part of the sill near the contact with the Passaic Formation; 2) the high gamma part of the sill plausibly from the zircon-bearing “sandwich horizon”; 3) from the middle part of the sill; 2) and the lower part of the sill, comparable to what is seen in the TW4 core.
Lockatong Formation: The cuttings are easily mistaken for gneiss, but the sidewall cores and FMI logs show that the section below the sill is similar to what we saw at Stops 1.3 and 1.5 consisting of alternating gray and dark mudstones and tan sandstones.
Fossils from the Passaic Formation of Rockland County
Fossils from the old Manhattan Trap Rock Company Quarry at Nyack Beach State Park (Stop 2-2): Large tetrapod, probably reptile burrows; a small theropod dinosaur (brontozoid) track, Grallator sp.; Scoyenia (arthropod) burrows; and rhizoliths (root traces). The Grallator sp. track may be the only definitive dinosaur footprint from New York State.
Fossils from Snedeker's (or Waldberg) Landing, Haverstraw (41.173200°, -73.934633°): A small sandstone quarry located south of Haverstraw Beach State Park has produced a series of quite good and diverse fossils over the decades. On display will be the tetrapod trace fossils and fish scrap shown in Fig. 37, as well as additional Cynodontipus burrows, small very clear Brachychirotherium sp. tracks, and complex rhizomorphs (root traces).
P.E.Olsen, S.T.Kinney, N.V.Zakharova, R.W.Schlische, M.O.Withjack, D.V.Kent, D.S.Goldberg, B.E.Slater

STOP 2-2A. Passaic Formation and Palisade Sill
Passaic Formation and Palisade Sill, Old Manhattan trap Rock Quarry, Nyack Beach State Park, Upper Nyack, NY.
Park vehicles at lot near beach on the Hudson and walk toward the brownstone Dutch colonial-looking “bathhouse” and the adjacent outcrops of Passaic Formation.
Nyack Beach State Park, is the southeastern component of a series of contiguous state parks including Hook Mountain State Park, Rockland Lake State Park, and Haverstraw Beach State Park all contained within Palisades Interstate Park. It hard to see it now, but this park was a huge active trap rock quarry in the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Fig. 38). Quarrying may have begun for the red sandstone at this site by the middle 18th century and the quarry a Station B may have been part of the string of at least 30 (!) quarries extending from Upper Nyack to Piermont at the peak of the operations in the middle 19th century. The “Voorhis” Quarry at this site may have begun as one of these, but by the later 19th century, the quarry was focused on the diabase instead; the production of a higher quality “brownstone” had shifted to the Connecticut Valley (mostly of Jurassic age). In 1872, a huge stone crusher complex was built, eventually extending from the trap rock quarry floor to the river, filling the sandstone quarry as part of the Manhattan Trap Rock Company (OPRHP, 2013). The blasted diabase was dumped from the quarry floor (Station C) into the steam-engine-powered-crusher and sorting system and conveyed via belts down to a cement structure (still extant) on the north side of the brownstone powerhouse and then out on a long raised double pier where the crushed stone was loaded onto freighters on the Hudson (Fig. 38A). By the 1890s, the destruction of the Palisades cliffs and the associated blasting and crushing noise at Hook Mountain and elsewhere had become a conservation cause. In 1906, the authority of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (the impetus for which was led by The New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs) was extended by legislative action to Hook Mountain and north, and by contributions from members of the Rockefeller (the estate – Kykuit - of which was opposite the quarry), Harriman, and Perkins families, the Hook Mountain area and its quarries were purchased by the commission – ending quarrying by 1912. Many buildings of the complex were removed as was the rock crushing equipment, making the sandstone quarry again accessible (Fig. 38B). The Work Progress Administration (WPA) repurposed and rehabbed the powerhouse in 1936 as a bathhouse with a large fireplace and ballroom (OPRHP, 2013), which is the structure visible today at Station A.
The most extensive description of the geological aspects of the quarry was made by Kümmell (1900) when the Manhattan Trap Rock Company was operating at full-bore. Kümmell (pp. 27-28) notes: “At the time of my visit, the trap at the south end of the quarry could be seen cutting across the sandstone obliquely downward to the north, a distance of about 35 feet in 60. Thence it followed conformably the bedding planes and gradually regained its former elevation above sea level, though still at a lower geologic horizon. Its general elevation at the quarry is about 260 feet A. T. If the base of the trap kept to the same horizon which it has where it turns so abruptly eastward at Verdrietege Hook, the rise of the underlying sandstones up the dip would carry it from 620 to 6601 feet higher above sea level than it actually is at the quarry. The evidence seems conclusive therefore that the abrupt turn at Hook mountain north of Nyack, is due to the descent of the base of the sheet to a geologic horizon 600 or 700 feet lower than that occupied where it crosses the Rockland Lake-Nyack road.” These observations are very important because they show that the crescentic offset of the Palisade ridge is not due to an anticline as sometimes presumed, but rather by the change in stratigraphic level intruded. Unfortunately, very few other detailed observations have been published on the extensive remaining aspects of the site, except for Savage (1968), and in fact the large sandstone quarry at Station B, seems to have escaped geologists’ attention entirely until brought to the attention by Dr. William Menke (Columbia University) who found it while hiking. There are no published observations on the paleontology for the Passaic Formation at this site.
Station A. The handsome brownstone “bathhouse” is the repurposed part of the Manhattan Trap Rock Company complex of buildings. The tall brownstone tower-like structure on the south side of the building was the base of a large smokestack of the steam powerhouse of the plant (anonymous, 2011). We presume the sandstone for this building came from the quarry at Stop 2-2, Station B (below). Exposures behind the “bathhouse” are the lowest in this area and consist of a complex of bioturbated mudstones, micaceous reddish-brown sandstone, and some greenish-gray arkose (Savage, 1964). Some surfaces have dessication cracks and less disrupted clay bedding surfaces that could have tetrapod tracks. Carbonate nodules are present and carbonate and mud pellet intraformational conglomerates are present at the bases of some of the sandstones. According to Savage (1964) the paleocurrents are towards the northeast here, characteristic of many exposures in the Rockland part of the Newark Basin where they generally have easterly directions. This is distinctly different, as is the mineralogy, from the Stockton Formation as seen at Snedens landing where the paleocurrents are largely towards the west (Savage, 1964; Olsen, 1980b). Completely absent at this and the other exposures at this site are the red-purple massive mudstones with the very large ptygmatic arkose-filled dessication cracks seen in TW4 core and exposures at Stop 2.2, consistent with this section being upsection from those near the state-line.
From Station A walk 112 m SW along entry road to end of wall on right side of road. Turn northeast and walk up macadam path 39 m to entrance to trail at 41.120394°, -73.912492°. Walk 54 m northeast and turn sharp left up switchback trail. Walk 57 m southwest to right turn. Walk 90 m northeast to path to quarry. Go 41 m northeast into middle of old sandstone quarry.

