NYSGA 1982
NEW YORK STATE GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 54th ANNUAL MEETING
Amherst, New York
GUIDEBOOK FOR FIELD TRIPS IN WESTERN NEW YORK, NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA AND ADJACENT, SOUTHERN ONTARIO
Edward J. Buehler and
Parker E. Calkin Editors
Department of Geological Sciences
State University of New York at Buffalo
Held in Conjunction with 11th Annual Meeting Eastern Section American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Published by the New York State Geological Association. Guidebook available from the executive secretary: M.P. Wolf, Geology Department, Gittleson Hall, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 11550.

A1: UPPER MOSCOW-GENESEE STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS IN WESTERN NEW YORK: EVIDENCE FOR REGIONAL EROSIVE BEVELING IN THE LATE MIDDLE DEVONIAN
Carlton E. Brett
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York 14627
Gordon C. Baird
SUNY College at Fredonia
Fredonia, New York 14603
INTRODUCTION
A widespread regressive episode, immediately preceding the late Middle Devonian Taghanic onlap, has long been recognized in eastern North America (Grabau, 1917; Cooper, 1930; Cooper and Williams, 1935; Heckel, 1973; Dennison and Head, 1975; Rickard, 1975). Regional erosive overstep of Hamilton beds by Tully and Genesee strata was documented in the Finger Lakes area (Cooper and Williams, 1935) and was recognized west of Canandaigua Lake (Cooper, 1930), but the nature of pre-Taghanic unconformity in western New York remained obscure due to supposed lack of stratigraphic controls in the upper Moscow (Windom) shales. Indeed certain workers (Stover, 1956; Fulreader, 1957) believed that upper Windom beds were relatively little affected by erosional truncation.
Contacts of the Middle Devonian Windom Shale Member, previously examined and discussed (Brett, 1974a; Brett and Baird, 1975), have received continued study by the present authors; results of new work on the Windom-Genesee paraconformity and adjacent strata in the Erie County region are discussed herein.
Detailed correlation and study of Windom Shale component zones has been undertaken. At least fourteen mappable Windom marker beds and intervals have been correlated across all, or part, of Erie County; these are summarized in the present text. Mapping of Windom units immediately underlying the Genesee Formation permits detailed inference as to the nature of this unconformable contact. These beds also provide insight into the processes of marine mud sedimentation during deposition of the Windom and its influence on fossil community distribution. Particularly notable is the discovery that the thickest Windom sections in the county are the least stratigraphically complete and the thinnest generally display the full complement of marker beds and zones.

A1: UPPER MOSCOW-GENESEE STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS IN WESTERN NEW YORK: EVIDENCE FOR REGIONAL EROSIVE BEVELING IN THE LATE MIDDLE DEVONIAN

Roadcuts in cherty limestone of Onondaga Limestone
Roadcuts in cherty limestone of the Clarence Member, Onondaga Limestone (Middle Devonian). This is the site of the Vogelsanger Quarry; prior to construction of the highway, this quarry exposed a well developed reef in the Edgecliff Member (now covered).

STOP 1. Bay View (Penn Dixie) Quarry.
(1 1/2 hours): This abandoned shale pit, previously described in detail (Brett, 1974b), provides an excellent reference section for the Windom Shale and its upper contact with the Genesee Formation. Here the Windom Member is approximately 13 m (42 ft) thick; 14 units described in the text can be recognized at this 1ocation. The disconformable basal contact with the Tichenor Limestone is excellently exposed in a low domal outcrop in the northeast corner of the shale pit.
The basal Ambocoelia umbonata beds Bav View Coral bed (type section) and Smoke Creek bed are accesslble in this area. Barren shales of unit 4 occupy much of the flat floor in the center of the shale pit. Near the top of this interval is a narrow zone containing abundant fossils including highly compressed brachiopods (Pseudoatrypa, Mediospirifer, Mucrospirifer consobrinus) and rare pyritized sponges and blastoids; this unit is termed the Big Tree bed (unit 5). The A-E limestones (units 6-11) crop out as uniform, white-weathering bands which trend roughly east-west across the quarry. Soft shales above the highest limestone band (unit 12) yield abundant pytitlzed burrow fil1ings and fossil steinkerns including nuculid clams, gastropods and cephalopods. This interval of approximately 2 m (6 ft) thickness, termed the Penn-Dixie pyritic beds, is characterized by small specimens of the brachiopods Tropidoleptus carinatus and Ambocoelia cf. A. nana. The calcareous Amsdell bed unit 13; = "Praeumbona bed") caps a low bench near the southern end of the quarry. Beyond this the Penn-Dixie shale pit terminates in a low (2-3 m high) bank which exposes uppermost Windom beds (unit 13) and the contact with the overlying Genesee Formation. The upper beds of the Windom comprise soft, gray shales with concretionary beds near the top; the top of the Windom is marked by a concretionary layer of 20-30 cm (8-12 in) thick containing Ambocoelia? praeumbona, followed by a thin band of argillaceous limestone which has been partially torn up and incorporated in the overlying North Evans Member.
The North Evans Limestone of the basal Genesee Formation comprises 3-10 cm (1.5-4 in) of buff-weathering, dark-gray crinoidal, calcarenitic limestone, which contains very abundant conodonts of mixed zones (lower asymmetricus subzones). Angular intraclasts, up to 10 cm (4 in) across, derived from the upper Windom occur abundantly in the North Evans. Black shales (Geneseo and Penn Yan) are absent from the lower part of the Genesee Formation and the Genundewa Member, a thin Styliolina-rich limestone rests directly on the North Evans.
At Penn Dixie Quarry as at most localities in western Erie County, the Windom is thin, but stratigraphically quite complete. However, ironicaily, in these sections unlike those farther east, the upper contact exhibits evidence for erosional scouring. Presumably the scouring of the upper Windom beds and presence of pebble imbrication within the North Evans remanié sediments reflect a late episode of erosion, associated with the pre-Genundewa erosion surface. This event post dates the development of a south dipping truncation surface, prior to Tully deposition, which had left upper Windom beds relatively intact in southwestern Erie County sections.
2011: Now owned and operated by Hamburg Natural History Society, Inc. http://www.penndixie.org/welcome.html   OHM

STOP 2. Cazenovia Creek Section.
Park near location where power lines cross Northrup Road. At utility poles on east side of road turn right and walk down dirt path to the base of cliff on the flood plain of Cazenovia Creek. At bottom of path turn left and walk north for about 600 ft, following the base of cliff (swampy ground), to exposures along the west bank of Cazenovia Creek.
(1 1/2 hours): This east facing cliff provides an excellent, long section of the Windom/Genesee contact. The Genundewa Limestone is nearly at water level at the southern (upstream) end of this section; however, downstream about 1/10 mile some 2 m (7 ft) of Penn Yan and upper Windom shales are exposed beneath the Genundewa. Lowest beds, exposed in the creek floor, are the Penn Dixie pyritic beds of the upper Windom. Diagnostic small specimens of Tropidoleptus carinatus can be obtained in abundance at this location. Overlying beds contain a zone of distinctive ellipsoidal concretions, typically with pyritic cores. The Amsdell bed (unit 12) forms a prominent, light-gray weathering calcareous band about 1 m thick near the top of the Windom. Near the southern end of the section this bed forms a small waterfall in Cazenovia Creek. Note the absence of upper shales (unit 13) in contrast to Penn Dixie Quarry (Stop 1).
The contact between the Windom and the overlying Genesee is sharp and planar with little evidence for erosive scour. Four or five lenses of the Leicester Pyrite, ranging from 1-15 cm thick and up to 2 m across, occur along the Windom/Penn Yan contact at widely spaced intervals. The pyrite contains abundant, reworked, pyritic burrows, diminutive brachiopods, mollusks, fish bones and wood. One lens along this section exhibits interfingering with the black Penn Yan shale. Lower surfaces of the pyrite lenses exhibit parallel ridge and furrow marks suggestive of current scour of the underlying Windom muds. At this locality about 0.5 m (1.6 ft) of barren, black, laminated Penn Yan Shale overlies the Windom; the upper portion of this shale contains large septarian concretions that locally protrude up into the overlying Genundewa. The Genundewa forms a prominent overhanging ledge about 40 cm (15 in) thick. The lower surface of this ledge is undulatory and is marked by a veneer of encrinite, conodonts, carbonized wood, and abundant fish bones and rare hiatus concretions. This unit probably is correlative in part with the typical North Evans a few miles west of this locality. The upper contact of the Genundewa with the silty, dark-gray West River Shale is gradational. Lower West River beds here yield abundant Pterochaenia, wood, chonetids, pyritized goniatites and rare crinoid columns. Higher units exposed in the upper cliff face include the black Middlesex Shale and gray, concretionary Cashaqua Shale, members of the Sonyea Formation.

Northrup Road bridge over Cazenovia Creek.
Note falls in creek over the Tichenor Limestone of the basal Moscow Formation, just upstream (east) of the bridge. High cliffs visible in the distance, upstream from the falls, expose about 12 m (40 ft) of Windom shale, capped by the Genesee Formation. The Smoke Creek bed is near the base of the cliff. At the upper contact, the Amsdell bed has been largely eroded away.

Note exposures of black Rhinestreet Shale (upper Devonian).

STOP 3A. Buffalo Creek At Old Bullis Road Bridge.
(1/4 hour): From bridge, view exposures along Buffalo Creek. Downstream (north) and just south of new bridge a series of ledges crop out in the creek floor, representing a condensed upper Ludlowville/lower Moscow section; the lowest ledge is a basal bed of the Jaycox Member, followed by Tichenor Limestone, and calcareous ledges of condensed Deep Run, and basal remnant of Menteth Members followed by highly calcareous Kashong Shale Member. The Windom/Kashong contact, marked by scattered phosphatic nodules is exposed in the floor of the creek directly beneath the old bridge. Looking upstream (south), note high bank exposures of gray, lower Windom Shale. A light-weathering calcareous band about 4 m (13 ft) about the creek floor represents the Smoke Creek bed; concretionary shales beneath this level for about 1 m (3 ft) comprise a local manifestation of the Bay View Coral bed. Note the thickening of the lower Ambocoelia-rich shales, here about 3 m thick, compared to about 15 cm (6 in) at Penn Dixie Quarry (Stop 1). At the next stop we will see higher beds of the Windom Member, the lowest of which are slightly higher than the top of this cliff section.

STOP 3B Buffalo Creek, Upper Windom Shale Section.
(1 hour): This bank exposes about 5 m of upper Windom overlain by Genesee Formation. The lowest shales exposed in the creek bed contain abundant Zoophycos spreiten and thin layers rich in the chonetids, Pseudoatrypa, Mediospirifer, and other brachiopods. Pyritized fossils including nautiloids and one cluster of blastoid Hyperoblastus have been discovered at this level. These shales appear to represent the Big Tree fossil bed (unit 5). They are overlain by two or three horizons of large, flattened ellipsoidal concretions probably equivalent to the A and B limestone bands farther west. Large irregular masses of pyrite occur associated with these concretions. Above the concretions is an interval of friable, dark gray shales, with abundant pyritic burrow tubes and scattered pyritized nautiloids, nuculid clams, wood and other fossils, herein designated the Buffalo Creek pyritic beds (unit 8). The C,D and E limestone beds (units 9-11) are clearly visible in the upper part of the bank. At the far south end of the section it is possible to examine the upper contact of the Windom with the overlying Genesee. The last meter of soft shale immediately beneath the contact contains abundant, small Tropidoleptus diagnostic of the Penn Dixie beds (unit 12). Small ellipsoidal concretions just beneath the contact may correlate with those in the upper Penn Dixie beds at Cazenovia Creek. Note the absence of Amsdell and upper shale beds (units 13 and 14) in contrast to Cazenovia Creek and localities farther 'west. These upper units have been truncated pri or to depos ition of the overlying Penn Yan Member. Lenses of Leicester Pyrite are present at the contact in sever~l location~, but are not readily access i b 1 e, although the Leices ter can be observed in fallen blocks. The Genundewa Limestone ranges from 0 to 10 cm in thickness; Styliolina limestone and g1ausonite coated hiatus-concretions occur in depressions on an undulatory erosion surface at the top of a ledge-forming concretionary band 1.6 m above the base of the Penn Yan.

STOP 4 Little Buffalo Creek, Upper Windom Section.
(1 hour): This small creek exposes an excellent section of the Upper Windom, Leicester, Penn Yan Shale (here about 1.8 m thick) and Genundewa Limestone. Lowest exposures include the richly fossiliferous Big Tree bed in the Windom, slightly below a layer of flat concretions. This fossil bed yielded atrypids, Srinocyrtia and other species. The Buffalo Creek pyritic beds (unit 8) are well exposed in the floor of the creek upstream and here contain Devonochonestes coronatus and are Pseudoatrypa in addition to pyritic tubes and nautiloids characteristic of the bed farther west. The uppermost beds of the Windom include a band of argillaceous limestone followed by shale and irregular large septarian concretions. These units comprise the C and D limestone beds respectively. The upper E unit as well as the Penn Dixie beds are missing at this locality. In places, the septaria of unit D protrude uoward and deform the basal Penn Yan Shale: lenses of Leicester Pyrite lap directly onto these concretions. Upstream from the Windom/Penn Yan contact a spectacular bed of grotesquely shaped concretions occurs in the upper Penn Yan Shale immediately below thin Genundewa Limestone. Here the Genundewa contains a basal veneer of North Evans lithology, including glauconite and pyrite-coated hiatus concretions. These concretions, characterized by internal lamination, have been completely disinterred from the Penn Yan and rolled into new orientations. This pre-Genundewa disconformity is believed to correlate westward with the North Evans limestone.

STOP 5A Cayuga Creek, Upper Windom Section.
Turn left into driveway just before intersection with Eastwood Road on right. Park at end of the drive and proceed on foot to lower section of Cayuga Creek. Walk back upstream toward Clinton Road bridge.
(1/2 hour): The upper 3.5-4 m (11-13 ft) of the-Windom Shale are exposed beneath the bridge. There are two zones of elliosoidal calcareous concretions, separated by about 2 m (6.5 ft) of nearly barren pyritic fissile dark gray shale. The lower concretion band is well exposed in the creek floor north of Clinton Road; surroundinq shales contain abundant small brachiopods and a pyritic fauna with large masses of pyrite. This interval resembles superficially the Buffalo Creek pyritic bed (unit 8) but is apparently coextensive with lower barren shales of unit 4 seen farther west.
An upper concretionary band occurs 15-30 cm (6-12 in) below the upper contact of the Windom. Shales immediately above this concretion level are highly fossiliferous and contain abundant chonetids, Mediospirifer, Spinocyrtia, Athyris and Pseudoatrypa. This band appears to be coextensive with the Big Tree bed (unit 5) and it may also represent a western remnant of the Fall Brook Coral bed seen in Genesee County and farther east.
The upper contact of the Windom is sharply defined and exhibits local truncation; the Big Tree bed is observed to approach the contact as it is traced northward along this section of Cayuga Creek. The Windom is abruptly overlain by black fissile shale (possible westward limit of the Renwick Member); it contains oriented Styliolina and patches of chonetid brachiopods. Large lenses of rusty-weathered Leicester pyrite occur at the contact near the Clinton Road bridge. These have yielded well-preserved pyritized wood, fish bones, and other fossils.

STOP 5B. Cayuga Creek, Lower Genesee Section.
Turn riqht into driveway on east side of bridge and park at end of drive. Walk to falls and remains of concrete dam across Cayuga Creek.
(1/4 hour): This section has been thoroughly described in previous field trip guidebooks (see Kirchgasser and Brett, 1981, p. 18). The Genesee Formation here includes 1.3 m (4.3 ft) of black and dark gray (Renwick?) Shale, followed by 1.8 m (6 ft) of gray, concretionary Penn Yan Shale. A prominent line of concretions occurs near the top of the section and is probably correlative with that seen in Little Buffalo Creek. A ledge of Genundewa Limestone about 20 cm (8 in) thick caps a low waterfall near the remains of an old concrete dam. The base of this ledge, again, contains encrinite and black hiatus concretions indicating an eastward extension of the North Evans type lithology associated with a pre-Genundewa erosional unconformity.

A2: CARBONATE FACIES OF THE ONONDAGA AND BOIS BLANC FORMATIONS NIAGARA PENINSULA, ONTARIO
Mary Rose Cassa
Gulf Research and Development Company
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and
Don L. Kissling
ERCO Petroleum Services, Inc.
Houston, Texas
INTRODUCTION
Devonian bioherms of the northern Appalachian Basin have been an important source of hydrocarbons since the 1967 discovery of gas from an Onondaga pinnacle reef in Steuben County, New York. Onondaga bioherms are represented in the outcrop belt by small organic buildups which have been studied for at least three-quarters of a century (Grabau, 1903; Stauffer, 1913,1915). More recent studies of these buildups and their components enable us to better understand the paleogeographic distribution of the buildups, their internal facies structure, and their importance in hydrocarbon exploration.

A2: CARBONATE FACIES OF THE ONONDAGA AND BOIS BLANC FORMATIONS NIAGARA PENINSULA, ONTARIO

Tonowanda Channel of Niagara River on right.
Grand Island is visible across the river, behind us. At the south end of Grand Island, the Tonowanda and Chippewa Channels join and Fort Erie, Ontario can be seen across the river.

Lock in Black Rock Canal on right.

STOP 1. Ridgemount Quarry
Hard hats must be worn. Please exercise caution near quarry walls; watch for overhangs and loose rock.
An excellent exposure of the Silurian-Devonian unconformity is found in the north wall of this quarry. Several small bioherms are exposed in the northern part of the quarry and in an "embayment" a few hundred feet west of the entrance. The mounds are characterized by abrupt thickening of lower Edgecliff strata which contain abundant solitary and colonial rugose corals, tabulate corals, and crinoid material (Figure 9). Dominant coral genera include Acinophyllum, Cladopora, Heliophyllum, Cystiphylloides, Syringopora, and Emmonsia. Internal structure is stratified; facies are represented as successive layers which pinch out laterally and drape over one another to give the characteristic mounded appearance. Stratified structure and absence of rigid framework indicate that turbulence was low during deposition. Biohermal strata contrast markedly with laterally equivalent and onlapping crinoidal packstone and wackestone beds of non-biohermal Edgecliff.
Sub-biohermal Strata
Mottled olive-gray Bertie Dolomite is unconformably overlain by 0.4 m of yellowish-gray conglomeratic Springvale Sandstone, containing large, flat dolomite clasts. The Bois Blanc consists of 3.2 m of light olive-gray, cherty, fine-grained limestone, containing trilobites, bryozoans, and abundant brachiopods. The mounds are separated from the Bois Blanc Limestone by a thin, shaly zone.
Biohermal Strata
The base of the larger mound sags markedly into underlying strata. Basal beds of the two mounds are similar, consisting of 0.2 to 0.5 m of yellowish-gray, crinoid packstone. Abundant in-place Syringopora and other corals are found in the basal beds of the smaller mound.
The overlying facies, 1.0 to 1.5 m of crystalline coral-crinoid packstone, can be traced between mounds. It contains Acinophyllum, Syringopora, Cladopora, Heliophyllum, and Cystiphylloides, as well as large crinoids whose columnals measure up to 2 cm in diameter. The smaller mound is capped by coral-crinoid packstone-grainstone, containing abundant Acinophyllum, common Heliophyllum, and sparse Cystiphylloides.
In the larger mound, the coral-crinoid packstone is overlain by 0.5 m of coral-dominated wackestone, which, in turn, is overlain by 0.5 m of packstone containing Acinophyllum and branching tabulate corals, Cladopora and Aulopora. Above that, Acinophyllum, Heliophyllum, and Cystiphylloides are found in coral-crinoid grainstone or packstone matrix. This facies is porous, with bitumen-lined interparticle and intraskeletal pores. The mound is capped by up to 0.5 m of crinoid-stylioline wackestone-packstone, containing few corals. Rare chert nodules in biohermal beds are light-colored and highly irregular in shape. Overlying the mounds are olive-gray, argillaceous crinoid-stylioline wackestone and mudstone, containing abundant dark chert nodules and many rugose and tabulate corals.
Non-Biohermal Strata
The overthickened, richly fossiliferous strata of the bioherms grade laterally into somewhat thinner, non-biohermal beds of the lower Edgecliff which consist of medium-grained crinoid grainstone and packstone containing few corals. This facies, approximately 0.8 m thick, is overlain by 7.6 m of crinoid packstone and grainstone which contain many Heliophyllum and Acinophyllum colonies. In his description of this locality, Oliver (1976) assigned these beds to the Clarence Member, perhaps based on the presence of chert nodules or on the darker, more argillaceous nature of laterally equivalent beds which overlie the mounds. Although the exposure could represent a local, fossiliferous facies of the Clarence, Oliver's (1976) suggestion that the Edgecliff and Clarence interfinger may be borne out here in the occurrence of light gray biostromal beds characteristics of the Edgecliff in association with darker olive gray, argillaceous beds containing fewer corals.

Battlefield and museum on right.
Plaque on museum building reads: "This house stood on the battlefield during the Fenian raid June 2, 1866. John Teal's family cared for the wounded soldier shot near the front verandah." Monument is memorial to "Queen's Own Rifles, 13th Hamilton Battalian Caledonian and York Rifle Companies of Haldimand in defense (sic) of country June 2, 1866."

Port Colborne Quarries, Ltd. to the north.
These quarries are floored in the Silurain Bertie Dolomite.

Robin Hood Flour mill is visible to the northwest.
Port Colborne is the second largest flour milling city in Canada.

Cross Welland Canal - Lock No.8.
The Welland Canal connects Lake Ontario (St. Catherines) with Lake Erie, an elevation difference of 99.5 m (326.5 ft). It was built in the early 1800's and had to be widened, straightened, and deepened several times as ships increased in size and traffic volume grew. This lock, the guard lock, was the longest in the world when it was built in 1933.

R.E. Law Crushed Stone Quarry on right.