STOP 2-2B. Old Sandstone Quarry
This sandstone quarry was previously filled by the crusher complex of the Manhattan Trap Rock Company of the late 19th and early 20th century and prior to that it may have been the Voorhis sandstone quarry. More than 50 m of red mudstone and red and some tan sandstone are exposed. Fossils are abundant in the rubble from the quarry along its edges and down the slope to the east. Beware of broken glass, etc. Fossils are common (Fig. 39). Scoyenia (arthropod) burrows and clay rhizoliths (root traces) are abundant, sometimes obliterating bedding. At least one brontozooid dinosaur track, Grallator sp., has been found along with one bone fragment. But most striking are the large flattened burrows, 10 to 15 cm wide, that are surprisingly common (four visits with four finds). We identified similar flattened cylindrical features as large roots at Stop 2.3, but they differ from roots in maintaining a relatively constant diameter and not branching. Instead they are consistent with tetrapod burrows. Such burrows indicate that these strata have intervals when they were above the water table for significant amounts of time. It is possible that skeletal remains could be found in such burrows and one should be alert to that possibility when looking about.
The section has several laterally persistent intervals of thin bedded siltstone and sandstone suggestive of shallow water lacustrine intervals seen in the Passaic Formation near Milford, NJ., and it is possible these were deposited during the wet phases of climatic precessionally paced Van Houten cycles.
Looking west and up towards the top of the quarry, you can see the remains of the cement portals for chutes from the trap rock quarry itself. These can be seen in Fig. 38B. The adjacent mudstones have a gray or purplish tint and the sandstones are large tan. We will see this again at Station C and the colors might be most simply explained by metamorphism approaching the sill contact.
Time permitting, we will leave the sandstone quarry and continue up the trail to the road up to the upper parking area.
Return 90 m southwest from middle of quarry and then 138 m southwest to switchback turn. Turn right and go 119 m to chair at last switchback turn before road. Turn left and go 98 m to entrance onto road. Turn right and walk northeast up road to parking area.

STOP 2-2C. Trap Rock Quarry
The upper parking area at Nyack Beach State Park occupies the former floor of the main part of the Manhattan Trap Rock Company Quarry. Observe jointing in sill: is this columnar jointing? At the far northern end of the quarry a “rotten” zone of diabase typical of the olivine zone of the sheet (Walker, 1969; Steiner, 1989).
Walk 90 m southwest to electrical service boxes. On right (northwest) 26 m is a continuous exposure on a promontory of metamorphosed Passaic Formation to the oblique, down to the west, contact with the Palisade Sill. Exposure is at 41.121486°, -73.913278°.
From the electrical boxes, proceed 44 m southwest to stone bathroom. Most of the blocks of this building are metamorphosed Passaic Formation. Many blocks exhibit nodular zones with epidote, presumably replacing carbonates. Walk back to electrical service boxes and go right down steps to road.

Parking for stop 2-3

STOP 2-3. Passaic Formation above Palisade Sill
Park vehicles on unpaved road and proceed 294 m south along N Greenbush Rd to break in vegetation at 41.083084°, -73.946247°. Proceed southwest 34 m at 232° (true N) to 41.084403°, -73.946810°, adjacent to large bedding surfaces. Proceed 54 m due west to a point (41.083117°, -73.946887°) on the bedding plane surface near the “discovery site” for the area.
Reptile footprints were originally found during reconnaissance of excavated rock surface by Paul Olsen and Robert F. Salvia in fall of 1972. Fossils were removed shortly thereafter and deposited in the State Museum of New York, in the case of footprints, and Yale University, in the case of bone and teeth fragments. After initial discovery and salvage, no more material was found until the preparation of this report. Excavation of the site for fill occurred prior to and had ceased by the time of the fossil discovery and since that time the site has lain fallow and is now partly covered by vegetation. However, much bedrock remains exposed.
The site consists of series of large bedding plane (dip slope) exposures comprised of variegated (gray, tan, purplish, greenish, and red) slightly metamorphosed mudstone and siltstone and arkosic sandstone of the Passaic Formation. The stratigraphic level may be correlative with one of the gray sequences further to the southwest within the basin. The Palisades Sill outcrops to the east, north, and south of the site. From the attitude of the outcropping adjacent diabase on north, south, and east sides, it appears to be strongly discordant, cutting though the Passaic Formation at a high angle. Judging from what is known elsewhere where there are similar contacts and based on the visible metamorphism of the bedrock, the Palisades diabase probably underlies the Passaic Formation at this site at some depth, probably more than 10 feet and probably less that 500 feet.
Four basic classes of fossils were found at the site: 1) reptile footprints; 2) tetrapod burrows; 3) possible teeth and bone scraps; and 4) rhizomorphs (natural casts of plant roots). Two areas you can see most of these features are centered at a north area (A: 41.083347°, -73.947186°) and a south area (B: 41.082287°, -73.946835°) with a 25 m radius.
1) Reptile Footprints: Reptile footprints were found in three places at the site. The first, “the discovery slab” was found in place with all of the tracks filled with white sandstone (Fig. 40) close to 41.083117°, -73.946887°. It was quarried out, taken to the New York State Museum and reassembled by the exhibition staff (briefly described by Olsen & Flynn, 1989). We (Paul Olsen and Robert F. Salvia) subsequently removed the white sandstone fill of the tracks. The slab in its present state reveal at least 12 three-toed footprints, each measuring about 12- 13 cm long (Fig. 40). The tracks have a shape typically associated with small dinosaurs and in fact they have been cited numerous times in the literature (e.g., Fisher, 1982) as the tracks of the small theropod