STOP 2. Port Colborne West Quarry
Hard hats are optional. Please exercise caution near quarry walls, both from below and from above.
A portion of a broad biohermal bank is particularly well exposed in the east wall of this quarry (Figure 10). Original reconnaissance and detailed study were carried out here and in the R. E. Law quarry, approximately one mile north. The Law quarry is floored in Silurian dolomite and exposes Springvale and Bois Blanc strata, including greenish, Acinophyllum-rich beds of the upper Bois Blanc and lower Edgecliff, which represent initial stages of bioherm development. This southern quarry is floored in the upper Bois Blanc (Oliver, 1976). Lower Edgecliff strata are characterized by a coral assemblage which includes Cystiphylloides, Cylindrophyllum, and Heliophyllum. The tabular "core" facies contains a variety of colonial rugose corals and replaces bioclastic beds which are more characteristic of the Edgecliff. Massive favositid tabulate corals are more abundant in the upper, less argillaceous beds.
Glacially scoured surfaces are exposed around the perimeter of the quarry, particularly at the south end. The smoothed surfaces reveal glacial striations and offer spectacular plan-view exposures of the fossil bioherm community.
Sub-Biohermal and Bioherm-Equivalent Strata
Calcareous sandstone and sandy limestone and chert of the Springvale Member unconformably overlie the Bertie Dolomite (exposed in the Law quarry). Glauconite gives the Springvale its characteristic greenish color. Cherty, fossiliferous, fine-grained limestone makes up most of the remaining Bois Blanc, which is characterized by the brachiopod Amphigenia elongate (Telford and Tarrant, 1975; Oliver, 1976), in addition to rugose and tabulate corals, trilobites and bryozoans. The upper part of the Bois Blanc differs in consisting of greenish, shaly limestone which grades upward into overlying Edgecliff beds. Oliver (1976) drew the boundary between the formations based on occurrence of Acinophyllum species. Beds which contain A. stokesi and A. simcoensis are considered Bois Blanc; those containing A. segregatum are Edgecliff. He suggests that these units may represent the missing time interval between Bois Blanc and Edgecliff deposition elsewhere. The lithologic transition suggests that similar depositional conditions prevailed throughout late Bois Blanc and early Edgecliff sedimentation. Acinophyllum biostromes which developed under these conditions represent incipient stages of bioherm development.
Biohermal Strata
Two thin (20 cm) beds of Acinophyllum bafflestone mark the earliest phases of Edgecliff bioherm development. These beds and argillaceous limestone containing diverse coral fauna, including rugose corals, Cystiphylloides, Cylindrophyllum, Heliophyllum, and the tabulate favositid coral Pleurodictyum, are exposed in Law quarry and in the northern part of the inactive (southern) quarry. Total thickness is 4.2 m. Overlying are 0.8 to nearly 2.0 m of massive, light-colored limestone dominated by Acinophyllum in association with rugose corals, Cystiphylloides and Heliophyllum, tabulate corals, Favosites and Emmonsia, and sparse stromatoporoids. Intraskeletal porosity is well-developed; black bitumen stains are common. Matrix consists of crinoid grainstone and packstone and contrasts markedly with that of the underlying, more argillaceous Cystiphylloides and Acinophyllum beds.
The massive-bedded Acinophyllum facies is overlain by 7.6 m of medium-bedded packstone, wackestone and grainstone which contains a varied and abundant fauna, including colonial rugose corals, Acinophyllum and Heliophyllum; solitary rugose corals, Cystiphylloides and Siphonophrentis; massive tabulate corals, Favosites, Lecfedites, and Emmonsia; branching tabulates, Cladopora, Thamnopora, Syringopora, and Aulopora; and laminar stromatoporoids. Crinoid debris is abundant; brachiopods are sparse. Thin sections from the upper 4 m of the buildup reveal abundant fenestrate and encrusting bryozoans, the latter ocurring in association with crinoid holdfasts. Chert is common throughout the section, but is absent from the Acinophyllum and Cystiphylloides beds. The buildup is overlain by argillaceous, sparsely fossiliferous mudstone of the Clarence Member, characterized by abundant dark chert nodules.
Vertical extent of the buildup cannot be determined exactly, but a thickness of about 10 m is estimated. Estimating lateral extent is even more difficult, due mainly to the tabular nature and lack of "typical" biohermal zonation and distinct flank facies. Although the position of the exposure in relation to the buildup as a whole is known, absence of bioherm facies in the Law quarry suggests the buildup is on the order of 1 km broad.

Large, stabilized sand dunes on right.

Dunes migrating over road surface.

Sugarloaf Hill on right.
This dune rises more than 100 ft above lake level and has been a landmark to Lake Erie travellers since the days of the earliest explorers.

Bridge over drainage canal.

View of Port Colborne's harbor and Welland Canal's port of entry.
The park offers a view of Port Colborne's harbor and the Welland Canal's port of entry. Over 6,600 ships and nearly 800 pleasure craft passed through the canal in 1980. Inco Metals' Company nickel refinery is Port Colbornel's largest employer. Canadian nickel, in Inco-developed alloys, was used in the main engines and other components of the space shuttle Columbia.

STOP 3. Port Colborne East Quarry
Rubble pile on right. Park on concrete pad just beyond. Walk SW into abandoned quarry complex.
No detailed studies of this quarry complex have been published since the days of Stauffer (1915). It was once operated by the Canadian Portland Cement Company and included a large plant, of which only the foundations remain. The quarries were developed on a low, ENE-trending anticline. Telford and Tarrant (1975) mapped only Edgecliff at this locality, however, in places, strata have a distinctively Clarence character _ argillaceous, fine-grained, abundant chert - particularly in the north and west walls. This is probably another manifestation of the interfingering nature of Edgecliff and Clarence facies as described at the Ridgemount quarry. Beds at water level are packstone or grainstone; skeletal material decreases and mud increases upward. The "island" in the southern end of the quarry is a bioherm. Large blocks of light-colored Acinophyllum bafflestone are piled to the east of the island, along the roadway which leads southward into the quarry. Near the island, a railroad trestle crosses a cut which connects the northern quarry with a smaller one south of the tracks. In this area are exposed approximately 4 m of massive bedded, light gray, crinoid grainstone and packstone containing abundant large favositids, common Cystiphylloides, and fewer Thamnopora and Syringopora. These strata have all the aspects of proximal flanks observed in the subsurface bioherms. This stop offers excellent fossil-collecting, either from the rubble piled east of the quarry, or from around the quarry itself. As at the western quarry, glacially-smoothed surfaces provide two-dimensional exposures of the fossil bioherm community.

A3: EURYPTERIDS, STRATIGRAPHY, LATE SILURIAN-EARLY DEVONIAN OF WESTERN NEW YORK STATE AND ONTARIO, CANADA
Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr.
Rochester, New York
INTRODUCTION
The eurypterid horizons of the Bertie Group in New York State (Ciurca, 1973, 1978a) continue into adjacent Ontario, Canada bearing their distinctive eurypterid faunas (Ciurca, 1967a,1976). In addition, Helderbergian strata (Clanbrassil Fm.), between Byng and Haggersville, show the presence of post Bertie-Akron strata in this region in a manner analogous to that of the Honeoye Falls Fm. described for similarly positioned strata discovered south of Rochester, New York (Ciurca, 1967b, 1973).
The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary account of the stratigraphy and paleontology of this interesting eurypterid-bearing sequence of rocks and to stimulate research into the origin and significance of the waterlimes and associated lithologies in which eurypterids are peculiarly characteristic and abundant.
STRATIGRAPHY AND PALEONTOLOGY
Detailed field studies in New York and Ontario, Canada were undertaken with the hope of providing a better framework for understanding the occurrence and distribution of eurypterid faunas and waterlimes in the regions, and to facilitate correlation. In these studies, the waterlime units have been utilized as the basis of a stratigraphic framework. They have been given an importance similar to that given coal beds in cyclothemic sequences and it is hoped that this will help tracing and understanding of the cyclic sequences present in our Late Silurian-Early Devonian rocks. The distribution of the waterlimes of the Bertie Group, and of the new stratigraphically higher waterlimes, is shown in Figure 2. Heretofore, the only well known waterlime was that of the Williamsville from which much of the eurypterid material in collections was knowingly or unknowingly obtained (i.e. Eurypterus remipes lacustris Fauna).

STOP 1. Dunnville Rock Products, Ltd.
Quarry at Byng, Ontario, Canada. This quarry produces "crushed aggregates-concrete stone, Armour rock for shoreline protection, clay fill".

STOP 2.
Port Colborne Quarries, ltd.,
Quarry at Port Colborne just north of Route 3

STOP 3.
Ellicott Creek
Ellicott Creek at Wiliamsville, just north of NY 5 (called Glen Park).

A4: GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE ERIE LOWLAND AND ADJOINING ALLEGHENY PLATEAU, WESTERN NEW YORK

Niagara Falls morainal ridge on right, Lake Tonawanda plain to left.
Cross Hopkins Rd. with slight rise of Niagara Falls morainal ridge on right, Lake Tonawanda plain to left.

Subdued hillocks of Niagara Falls Moraine
Turn right (south) onto Harris Hill Rd. with subdued hillocks of Niagara Falls Moraine partly mantled by Lake Warren silts. Rise up Onondaga Limestone Escarpment.

Sandy soils on Escarpment edge
Sandy soils on Escarpment edge here result from winnowing of older sediments by Lake Dana waters.

Descend Escarpment into river embayment at Clarence Village.
Recent U.S. Geological Survey borings suggest that a large buried (drift-filled) valley connects the embayment southward with the present valley of Ellicott Creek near Stop 1.

Rise south back up Onondaga Escarpment onto gravel plain
Turn right onto Ransom Rd. Rise south back up Onondaga Escarpment onto gravel plain related to Buffalo Moraine and deposited in Lake Warren III. Beaches of lower stage-Lake Grassmere occur along Escarpment crest.

STOP 1. Pine Hill Gravel Pit.
Pit is cut into a portion of the Buffalo Moraine and is just on north margin of present northwest-flowing Ellicott Creek. Borings made for the study of the gravel aquifer (Fig. 6) in this area show two till sheets with sand and gravel between. This and several adjoining excavations expose the thick sand and gravel units deposited in at least 30 m (100 ft) of Lake Warren III or earlier stage. Thin red lake clay partings separate thick rippled sand units (varves?). The overlying till and sand/gravel unit shows evidence of flow and deformation (often irregularly interfingering). The till, laid down by thin, sometimes bouyant ice margin, can be traced at least to the Alden Moraine ~5 mi to the south. Fabrics show moderate NE-SW maxima.

Drive along crest of subdued sandy beach or offshore bar of Lake Warren III.

Bend right on Peters Corners Rd. onto strong Warren III beach ridge.
This strand can be traced intermittently to Syracuse and south and west through Cleveland into Michigan.

Pit on right excavated in beach ridge.
Pit on right excavated in beach ridge. Cross several beach ridges obliquely.

Alden Moraine at left
Cross R.R. bed cut in Alden Moraine at left (source of beach material) and turn right onto North St. following a Warren III beach (moraine on left).

Cross highest beach ridge of several oblique to Sandridge Rd.

Cross several ridges-spits of Warren III.
Turn right (west) at W. Alden onto Broadway (Rt. 20) and cross several ridges-spits of Warren III. This is the area where Warren III beaches split off northward and Warren I and II? terminate south of Alden Moraine.

Turn left onto Four Rod Rd., still crossing Warren ridges.

Descend into floodplain and cross Cayuga Creek.

Rise across washed till (strand of Lake Warren I - highest Warren)
Rise across washed till (strand of Lake Warren I - highest Warren) at white farmhouse (~860 ft [262 m]) and proceed south across Marilla Moraine. Moraine appears unaltered by Lake Whittlesey waters and hence formed before or soon after draining of Whittlesey to Warren I level.

Cross Clinton St. going south, still on Marille Moraine.

STOP 2. Drainageway Marilla-Hamburg Moraines.
View small esker and associated kames to northeast. To west of intersection, Bullis Rd. crosses delta surface formed in Lake Whittlesey and subsequently Lake Warren by water draining along ice margin here.

Cross Hamburg Moraine

Not good till cut at far left along Little Buffalo Creek.

Moulin kame hillock on right behind farm
Moulin kame hillock on right behind farm consists of till and poorly sorted gravel. A few similar forms occur just to east out of sight.

Go west to stop sign (in E-W-oriented meltwater channel).

Cross Meltwater Channel

Cross Buffalo Creek--its post-glacial position?

Many gravel hillocks of moraine have been removed here.

Note deep cut in moraine.

Deep kettle hole and lake on left
Deep kettle hole and lake on left; hummocky ice-contact drift at distal side of Hamburg Moraine.

East Aurora Waterworks.
This is within partly buried valley of Preglacial Cazenovia River which trends northward through the Hamburg Moraine. Valley fill is major water source and buried valley a collector/ conduit of groundwater.

Note postglacial Cazenovia Creek has been deflected to westward path.

Note U-shaped valley cross-section modified by alluvial fans at margins.

STOP 3. Emery Park (Lunch Stop)
The Gowanda Moraine crosses the valley at this point. The park is on the west wall of the partly buried valley (~60-l00 m of drift till) now occupied by East Branch Cazenovia Creek. Ice flow was approximately parallel to this and adjoining valleys. High level deltas graded to proglacial "finger lakes" line the east valley wall in this general area.

Cross East Branch Cazenovia Creek.
Creek is on bedrock at right, deepest part of valley is to left (east) of bridge. Pass through Village of Holland and rise southward onto proximal side of Lake Escarpment Moraine (bedrock actually fills slightly southward).

Turn right onto Hand Rd. at crest of Lake Escarpment Moraine.

Turn around at Chaffee solid waste disposal site (landfill).
Although tills appear quite thick and dense here, the Chaffee Outwash Plain heads at north margin of the current landfill boundary and critically close to leachate drainage.

Note meltwater channels on right
Note meltwater channels on right leading to head of outwash plain within few tenths of a mile.

Cross Grove St., Chaffee, on outwash plain.
Note irregularly south-sloping surface, probably effected by differential settling. A nearby gas well reached bedrock at about 188 m (615 ft) depth (see Calkin and others, 1974).

Nichols Brook site (Calkin and McAndrews, 1980) on left.

Pass out of Preglacial Cazenovia Valley toward Arcade.

STOP 4. Arcade Section.
The stratigraphy at this active cut-bank of Cattaraugus Creek is shown in Figure 4. The locality is south of the Lake Escarpment Moraine. At least three till units are exposed, separated by glacial lake deposits. The upper till is thin and has textural properties strongly influenced by underlying lacustrine deposits and appears to indicate deposition from thin ice. The lower tills are thicker and generally more homogeneous in their properties although the lowest unit carries clasts of red till and clay. The tills are tentatively correlated with Hiram, Lavery, and Kent drifts on the basis of sequence.

Hesitation Stop - Gernatt Gravel Pit
Good exposure (when working) of Chaffee Outwash at Cattaraugus Creek where it overlies till (generally not exposed but just above creek level). Near-horizontally bedded and very well sorted gravel overlies steeply inclined (foreset) units which on one visit appeared to be associated with till units.

Cross bedrock-cored ridge dividing buried valley into two channels.
Deepest channel is on west side and connects valley to south of Cattaraugus Creek with present valley of East Branch Cazenovia Creek Valley (not with Buffalo Creek [Calkin and others, 1974]).

Descend from outwash surface into Cattaraugus Creek Valley.
Bluemont Ski area to south across creek.

Note slumped till of Lavery Till on right
Note slumped till of Lavery Till on right, Lord Hill Section of LaFleur (1979, 1980) on left at Creek. Strong fluvial dissection exposes till and lake sediments in the valley area.

Rise out of postglacial valley onto outwash
Rise out of postglacial valley onto outwash tied to Springville Outwash Plain. Lake Escarpment morainal ridges are to north.

Descend into spillway that drained pro-glacial lake
At hospital, descend into Village of Springville occupying spillway that drained pro-glacial lake in North Branch Eighteenmile Creek and West Branch Cazenovia Creek. This is center of Preglacial Buttermilk Creek heading several miles to south.

Proceed straight (west) on Rt. 39.
(The most scenic route would trend left via Waverly St. and Zoar-Gowanda Rd. but roads are narrow and steep, and bridge weight limits prohibit bus traverse.)

Leave outwash plain crossing onto distal ridge of Lake Escarpment Moraine.

Cross onto outwash plain
Cross onto outwash plain (still on Rt. 39) at head of South Branch Eighteenmile Creek. Formed by meltwater of Lake Escarpment Moraine shed southward into buried Preglacial Connoisarauley River Valley.

Rise off outwash onto Lake Escarpment Moraine as it trendsN-S.

Cross onto gravel valley till
Cross Rt. 75 at Collins Center and onto gravel valley till (underlain by lake clay and till respectively).

Cross Gowanda Moraine.
Stratigraphic sections suggest moraine formed as ice advanced into proglacial lake.

Clear Creek Valley (part of Preglacial Allegheny Valley)
Turn left (south) onto Rt. 62 within Clear Creek Valley (part of Preglacial Allegheny Valley) and park near corner. Reach exposure downstream from highway bridge 0.3 mi south.

STOP 5. Gowanda Hospital Interstadial Site
This site exposes three till units, a buried paleosol and overlying organic horizon. It is briefly described in the text and Figures 3a, b, and c. The right bank section is rarely exposed but the paleosol and wood horizons on the left bank are often clear after minor work. One of the most important aspects of the site is the Gowanda Paleosol, a buried, truncated (of its A horizon) soil whose substantial development and stratigraphic positioning appears to argue for a long mid-Wisconsin nonglacial interval prior to about 50,000 yr BP (Calkin and others, 1982).
One of the many problems of the stratigraphy is the age and correlation of the brown till unit. The till material appears to be derived locally by glacial erosion of the underlying, weathered red "Collins" till and therefore it is difficult to correlate regionally with other till units. Although it displays mudflow-like contacts with the channel gravel, it also shows good glaciotectonic structures including wood sheared from underlying deposits. The age of the wood suggests a mid-Wisconsin ice advance; however, there is some question whether the ice sheet reached past this area to Titusville, Pennsylvania, in Middle Wisconsin interval as suggested by current correlations (Figs. 2 and 3b).

Rising onto Fairchild's (1932) Asylum Terrace
Turn left (west) onto Richardson Rd. rising onto Fairchild's (1932) Asylum (Gowanda State Hospital) Terrace graded to a local proglacial lake in the Cattaraugus Creek (Preglacial Allegheny) embayment of the Erie Basin. This surface is an extension of top gravel unit (8) at Gowanda Hospital site.

View at left of Fourmile Level, a delta surface
View at left of Fourmile Level, a delta surface (on Cattaraugus Indian Reservation) formed in Lake Whittlesey and later Lake Warren.

Gravel pit at right displays large foreset bedding
Gravel pit at right displays large foreset bedding units in thickened section of Asylum Terrace seen at the Gowanda Hospital site (Fig. 3a, unit 8).

Proceed north with Gowanda Moraine parallel to right.

Zone of weak strand lines
Rt. 62 follows along zone of weak strand lines of Lake Whittlesey and Lake Warren I. Lowland on left is an old buried tributary valley of Allegheny River.

Cross Winter Gulf and organic site on left
Cross Winter Gulf (unofficial name) and organic site on left (Schwert and Morgan, 1980; Calkin and McAndrews, 1981). The section here is diagramed in Figure 5.

Cross gravelly ridges (before low point)
Turn left onto Milestrip Rd. (just south of a "Friends" cemetery built on a delta of Lake Whittlesey). Cross gravelly ridges (before low point) intermediate between Whittlesey and Warren (possibly Arkona?). Note ridge-spit extending from west (on right) graded first to Lake Whittlesey and later modified by Lake Warren waters.

Spit extending eastward is tied to Whittlesey beach
Spit visible (again) extending eastward is tied to well-developed Whittlesey beach (visible on left) which completely encloses bedrock-based high area here (plateau outlier).

Cemetery at intersection spans a Warren ridge.

STOP 6. North Collins, Whittlesey Beach Exposure
The Glacial Lake Whittlesey beach with crest at 850 ft (260 m) here is almost totally composed of shale, eroded from the local bedrock (Calkin, 1970, Fig. 2). The good development of the ridge on this narrow-embayment-side of the island in Lake Whittlesey is of interest. Lake Whittlesey extended southwest beyond Toldeo and into the Huron Basin. Several ridges of Lake Warren occur below the Whittlesey ridge; many have been destroyed by years of farming or construction.

Proceed east (off Whittlesey island)

Rt. 62 follows along Lake Warren beach ridge.
Turn left (north) at Rt. 62 (intersection at North Collins is on delta deposits of Lake Whittlesey). Rt. 62 follows along Lake Warren beach ridge. Lake Whittlesey beach is visible intermittently on incline to right (east), lower Warren ridges to left with deeper water silts and clays.

Whittlesey beach and wave-cut cliff exhumed in old gravel pit at right.

Lake Warren beach ridges exposed in gardens on either side of road.

Cross South Branch Eighteenmile Creek.
This and similar cuts are apparently post-glacial gorges.

View to right (northeast) of wave-cut beach and bluff of Lake Whittlesey.

Cemetery on right and road itself still on Lake Warren beach.

Onondaga Escarpment
Pass under Rt. 5 and through Onondaga Escarpment. Note south dip of strata. This was formerly a prize fossil collecting quarry.

B1: STRATIGRAPHY AND FACIES VARIATION OF THE ROCHESTER SHALE (SILURIAN: CLINTON GROUP) ALONG NIAGARA GORGE
by
Carlton E. Brett
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
The linear, east-west configuration of Paleozoic outcrop belts in western New York and Ontario imposes a strong two-dimensionality on our knowledge of the stratigraphy and facies relationships of these rocks. It is frequently assumed that the outcrop sections provide a reasonable transect from near shore clastic-dominated facies in the east to offshore carbonates and marine muds in the west. This view is overly simplistic and it ignores the fact that the Paleozoic epeiric seas had a northern as well as an eastern shoreline (directions based on modern geography). Furthermore, the idea of a simple east-west transect is contradicted by detailed examination of stratigraphy in western New York. Stratigraphic sequences such as the Silurian Clinton, Lockport, or Salina Groups exhibit vertical facies changes, manifest in the gradational contacts between beds, members, or formations. Walther's law predicts that such vertical sequences of litho- and biofacies should mirror arrays of laterally adjacent, contemporaneous facies belts. However, lateral gradation of lithologies is rarely observed along the outcrop belt of western New York. Rather, one observes that thin stratigraphic units representing distinctive facies, are traceable along the strike of the outcrop belt for tens to hundreds of miles (see, for example, Belak, 1980).
This "layer cake" aspect of New York stratigraphy has facilitated local correlation. However, it has also led to a common impression that the strata represent vertical stacking of time parallel facies units in a three dimensional sense, implying basinwide environmental changes. This non-Waltherian view of western New York stratigraphy is probably erroneous and it has greatly hampered attempts to decipher facies relationships and depositional environments. I contend that it is largely an artifact resulting from the east-west trend of the modern outcrop belts.