dinosaur Coelophysis, which they are certainly not. Small coelophysid theropod dinosaurs such as Coelophysis, have a relatively long digit III (middle digit) on the foot producing bronozooid type tracks of the ichnogenus Grallator, but digit III on the tracks in the discovery slab is relatively short. On this basis alone, Coelophysis can be discounted as the track maker, even though coelophysid dinosaurs are known from strata both older and younger than this site in the Chinle Formation of the Southwestern United States (Irmis et al., 2011; Ramezani et al., 2014), and a small bronozooid was been found at stop 2-2 (Fig. 39).
The tracks on the discovery slab (Fig. 40) could belong to one of non-coelophysid dinosaurs known from the late Triassic, a non-dinosaurian dinosauromorph, or even a crocodile line archosaur convergent on dinosaurian form. Non-coelophysid dinosaurs such as the herrersaurid Chindesaurus do occur in North America (Irmis et al., 2007) and something like that could have made the track. However, only Herrersaurus proper has well preserved feet and these have a large digit 1 on the pes that should have impressed, but we do not see that in these tracks.
Atreipus (Olsen & Baird, 1986) is fair match to the footprints on the “discovery” slab in having a tulip-shaped hind track with a relatively short digit III for its size. Although Atreipus is usually found with forefoot impression, it is not rare to see trackways in which no forefoot impressions are present. Unfortunately, the tracks on the discovery slab are not well preserved enough for a positive identification. In any case, Atreipus can now, with some confidence, be assigned to a recently discovered group of non-dinosaurian dinosauromorphs, the silesaurs (such as Silesaurus). It is possible that poposaurs, a group of crocodile-relatives (suchian pseudosuchians) that evolved bipedal very dinosaur-like forms such as Effigia okeeffeae (Nestbitt, 2007), could have made these track, but Effigia too has a large digit 1 and so cannot be simply hypothesized to have made the discovery slab tracks. In summary, the tracks were not made by Coelophysis and may not have been made by a dinosaur.
Two occurrences of probably small quadrupedal forms were found on blocks that had been transported to the west edge of the property abutting Route 303 (Fig. 41). These were collected and given to the New York State Museum, although their present location is unknown. These small tracks probably belong to Brachychirotherium (a distant crocodilian relative that was not dinosaur-like), but they are actually too poorly preserved to identify.
2) Tetrapod burrows: Large cylindrical casts are present (Fig. 41) in a greenish gray silty to fine sandy massive mudstone in the southwestern outcrops. Originally, Paul Olsen thought they were tree roots or trunk, but like the similar forms from Stop 2.2, they do not branch and are more simply interpreted as tetrapod burrows.
3) Possible teeth and bone scraps: A few small teeth and bone fragments were found. The shape of the probable teeth is superficially consistent with a phytosaurian reptile, but the metamorphism renders identification extremely difficult. The possible bone fragments are unidentifiable. These specimens were deposited in the vertebrate paleontology collection of the Peabody Museum of Yale University.
4) Rhizomorphs: A variety of rhizomorphs (root traces) are present throughout the exposed bedrock. These consist of whitish claystone natural casts in a greenish gray, silty to fine sandy massive mudstone (Fig. 41). They are present in most layers, but are especially obvious in the layers with the mapped tetrapod.
There have been several attempts at preserving this area via cooperative agreements between the land owner and Orangetown (the municipality), spearheaded by local residents (e.g., Town of Orangetown, 2009). Thus far, a firm arrangement has not been reached because of unfortunately timed economic downturns.