B1: STRATIGRAPHY AND FACIES VARIATION OF THE ROCHESTER SHALE (SILURIAN: CLINTON GROUP) ALONG NIAGARA GORGE

Begin road cut in Lockport and Rochester formations.

STOP 1. Lockport Junction Roadcut.
Exposure of upper Rochester/DeCew Dolostone contact. Pull vehicles off in parking area on left side of road.
The first two stops of this trip provide an overview of the Rochester Shale in eastern Niagara County, for comparison with Niagara Gorge sections farther west. This exposure illustrates the gradational upper contact of the Rochester Shale with the overlying DeCew dolostone. The upper 3-4 m of the Burleigh Hill Member of the Rochester Shale are exposed at the base of this cut. Nearly barren, friable, calcareous shale grades upward into a 1-2 m interval of interbedded dolomitic shale and buff weathering, burrow-mottled layers of argillaceous laminated calcisiltite. These beds appear to be gradational into the overlying DeCew Dolostone. This transitional upper Rochester unit thickens eastward to form the Gates Member which is recognized near the type section at Rochester, New York. The upper portion of the roadcut exposes an excellent section of the Gasport Formation (Lockport Group) and the sharp contact between the DeCew dolostone and the cross-bedded, crinoidal biosparites of the Gasport.
The uppermost Rochester and DeCew are interpreted as rapidly-deposited carbonate silt and clay sediments, winnowed from Gasport crinoidal shoals which lay nearby to the northwest. Cross lamination and abundant soft sediment deformation in the OeCew suggest rapid influx of sediment followed by dewatering. Body fossils are exceedingly rare in the upper Rochester and the DeCew, but burrows, including Chondrites, Planolites and Teichichnus are abundant. This may,again,reflect high turbidity.

Small exposure of Gasport Limestone.

STOP 2. Thrall Roadcut, Cambria, New York.
High cutbank in Rochester Shale and Lockport Group, in pasture along south side of Thrall Road. Park vehicles on right hand side of road, in front of driveway to farm.
Although somewhat weathered,this exposure provides a good reference section for the middle Rochester Shale in eastern Niagara County. Here the upper 4 or 5 m of the Lewiston Member, and its sharp contact with the overlying Burleigh Hill are exposed. Although largely covered by slumped talus, limestone ledges of Lewiston submember E ("bryozoa beds" of Grabau, 1901) protrude from the bank in several locations. This is an excellent locality for collecting the diverse fauna of middle Rochester beds. Weathered talus at the base of the slope has yielded over 20 species of brachiopods. corals, gastropods and complete thecae and crowns of Stephanocrinus, Caryocrinites, and various crinoids. Weathered slabs of limestone replete with ramos and fenestrate bryozoans are abundant here. Note the sharp contrast with the overlying barren mudstone of the Burleigh Hill Member. Thin calcisiltites comprise the only interbeds in this upper portion of the Rochester. Weathered slabs from the upper bank have yielded abundant trilobite remains (Dalmanites, Trimerus), ostracodes, Tentaculites and crinoid columnals. However, the bulk of the interbedded shale is very sparsely fossiliferous, in marked contrast to the underlying Lewiston beds. The top of this section is again capped by buff weathering DeCew Dolostone and Gasport Limestone.

We are now riding along the base of Niagara Escarpment.

Proceed up low ridge on Irondequoit Limestone
Proceed up low ridge formed by lower platform of Niagara Escarpment on Irondequoit Limestone.

STOP 3. Baer Roadcut.
Roadcut in Rockway and Irondequoit Limestones. Park near south end of cut.
There are very few outcrops in Niagara County where the basal beds of the Rochester Shale can be examined. This will be a brief stop to observe the uppermost Irondequoit Limestone which immediately underlies the Lewiston Member. Here the Irondequoit is a crinoidal biosparite, similar to the Gasport Limestone. Well-preserved fossils occur sparingly in the upper Irondequoit, including thecae of Stephanocrinus, Caryocrinites and other echinoderms. Small, white-weathering bioherms composed of fistuliporoid bryozoans and bound biomicrite occur near the top of this exposure. Such small bioherms occasionally protrude upward into the basal beds of the Rochester Shale.
Continue southward along Baer Road crossing the small plateau on Irondequoit Limestone and then up the main Niagara Escarpment.

Small exposure of Gasport Limestone at turn in road.

The classic Pekin roadcut through a Gasport bioherm
The classic Pekin roadcut through a Gasport bioherm is exposed along 429 immediately below Upper Mountain Road at this locality.

Excellent view off Niagara Escarpment onto Ontario Lowlands Plain.
On clear days this affords a view of Lake Ontario.

View to right out to Ontario Lowlands Plain and Lake Ontario.

Reservoir for Robert Moses Hydroelectric Plant appears as bank on left.

STOP 4. North End, Niagara Gorge Near Lewiston, New York.
Pull off on broad shoulder of Robert Moses Parkway and park at 55 mph sign. Passengers will disembark here, proceed over guard rail and down a slope, bearing to the right or north to cliffs along Niagara Gorge (see Fig. 7 point A).
Cliffs along the east face of Niagara Gorge between Lewiston Queenston Bridge and the Robert Moses Power Plant provide an excellent section of the entire Irondequoit, Rochester, and lower Lockport units. Here the Rochester Shale is approximately 17 m thick; the lower half comprises the Lewiston Member which consists of about 8.7 m (28.6 ft) of medium to brownish gray calcareous shaley mudstone with interbedded thin carbonates. The member exhibits a gradational lower contact with Irondequoit Limestone, but is sharply differentiated from the overlying Burleigh Hill Member at the top of a 1-2 m interval of bryozoan rich limestones (unit E). As at most localities in western New York and adjacent Ontario the Lewiston Member can be subdivided into six informal units or submembers designated by letters A-E. All of these beds are readily accessible in this cliff section and will be described as follows:
A) The basal transition zone of the Lewiston is up to 1 m thick and consists of dark-brownish to ashy-gray, silty, very calcareous and fossiliferous mudstone with interbeds of argillaceous limestone (biomicrite and/or biosparite). Brachiopods are very abundant and may be packed into layers; characteristic species include: Atrypa reticularis, large Leptaena rhomboidalis, Whitfieldella oblata and Plectodonta transversalisalis. Bryozoans are less common than in overlying beds, but laminar fistuliporoids are not uncommon. Echinodenn debris is abundant in the lower shales and unit A has yielded certain unique forms including a high, narrow morph of Stephanocrinus anulatus, large Eudalyptocrinites and the very rare crinoid Paracolocrinus (Brett, 1978).
Locally, small bioherms 1-5 m across and up to 2 m high protrude upward from the Irondequoit Limestone into the base of the Rochester shale (Sarle, 1901). These mounds are composed of whitish to massive micritic limestone with abundant laminar fistuliporoid bryozoans. A particularly good example of one of these mounds, now inaccessible, but readily visible, occurs along the high wall of Irondequoit Limestone immediately south of this Rochester Shale outcrop. This mound appears to interfinger laterally with shales of unit A; however, it al so contains pockets filled with a greenish clay shale, unlike the basal Rochester. Bioherms such as this have yielded a number of unique fossils not seen elsewhere in the Rochester Shale. Large Bumastus and Calymene trilobites, sometimes as coquinites of cephalic and pygidial shields occur in shaley pockets within the biohenns. Unit A clearly exhibits features transitional between typical Irondequoit Limestone and Rochester Shale.
B) The lower beds of the Rochester Shale grade upward into a 2.5 - 3m interval of softer, less calcareous, medium to brownish-gray mudstone with numerous lenticular beds of bryozoan rich biomicrites. As a whole, this interval is richly fossiliferus; although some mudstone beds are nearly barren. Ramose bryozoans are particularly characteristic and they frequently occur in clusters packed in a mudstone matrix. Assocciated with these clusters are abundant brachiopods such as Atrypa reticularis, small Leptaena, and Whitfieldella. This interval is particularly notable for the abundance of ecinoderm remains including thecae of the blastoid-like pelmatozoan Stephanocrinus angulatus, and the rhombiferan cystoid Caryocrinites ornatus, both of which are typiclly associated with bryozoan-rich patches. Holdfasts of Caryocrinites are commonly found cemented to brozoans. Gastropods, the trilobites Bumastus, Arctinurus, Dalmanites and others are also abundant in these beds. Certain limestone lenses in unit B appear to represent starved ripples of storm-concentrated, skeletal debris. rotated geopetal structures and infillings of brachiopod shells with matrix identical to that of the underlying beds suggest derivation of these fossils by reworking during storms.
C) Near the north end of Niagara Gorge the middle interval of the Lewiston Member consists of about 3-4 m of sparsely fossiliferous gray shales and interbedded dark-gray, burrowed, laminated calcisiltites (pelmicrites). Bryozoan clusters and biomicritic limestones are absent from this interval. These shales exhlblt a low diversity fauna dominated by the brachiopods Striispirifer, Strophonella and Parmorthis and the trilobites Dalmanites, Trimerus and Arctinurus. Near the base of unit C occur thin horizons which locally contain exceptionally well-preserved fossils. These layers, in all about 10-20 cm thick, were designated the Homocrinus band at Lockport, New York (Ringueberg, 1888); they contain the characteristic minute inadunate crinoid Homocrinus parvus, as well as completely articulated specimens of Asaphocrinus and Macrostylocrinus, the cystoid Caryocrinites, edrioasteroids and rare starfish. These fossils are associated with dense bedding plane assemblages of Striispirifer and other brachiopods. Such assemblages suggest rapid smothering of the sea floor by muds, producing catastrophic (live) burial of benthic communities by storm-generated mud layers (Brett, 1978; 1980)
Homocrinus-bearing layers have been recognized at Niagara Gorge about 4.6 m (15 ft) above the base of the Lewiston Member. However, no large assemblages have as yet been obtained from this locality. Calcisiltites of Lewiston C also appear to record a type of storm-generated layer. These units form thin (1-2 cm) persistent bands. Weathered surfaces reveal fine plana- and hummocky- cross lamination, often in alternating sets. Their upper surfaces may be rippled and basal contacts are invariably sharp. The undersurfaces of some calcisiltites yield abundant sole marks including flute and groove molds which suggest current scouring of cohesive muds; occasionally, well-preserved fossils may also occur on the undersides of these beds. Most calcisiltites are barren of body fossils, but they contain abundant trace fossils including large vertical shafts - possibly escape burrows - and post-depositional mining structures such as Chondrites and Planolites.
Rochester calcisiltites closely resemble storm silt layers described by Reineck and Singh (1972), from the modern North Sea and by Kreisa (1981) from the Ordovician Martinsburg Formation. They are interpreted as deposits from storm-generated density currents which transported carbonate silts from shallow platform areas into the Rochester depositional basin.
D) Overlying unit C is an interval, up to 2 m thick, of fossiliferous mudstone with biomicrites which closely resemble unit B, both in lithology and fauna. Again, clusters of ramose bryozoan are abundant and exhibit virtually all of the associated fauna found within the lower unit B. These beds, again, yield abundant atrypids and Whitfieldella, Striispirifer, Leptaena, Bumastus trilobites, dendroid graptolites and the pelmatozoans Stephanocrinus angulatus and Caryocrinites. Lenticular calcarenites resembllng those in unit B become increasingly abundant upward in unit D whereas barren calcisiltites are less frequent than in unit c.
E) "Bryozoa beds." The top of the Lewiston Member is marked by a series of thin lenticular limestones (biomicrites and biosparites) interbedded with soft, gray, fossiliferous shale. Grabau (1901) termed this unit the "bryozoa beds," because of the great abundance of ramose and fenestrate bryozoans which constitute a bulk of the thin limestones. Brachiopods and echinoderms are also abundant in these beds although typically disarticulated and fragmented. Notable is the reappearance of a large, slender morphotype of Stephanocrinus seen also in unit A at the base of the Rochester Shale.
The uppermost bed of unit E is generally somewhat thicker and more continuous than the underlying layers and may be richer in brachiopod valves and crinoidal debris, resembling the uppermost layers of the Irondequoit Limestone. This unit marks the top of the Lewiston Member in nearly all localities. Locally, this topmost limestone bed is glauconitic and contains shale intraclasts, evidently derived by erosion from the underlying beds.
At this locality, as in most areas of western new York, the Lewiston Member is abruptly overlain by medium to dark gray platey and calcareous shale of the Burleigh Hill Member, named for exposures along Burleigh Hill Drive in St. Catharines, Ontario (Brett, in press). In the north end of Niagara Gorge the Burleigh Hill is about 10 m thick. However, as will be noted, this unit thins rapidly southward along Niagara Gorge. The basal 4-5 m of the member are sparsely fossiliferus to nearly barren, laminated and platey shales which weather into elongate slabs. Lithologically and faunally this portion of the Burleigh Hill Member most closely resembles unit C of the Lewiston Member, and, as with the latter unit, these shales contain occasional thin, laminated calcisiltites which increase in frequency upward. No bryozoan biomicrites have been observed in the Burleigh Hill Memeber at any locality in western New York and bryozoans are generally absent. Near the base of the Burleigh Hill are a few thin shell layers composed chiefly of the brachipods Fardenia, Parmorthis, and Strophonella as well as trilobite fragments.
The upper half of the Burleigh Hill Member is gradational into the overlying DeCew Dolostone. Bands of calcisiltite become more closely spaced and eventually merge into a silty dolomitic shale near the top. A few thin layers near the top of the Burleigh Hill have yielded local patches of well-preserved crinoids including Dimerocrinities and Dendrocrinus as well as brachiopods and other fossils. Burleigh Hill dolomitic shales appear to pass upward gradationally into the overlying DeCew Dolostone Formation. Unlike the Lewiston member, which appears to represent a subsymmetrical cycle, Burleigh Hll reflects a shallowing-upward hemicycle.

Route Revision
2011: The Robert Moses Parkway has been interrupted and modified, so the route in the Guidebook is no longer possible. However, it is now possible to make left turns off of the Parkway... OHM

Goat Island Dolostone
Small exposures of Goat Island Dolostone of the Lockport Group in the roadcut.

STOP 5. Niagara Sewage Pumping Station.
Proceed on foot down old access road to Niagara sewage pumping station in the Gorge. Note well-exposed bioherm in the Gasport Limestone along roadcut.
This stop illustrates the contrast between northern and southern sections of Rochester Shale in the Niagara Gorge. A large artificial cut behind the new sewage pumping building exposes the upper portion of the Lewiston and the entire Burleigh Hill Members of the Rochester Shale. At this location in the gorge the Lewiston Member is approximately 12.5 m (41 ft) thick; the majority of this thickness consists of unfossiliferous shales of a greatly thickened submember C9 here about 11 m (36 ft) thick in contrast to 3.6 to 4 m (11-14 ft) at Stop 4. The upper portion of this unit, visible at the base of the cut, consists of nearly barren, silty shale with one or two thin calcisiltite bands. The fossil-rich submember D is not recognizable at this locality; its position appears to be occupied by a section of interbedded shales and thin (5-10 cm) calcisiltite bands. Four or five prominent ledge-forming dolomitic calcisiltites occur near the center of the outcrop, apparently representing the lateral equivalent of "bryozoa beds" (submember E). These bands exhibit sedimentary structures including hummocky cross lamination, rippled upper surfaces, and sharp, scoured basal surfaces, suggestive of current deposition of fine carbonate silt. The beds are interpreted as layers derived from winnowing of bryozoan-crinoid shoals which existed to the north (e.g. at the northern of Niagara Gorge). Ripple- and cross-bed orientation suggest southerly current transport of sediments.
Immediately overlying the highest dolomitic band are 1 or 2 thin layers of coarse, rusty weathering biosparite containing an abundance of brachiopods, pelmatozoans and some bryozoan debris, interbedded with slightly fossiliferous shales. These are essentially the only fossil-rich beds in the entire outcrop and they appear to represent a southern vestige of the topmost bed of unit E in the north. Two km to the north the Whirlpool State Park these bands thicken into a 10-20 cm thick interval of fossil debris and the underlying dolomitic calcisiltites interfinger with typical bryozoan-bearing beds indicating a clearcut transition from typical biosparites of unit E, to the dolostones seen at this locality. The upper bed of fossil debris is followed abruptly by barren shales of the Burleigh Hill Member, which closely resemble those of unit C. The Burleigh Hill is about 6 m thick and displays a sharp, probably erosional, upper contact with the DeCew Dolostone.
This sparsely fossiliferous section stands in striking contrast to sections just a few miles north. It suggests the presence of a fairly abrupt, southward dipping paleoslope.

STOP 6. Ontario Hydro Access Road Cut.
Pass circle at Maid of the Mist information building. Pull off bus along the river road here and park. Proceed on foot to access road for Ontario Hydro Niagara Plant, and Maid of the Mist launch area. Note excellent exposures of Lockport Group beginning at the top of the roadcut with Eramosa Dolostone, followed below by the vuggy stromatolitic and stromatoporoid-bearing Goat Island Dolostone and the dolomitic crinoidal limestone of the Gasport Formation; this unit, in turn, is underlain by buff-weathering, sugary-textured, DeCew Dolostone, exhibiting prominent soft sediment deformation ("enterolithic structure"). The access road forks into two branches, one leading to the straight ahead to the Ontario Hydro Plant, and the other, left hand fork leads to the Maid of the Mist launch area. Near the fork are exposures of the upper part of the Rochester Shale.
This roadcut provides one of the southernmost exposures of the Rochester Shale in New York State. Here the upper contact of the formation is well exposed, just north of the fork in the road. The buff-weathering enterolithic DeCew Dolostone rests with sharp, wavy, and apparently channeled contact on the barren shales of the middle Burleigh Hill Member. No transitional interval is observed at this locality and the Burleigh Hill is only about 4.7 m thick. This situation contrasts with the gradational upper contact of the Rochester Shale observed in most western New York localities. It suggests that the upper Burleigh Hill beds have been removed, possibly by downslope erosional truncation, prior to DeCew carbonate silt deposition. The prominent enterolithic structure of the DeCew Dolostone has long been noted and may have resulted from downslope slumping of rapidly deposited carbonate sediments.

B2: GLACIAL AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY ASPECTS OF THE NIAGARA FALLS AND GORGE
Parker E. Calkin
Department of Geological Sciences
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14214
Thomas A. Wilkinson
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Buffalo District, Buffalo, NY 14207
The Niagara River separating Canada and the United States (Frontispiece II) is unusual as compared to other rivers. for its (a) short length and (b) discharge stability due to the immense storage capacity of its drainage basin. It is largely supplied by the excess discharge brought into Lake Erie from Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. In addition to their stabilizing effect, the Great Lakes trap most of the basin sediment so that the river is essentially sedimentfree (Philbrick, 1970). From its mouth at the north end of Lake Erie at 174.4 m (572 ft) the Niagara descends 23.3 m (73 ft) to the brink of the Falls, drops vertically 51 m (167 ft) (Fig. I), and then descends another 22.6 m (74 ft) in gorge to Lake Ontario at 753m (246 ft). The mean natural flow is about 5,721 m3 sec-l (202,000 ft3 sec-1), and can be increased temporarily by as much as 50 percent due to water surface set up during storms along Lake Erie. However, it is otherwise very stable. Since about 1905, the flow over the Falls itself has been markedly limited by water diversion for hydroelectric power generation. Presently it carries 50 percent of the river's natural flow or about 2,800 m3 sec-l (1003000 ft3 sec-1) during tourist hours and only about 25 percent (1,400 m3 sec-l /50,000 ft3 sec-1) at other times. About 92 percent of undiverted flow passes over the Horseshoe Falls, 8 percent over the American Falls, and this percentage may have been the average even under precontrol discharges (American Falls International Board, 1974).
The differences in elevation that cause the Falls is related to the presence of the Niagara cuesta (escarpment) that divides the Erie and Ontario basins (Frontispiece I and II). The canyon (gorge) of the Niagara has been cut southward from this escarpment into a section of jointed, gently south-dipping sedimentary rocks capped by the tough Lockport dolostone. The stratigraphy is considered in detail in a subsequent section of this paper and in Brett (1982, this volume).
The modern Niagara River was initiated as a multi-outlet river-lake system following the last retreat of the Last Winconsin ice sheet; the cutting of its deep incised gorge through time is related in various degrees to the changes in drainage controlled by this ice retreat. The ancestral development culminating with a more detailed chronology for development of the Upper Great Gorge is the initial subject of this paper. The second part considers details of the geology in the present area of the Falls and the geologic processes that control stability as well as retreat of the Falls and Gorge as they are revealed in the context of major engineering projects undertaken principally along the east (American) side of the Niagara Gorge. A third section considers the future of the Falls.

B2: GLACIAL AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY ASPECTS OF THE NIAGARA FALLS AND GORGE

Travel over glacial Lake Warren plain
Travel over glacial Lake Warren plain with red clay colored by Queenston Shale. We are also at south margin of Lake Tonawanda plain.

Subdued topography
Subdued topography due to subaqueous deposition in Lake Warren and washing by initial stages of Niagara River System.

Note spray of Falls at Left.

Structures at left house gates for water intakes to Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant.

Niagara Falls Sewage Treatment Plant on right
Pass Carborundum Company and Niagara Falls Sewage Treatment Plant on right, Grass Island Pool and control structure (mostly on Canadian side) on distant left.

STOP 1. Goat Island
The Horseshoe Falls is seen between emerged bedrock terraces of the ancestral river. The Niagara Falls Moraine forms the bluff behind the Falls on the Canadian Side. The bedrock slopes which form the Horseshoe and American Rapids are connected beneath Goat Island, at this site, and represent the eastern bank of Spencer's (1907) "pre-glacial Falls-Chippewa Valley." This was believed to trend southward from headwater 2 Km (1.2 mi) to the north (near head of north-trending St. Davids Gorge). Figure 3a shows the surficial deposits on Goat Island.
The stratigraphy, structure, talus accumulation, and general location of previous rockfalls at the American Falls will be observed at this stop.

STOP 2. Schoellkopf Geological Museum
This is the site of the massive rockfall that destroyed the Schoellkopf Powerhouse Stations 3B and 3C and damaged 3A on June 7, 1956. This area of failure will be observed and described.