Tandem lot on left was drilling site.

Parking for Stop 2-4

STOP 2-4. Passaic Fm ss and cgl on Thruway, Monsey, NY.
NB! This site cannot be visited without a permit from the New York State Turnpike Authority and without proper safety attire.
Park vehicles near overpass for turnpike on east side of Saddle River Road. Leave the vehicles and proceed to north side of overpass. Go over fence and proceed east up to highway. At highway, stay to the outside (north) of the barricade and walk along cut to the east.
This cut exposes roughly 25 m of red pebbly sandstone and conglomerate and very minor mudstone. Conglomerates are dominated by Paleozoic sedimentary and metamorphic clasts. Highly irregular bedding with almost no preserved fine scale sedimentary structures, most simply explained by bioturbation by roots and burrows. This section was certainly deposited by fluvial processes, based on the apparent channel forms. This facies is typical of most of the Passaic Formation in the western half of Rockland County.

STOP 2-5. Upper Feltville Fm ss and cgl, lower flows of Preakness Basalt
Upper Feltville Formation sandstone and conglomerate and lower flows of the Preakness Basalt, at former Tilcon, Union Hill Quarry, Village of Sufferen, Town of Ramapo.
As mapped by Volkert (2011) Union Hill is underlain by an outlier of Preakness Basalt in a syncline with the Feltville Formation, Orange Mountain Basalt and uppermost Passaic Formation. Only the upper Feltville and lower Preakness Basalt, in which the trap rock quarry was developed, are exposed here, the rest being covered by Pleistocene till and Holocene deposits except for another small outlying area of basalt. We will examine the section from the top down in three stations, A, B, and C.
Station A. Preakness Basalt: The two lower flows of the Preakness Basalt are well exposed here and very similar to what we saw at Stop 1.8. The lowest flow is irregularly pillowed and the succeeding flow has a massive base and a typical, for the Preakness, entablature with well-developed, platy-prismatic jointing. The top of second flow is not exposed. Ratcliffe (1988) suggested that the western part of the quarry occupies a lower structural level than what is exposed on the east side. He suggested two possibilities: 1) a basalt flow complex flowing in a topographic depression west of the conglomerate; or 2) a westward-dipping or vertical fissure feeder surfacing in flow rocks. Ratcliffe notes that the pillowed zone was exposed at the deepest parts of the quarry so that (2) seems contradicted. This will be discussed on the exposures. However, there is little doubt that distinctive features of the Preakness Basalt, particularly its platy-prismatic jointing are very laterally persistent.
Station B. Contact between Preakness Basalt and Feltville Formation: The contact between the uppermost Feltville Formation was well exposed during quarrying operations and was described by Ratcliffe (1980; 1988). Presently only some ledges of coarse dolostone conglomerate are exposed near where the contact projects. According to Ratcliffe (1980, p. 297), “Superb exposures at the south end of the quarry … show a vertical wall of coarse fanglomerate, enclosing a large boulder of brecciated dolostone in an apparent channel that, in turn, is overlain by an upward-fining cycle ending in fine red shale with greenish slate chips. Vesicular pillow lava directly overlies this shale.” Based on stratigraphic position directly below the lowest flow of the Preakness Basalt, this is time-equivalent to the reddish and gray sandstones and mudstones at Stop 1.8.
Station C. Wall of conglomerate of the upper Feltville Formation: This wall of brown conglomerate is a noticeably different color than typical red conglomerate of the Passaic Formation. According to Ratcliffe (1980, p. 297), “Clasts in the fanglomerate include epidote-rich hornblende granite gneiss, Silurian Green Pond conglomerate, dolostone clasts, and several cobbles of basalt pillows.” Clasts of basalt other than pillows are present as well. The presence of these basalt clasts are evidence that these units are upper Feltville Formation. Volkert (2011) map the presence of Orange Mountain Basalt in this area on the basis of extrapolation from the Cushtunk, NJ area, although there is no direct observational evidence, close to Union Hill. However, Ratcliffe (1988) note that the chemistry of a small basalt outlier 2.4 km northeast of Union Hill (at around 41.133685°, -74.126122°) is indistinguishable from that the upper Ladentown flows to the northeast. The Ladentown flows are in turn part of the Orange Mountain Basalt (Blackburn et al., 2013; cf., Puffer, 1987; Puffer et al., 2009). This small basalt outlier projects to the conjectural Orange Mountain Basalt on the northeast limb of the Union Hill Syncline. That the Orange Mountain Basalt does not outcrop in this area is not indicative however, because it does not outcrop all along the east side of Camgaw Mounatin, where it is mapped by records of numerous water wells (Volkert, 2011). The hypothesized presence of the Orange Mountain Basalt in the Union Hill area could easily be tested by drilling.

Parking for Stop 2-6
Proceed to parking lot of train station and to walkway to Station (41.115038°, -74.154749°). Walk east and southeast 42 m and turn left before the chain link fence. Walk 36 m north-northwest to outcrop.

STOP 2-6. Footwall of the Ramapo Fault Zone, Suffern, NY.
Proceed to parking lot of train station and to walkway to Station (41.115038°, -74.154749°). Walk east and southeast 42 m and turn left before the chain link fence. Walk 36 m north-northwest to outcrop.
This outcrop is described as follows by Ratcliffe (1980) as cataclasite and fault fabric in cataclastic gneiss at Ramapo fault: “These small exposures of black, chlorite-coated, cataclastic, hornblende-granite gneiss are much more instructive than the exposures north of Suffern commonly visited by field trips. Excellent chlorite-slick surfaces dip in conjugate fashion northwest and southeast and exhibit down-to-the south right-oblique slip on southeast-dipping surfaces and down-to-the-west and left-oblique movement on southwest-dipping surfaces. The near-vertical attitude of the extension fractures here … suggests that the rocks of the footwall block … have not undergone rotation after formation of the cataclastic fabric.”
Volkert (2011) mapped this outcrop as Mesoproterozoic hornblende granite of uncertain affinity with abundant xenoliths of well-foliated gneiss. According to Volkert’s map, it is about 330 m northwest from the mapped position of the Ramapo Fault and 75 m northeast from a NW-SE right lateral strike slip fault. Mapped foliations in the hornblende granite are to the southeast 30°-60° and a southeasterly dipping normal fault is shown on the immediate northwest.
It is worth noting that the mapped position of the fault does not correspond to the apparent escarpment of the Ramapo Mountains, and that nearly all outcrops are hundreds of meters within the footwall from it. Because the border faults of the Newark Basin tend to follow pre-existing structures, especially of Paleozoic age, brittle features that may have formed prior to the formation of the Newark basin proper may be hard to differentiate from Late Paleozoic structures. It is noteworthy that the position of the Ramapo Fault cannot be easily seen seismic profile, although that in part may be do to its relatively high angle here, structure parallel to the boundary fault are not as obvious at this site as one might hope.