STOP 3. Whirlpool Park
Descend from the parking lot a series of bedrock or gravel river terraces to Gorge margin and view of Whirlpool. The Whirlpool formed soon after 9800 yr 13P when the retreating Falls intersected the buried St. Davids Gorge (see Figs. 1, 2, 3b). Known since the time of James Holland and Charles Lyell, this gorge is as deep and nearly as wide as the Upper Great Gorge (Hobson and Terasmae, 1969), and extends northward across the Escarpment at the community of St. Davids, Ontario, to the mouth of the Niagara at Niagara-On-The-Lake. Taylor (1933) showed that it probably reached as far south (upstream) as the Railroad Bridge where till was encountered in the Gorge bottom and probably up to the head of the Whirlpool Rapids section (Fig. 1). The age and nature of the drift fill (Fig. 2) suggest cutting occurred during or more probably before Middle Wisconsin time under nonglacial conditions when river discharges and base-level conditions were similar to those of the present.
The Gorge walls expose Lockport Dolostone down through Lower Silurian, Whirlpool Sandstone (type area).

STOP 4. Devils Hole
This is a plunge pool formed by drainage from Lake Tonawanda via a shallow channel east of the main Niagara channel (Fig. 1). The cave has enlarged through solution localized along a master joint. This site is a good one for viewing the stratigraphy and structure of the Lockport Formation.
Bloody Run, the stream now occupying the lower end of this channel, is named after an Indian massacre of settlers which is reported to have occurred here in 1763.

STOP 5. Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant
A brief stop at this plant will be made to observe the limited exposures of rock excavation surface. The Power Vista itself displays models of Niagara Falls and Gorge, the power generating plant setup and in addition, views of the Gorge stratigraphy. Elevator service to the base of the Power Plant Access Road (traversing good exposures of the Queenston through the Lockport formations) may be obtained for geology field trips with special permission.

Cross Barre Moraine at crest of Niagara Escarpment
Cross Barre Moraine at crest of Niagara Escarpment with view of lake Iroquois plain to north.
Descend Escarpment; note meandering lower Niagara River with drop of less than 1 m in 6 mi (9 Km) distance to lake Ontario.

Rt. 104 E here follows crest of wave-cut bluff
Rt. 104 E here follows crest of wave-cut bluff of lake Iroquois with thin lacustrine silts on till. Niagara Escarpment at right.

Rt. 104 starts to follow crest of Lake Iroquois beach ridge.

A second ridge occurs to North
A second ridge occurs to North (North Ridge spit) probably derived from the lockport spillway to the east.

Enter bedrock embayment of lockport spillway system for lake Tonawanda.

Turn left up Escarpment on East Jackson St.
The lockport Wastewater Treatment Plant on right is lockport Gulf site of Calkin and Brett (1978) and Miller and Morgan (1982). Subsurface exposure of the lockport Gulf site have revealed the following stratigraphy:
Top 0.5 m | Fill
2.5 m | Massive silty clay (post glacial)
2.0 m | Gray organic silt, clay, and marl with pollen dominated by spruce; basal wood date of 10,920+ 160 yr BP (1-5841)
3.5 m | Laminated red and gray sand, silt, and clay (Lake Iroquois?)
Base 9.0 m | Red clayey sand and gravel interpreted to be till (only in borings)
East Jackson St. follows one of the three major spillway channels at Lockport.

Kame deposits are related to Albion-Rochester Moraine.

STOP 6. Outwater Park, Lockport
View northward from Lockport Escarpment of Lake Iroquois plain and Lake Ontario (if clear) 11 mi. distant. The Lockport Gulf (W. Jackson St.) spillway circles just below. Good exposures of the bedrock surface and northeast-southwest oriented striations occur in the park dump area to the west of the water tank.

Cross High Street on crest of Barre Moraine ridge.

Another of four Barre Moraine ridges
Cross Summit Street at light, another of four Barre Moraine ridges mapped by Gilbert (Kindle and Taylor, 1913).

You are in middle of the former River -- Lake Tonawanda plain.
You are in middle of the former River -- Lake Tonawanda plain. A few low NE-SW-oriented drumlins can be seen to the northeast.

B3: QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY AND BLUFF EROSION WESTERN LAKE ONTARIO, NEW YORK
PARKER E. CALKIN
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York 14226
ERNEST H. MULLER*
Department of Geology
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York 13210
THOMAS F. DREXHAGE*
Acres American Inc.
Liberty Bank Building
Buffalo, New York 14202
Wave-steepened bluffs along the south coast of Lake Ontario display the most continuous and some of the most interesting exposures of glacial drift in New York. Study of these bluffs provides detail of local and regional Pleistocene history, as well as insight into mechanisms of glacio-lacustrine sedimentation. In addition, knowledge of the composition, structure and correlation of bluff materials is fundamental to interpretation of rates and modes of coastal recession and sediment contribution to the lake basin. Wave and subaerial erosion of these bluffs has been particularly severe because bedrock comprises a very small part of the bluff sections.
Record, or near-record high lake levels between 1972 and 1978 greatly accelerated bluff recession and provided the stimulus for a Sea Grant study at SUNY Buffalo of more than 400 km (250 mi) of Lake Ontario coast in New York (Drexhage and Calkin, 1981).
In this guide book we focus on 1) the geologic setting, composition and stratigraphy of the bluffs west of Rochester (Fig. 1); 2) the historic rates and distribution of bluff recession and sediment loading to the lake along this same reach of coast; and 3) some of the factors that influence local differences in recession rates.
Much of the data on bluff recession in this report is from the comprehensive study of historic recession along the whole coast in New York (Drexhage and Calkin, 1981), as well as more local studies (Fortune and Calkin, 1981; Brennan and Calkin, in press). A comprehensive account of the Lake Ontario bluff stratigraphy in New York will be published elsewhere (P.E.Calkin and E.H.Muller, in prep.), but preliminary accounts have been presented by Calkin and Brennan (1976) and Calkin and others (1978).
Basic field measurements and sampling for the stratigraphic study were undertaken during the summers of 1974 and 1975 when Lake Ontario levels were, at times, as much as 1.5 ft (0.45 m) above the 1OO-year monthly averages which range from 245 to 246.6 ft (74.68 to 74.86 m), respectively. Bluff sections were measured at least every kilometer. Attempts were made to trace stratigraphic units continuously along the coast. In this guide, the same station numbers are used for location on Figures 5 through 25 and are referred to in the text without figure numbers and usually within parentheses.
* Field trip leaders

B3: QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY AND BLUFF EROSION WESTERN LAKE ONTARIO, NEW YORK

STOP 1. Terrapin Point, Goat Island, Niagara Falls.
We will take time only for photographs. See Calkin and Wilkinson (this volume, Stop 1) for details.

STOP 2. Whirlpool State Park.
This again is only a photostop. See Calkin and Wilkinson (this volume, Stop 3) for details.

Cross Barre Moraine at crest of Niagara Escarpment
Cross Barre Moraine at Country Club atop the Niagara Escarpment. View north of Lake Ontario (if clear) across Lake Iroquois plain in foreground below Escarpment.

Descend Escarpment.

Proceed north onto Iroquois lake plain
Pass under Route 104 across wave-formed bluff and strand of Lake Iroquois. Proceed north onto Iroquois lake plain on Route 18.

View Lake Ontario and bluff
View Lake Ontario and bluff at 23 (Fig. 7). Nearshore gradient is about 8.6 m/km; both short and long-term recession average under 30 cm/yr. (Drexhage and Calkin, 1981).

STOP 3. Roosevelt Beach.
Park at boat ramp site enclosed by storm fence and gate. You are 100 m east of Station 34.
The bluff stratigraphy as exposed in 1975 was:
Top 0.5 m | Fill
2.5 m | Massive silty clay (post glacial)
2.0 m | Gray organic silt, clay, and marl with pollen dominated by spruce; basal wood date of 10,920+ 160 yr BP (1-5841)
3.5 m | Laminated red and gray sand, silt, and clay (Lake Iroquois?)
Base 9.0 m | Red clayey sand and gravel interpreted to be till (only in borings)
Approximately 1200 m to the west, the lower compact till is separated from the overlying till by a stone pavement. Gilbert (1898) described a well developed stone pavement exposed in shore bluffs for a half mile east of the mouth of Tuscarora Bay. Marked parallelism of striae on the flat upper surface of 10 of these boulders indicated deposition of the upper till to have been by ice flowing S50W. He interpreted the stone pavement as distinguishing two tills. An alternative explanation recognizes the upper till as a subaqueous allo-till facies; the lower till as lodgement facies representing the same glaciation.
The highest bluff recession rates in Niagara County are measured at Roosevelt Beach (Drexhage and Calkin, 1981). Between 1938 and 1951 the bluff receded at an average rate of 2.1 ft/yr. Prior to 1902, Twelvemile Creek entered Lake Ontario through Tuscarora Bay. In 1902, the receding shore bluffs breached the left bank of Twelvemi1e Creek. Subsequent sedimentation has built a barrier across the former channel, isolating the mouth of Twelvemile Creek from that of its East Branch and tying the "Island" east of the State Park to the mainland. (See also Brennan, 1979, Fic. 13, Stn. 11, pp 36-37, and Fortune and Calkin, 1981.)

Note elongate, northeast-trending ridge at right.
Note elongate, northeast-trending ridge at right. This is the general trend of ground moraine ridges in this part of the lake plain. Though very subdued, this grain controls orientation of minor drainage lines. In part, at least, it is considered to reflect fluting of underlying bedrock by glacial erosion.

STOP 4. Olcott Bluffs.
Located between Stations 56 and 57 (Fig. 11). This is the eastern edge of a somewhat uneven silt-topped sand plain that stretches along the coast from Olcott and inland at least one mile to a low ridge, 10 to 20 ft. high and correlable with the Carlton Moraine. Ice-contact features have not been recognized in the thick cross-bedded, subaqueous sands, but their occurrence above abnormally thick clay-silt rhythmites and below fine silt suggests ice marginal oscillation. Figure 26 shows the section as measured 1 km to the west. Seeps near base of the stratified drift induce mass wasting which now largely obscures stratigraphic relationships at this site. Queenston bedrock crops out at bases of bluffs on headlands adjoining this stretch of shoreline. Bluff recession less than 30 cm/yr.

STOP 5. Somerset Bluffs.
Located between Stations 60 and 61. In 1974, the wave-eroded bluffs here recorded two tills, a red stony till overlain by purplish-gray silty till. This section is also revealed in borings for the facility. The following section was measured in 1975:
Top | 0.4 m | Lake clay, silty, oxidized
| 0.55 m | Lake silt, yellow; contains convoluted beds and dropstones.
| 1.1 m | Till, interbedded yellow sand, locally gravelly; subaqueous allo-till (?)
| 2.1 m | Till, purple-red, 10% stones, compact. lodgement and subaqueous till.
| 0.5 m | Queenston bedrock

STOP 6. Thirty Mile Point
This is Station 75 (Fig. 16). Bedrock reaches its greatest elevation above lake level in shorebluff of the south coast of Lake Ontario at Thirty Mile Point. Lake silts and sandy silt till overlie some 3 to 4 m of Queenston bedrock.
Of particular interest is the small, fractured bedrock anticline with northwest-southeast trend paralleling the coastline. As described by Gilbert (1899), the crest was broken by a steeply northeasterly dipping fracture, the northeast side displaced upward 2m with overturning of fold axis to the southwest, enclosing till. Although continuing below lake level, the deformation seems to die out downward. Evidence suggests glaciotectonic thrusting by southwesterly moving ice following initial till deposition (Kindle and Taylor, 1913).
Gilbert wrote "Should this description rouse enough interest to induce others to examine the locality, their visits should not be long delayed. This part of the coast is specially exposed to the attack of storm waves and is rapidly beaten back." Eighty years later, however, the exposure appears much as illustrated by Gilbert with apparent bluff recession of no more than 2-3 m in that interval.

Carlton Moraine trending parallel to route.
Note very gently hummocky topography of Carlton Moraine trending parallel to route.

Orchard Creek has been incised deeply into bedrock
Orchard Creek has been incised deeply into bedrock by early postglacial stream erosion. Like other creeks on this south coast of Lake Ontario, its gradient has been diminished and its debouchment into Lake Ontario drowned by postglacial tilting. Shore bluff retreat partly counters the estuary development that tilting has produced.

STOP 7. Brighton Cliff.
Bouldery to sandy supraglacial drift correlated with ridges of the Carlton Moraine 1 to 2 mi south. Underlying weakly bedded till overlies compact till similar to the main till unit of the Niagara River to Rochester reach of the Ontario coastline. The stratigraphy in the bluff is depicted in Figure 27 from Brennan (1979)."At the top of the till, a deformed boulder layer lies on a distinct erosion surface; above the boulder layer pebbly sand grades upwards to fine sand and silt". (Brennan, 1979, p. 47). Pods of till within the sand and small-scale normal faults further suggest ice contact deposition. Features like the fault in Figure 27b may represent deformation during the Carlton glaciation.

Carlton Moraine
Proceed through type area of Carlton Moraine at the railroad tracks.

Cross Lake Iroquois beach ridge

Pass over Albion Moraine

Cross esker

Note esker ridge angling obliquely toward road.

Bear right at fork onto Kams Road and along esker ridge.

Turn right onto Maple Street across the Burma Woods kames.

STOP 8. Burma Woods Esker/Kame Complex.
The extensive area of glacier disintegration topography traversed for the past three miles developed during wastage of the glacier front from the Barre Moraine, about .5 miles south of this point. The stagnating ice margin apparently fronted on Lake Lundy (Lake Dana (?)) at a stage when it was too shallow to float large ice bergs. The Burma Woods Esker can be readily traced for 4 mi (6.4 km ) and conceivably extends all the way to the Albion Moraine, making it perhaps the longest esker in western New York. It consists of a number of discrete segments, the last to be deposited being at the north end. One of the segments terminates in a kame delta at about 735 ft. suggesting the level of Lake Lundy into which it was deposited. Distinct deltaic foreset bedding can be observed in this pit. See Figure 28 for location.

This is the frontal ridge of the Barre Moraine.
Turn left onto Hemlock Ridge Road. This is the frontal ridge of the Barre Moraine. Proceed east through West Barre on Root Road (continuation of Hemlock Ridge Road) and cross lake flats with several closely spaced drumlin ridges oriented northeast-southwest.

Cross eastern end of Oak Orchard Creek headwaters
Cross eastern end of Oak Orchard Creek headwaters and surrounding swamp, as well as several southwest-oriented drumlins.

Elba -- the "onion capital of N.Y.S."

Cross Onondaga Escarpment
Cross Onondaga Escarpment and rise onto Onondaga Bench. The Batavia Moraine crosses Route 98 at top of the scarp.

Gravel kame topography
Gravel kame topography correlated with the Buffalo Moraine trends northwest away from Thruway on right.

Cross through partly quarried-out kames
Cross through partly quarried-out kames related to the Buffalo Moraine

Pass gravel pits in thick gravel
Pass gravel pits in thick gravel associated with Buffalo Moraine (Calkin, this volume, Figure 2).

Quarry on right next mile in Onondaga Limestone

Cross Onondaga Limestone Escarpment and under Route 5 (Main Street).

B4: SEDIMENTOLOGIC AND GEOMORPHIC PROCESSES AND EVOLUTION OF BUTTERMILK VALLEY, WEST VALLEY, NY
JON C. BOOTHROYD
Department of Geology
University of Rhode Island.
Kingston, RI 02881
BARRY S. TIMSON
Earth Surface Research, Inc.
114 State St. Augusta, ME 04330
LORIE A. DUNNE
New York State Geological Survey
Albany, NY 12230
The purpose of this trip is to investigate the sedimentologic and geomorphic processes active in a small non-glacial gravel stream and on adjacent valley walls and tributaries. The work that led to this field trip is part of a larger geologic and hydrologic study by the New York State Geological Survey of the low-level nuclear waste disposal site and other use areas of the West Valley Nuclear Service Center. The geomorphic study is being done to determine, as accurately as possible, the denudation rate in the Buttermilk drainage basin, and to estimate rate and magnitude of morphologic changes to the waste-burial site.
Buttermilk Creek, located in southwestern New York (Fig. 1), has a drainage basin area of 78.4 km2 and is a tributary of Cattaraugus Creek. Figure 2 shows detail of that part of the drainage basin adjacent to the West Valley Nuclear Service Center (WVNSC).
GENERAL GEOLOGY
Surficial Geology
The area of interest is in the Ashford Hollow and West Valley 7 1/2 minute quadrangles. The regional surficial geology has been mapped by Muller (1977) and discussed by Coates (1976). Wisconsinan glacial features and later Holocene modifications of the 2 quadrangles have been mapped in great detail by Lafleur (1979) and discussed by him on the 1980 Friends of the Pleistocene field trip (Lafleur, 1980).
An upper plateau containing the waste-burial trenches, is underlain by till capped in places by a thin layer of fluvial gravel that marks the original fluvial surface immediately following the late Woodfordian deglaciation. Movement of groundwater in the vicinity of the waste-burial trenches has been investigated by Prudic (1979) and Prudic and Randall (1979). Mapping by Boothroyd et al. (1979, 1981) has further refined Lafleur's units in the vicinity of the WVNSC. There are eight till units, identified by age and present steepness of slope, and ten fluvial/alluvial fan systems ranging from the presently-active bar and channel system to late Woodfordian proglacial channels.

B4: SEDIMENTOLOGIC AND GEOMORPHIC PROCESSES AND EVOLUTION OF BUTTERMILK VALLEY, WEST VALLEY, NY

West Valley Nuclear Service Center (WVNSC) entrance.

STOP 1. Overview of the West Valley Nuclear Service Center.
The buildings housing the nuclear fuel reprocessing facility are to the left, waste-burial trenches are to the right. The land and buildings inside the high-security fence are owned presently by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and operated for them by the Westinghouse Corp. Westinghouse is carrying out the West Valley Demonstration Project, a program to solidify the high-level liquid waste stored on site, for later isolation in a still-to-be chosen facility. The NRC-licensed intermediate-level burial trench (left) is also operated by Westinghouse; the low-level trenches (right) are owned by the NYSERDA and are no longer accepting waste material.
The buildings are situated on an early Holocene alluvial fan; the waste-burial trenches are excavated in late Woodfordian Lavery till (Lafleur, 1979). The plateau containing the trenches marks the surface elevation of Buttermilk valley in early post-glacial time. The plateau beyond the trenches is covered by a thin veneer of fluvial gravel deposited in the ancestral late-glacial to early post-glacial Buttermilk Creek. Initial incision and downcutting began sometime before 9900 BP (Fig. 8), and continues to the present. The field trip discussion will focus on the manner and rate of erosion that will, in time, remove the plateau, and with it the waste-burial trenches.

Look for south reservoir in valley on the left.

New York State Plutonium Storage Facility.
End of paved road. STOP. Obtain prior permission to proceed on dirt road. CAUTION. This road is rough and steep. Trucks and/or 4 WD vehicles needed in wet weather. Go downhill and cross B & 0 RR tracks.

STOP 2. Assembly point.
Park vehicles so they do not block the B & 0 work road or access up and down the hill. Old Buttermilk Hill Rd. continues to Buttermilk Creek (100 m), the bridge has been removed. The surveyed section (Buttermilk-Bond reach) begins at the former site of the bridge and extends downstream to the north. Reservoir slug discharge enters from the west just below the bridge site.

Active channel of Buttermilk is undercutting railroad embankment.
View of bar complexes and low terraces.

STOP 3. Gravel-bar complexes, valley-wall landslides, etc.
Gravel-bar complexes, valley-wall landslides and alluvial fans, and Buttermilk fluvial terraces. The tributary stream enters Buttermilk Creek at bar complex 6, opposite the BC-6 landslide (Fig. 7). Extending 250 m upstream, to your left or south, is the BC 4-6 bar complex (Fig. 5). Just upstream of BC 4-6 is the BC-3 alluvial fan, situated on the west wall of the valley (Fig. 6). Fluvial terraces at several levels are preserved on the east side of the valley at the BC-6 tributary and on the west side adjacent to the BC-3 alluvial fan (Fig. 8). We shall discuss each of these features in turn, including gravel movement on the bars (Fig. 12). Please take care not to disturb any of the painted clasts.

B5: DEVONIAN BLACK SHALES OF WESTERN NEW YORK
DOUGLAS G. PATCHEN
KATHARINE LEE AVARY
West Virginia Geological Survey
Morgantown, WV 26507
The road log that follows is essentially a condensed version of the final day of a 5-day trip through the Middle and Upper Devonian clastics of central and western New York (Patchen and Dugo1insky, 1979). That particular trip was organized to give various contractors in DOE's Eastern Gas Shales Project (EGSP) the opportunity to examine, in the field, stratigraphic relations and facies changes hidden deep in the subsurface in the central Appalachian basin. The stops on the fifth day were designed to simulate a 2,200 to 2,500 foot stratigraphic section of "Devonian shale" in a typical "Brown Shale" gas well in West Virginia, Kentucky, or Ohio. The stops on this trip will enable us to visualize what the lowest 1,000-1,100 feet of section in such a well would look like. The main difference will be that the Dunkirk Shale, which is only 40-50 feet thick in this area, thickens westward and merges with the basal black shale of the Huron Shale. In southwestern West Virginia this black shale ranges from 300-400 feet in thickness and serves as both source bed and reservoir in more than 30 gas fields. More recently, prolific oil wells with initial potentials (IP's) ranging from 50 to 1,000 barrels per day have been drilled to this and other shales in the Devonian section in several counties along the Ohio River (Fig. 1). Thus, even though the EGSP is now defunct, interest in the Devonian Shales, both in the surface and subsurface, remains high.
When we agreed, at a rather late date, to organize this trip, we secured from Art VanTyne a promise to submit a companion article for the guidebook discussing surface to subsurface correlations and gas production from Devonian shales in New York. Furthermore, Wallace de Witt informed us that he would present a paper on Devonian shale stratigraphy at the Eastern Section meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists that immediately precedes the NYSGA field trips. Therefore, we refer the readers to their articles and will present only the barest of stratigraphic summaries herein.

B5: DEVONIAN BLACK SHALES OF WESTERN NEW YORK

Exposures of Onondaga Limestone
Exposures of Onondaga Limestone along both sides of the highway. The black Marcellus Shale that overlies the Onondaga cannot be readily observed in the Buffalo area due to the relatively flat topography near Lake Erie.

Rhinestreet Shale with large concretions.
Town of Hamburg water tower. Good exposure of black Rhinestreet Shale with large concretions.

Exposures of the Ledyard and Wanakah Shales
Entrance for Hamburg Park. Exposures of the Ledyard and Wanakah Shales of the Ludlowville Formation can be observed near lake level in the park but not from the highway. Stop 1 of Tesmer (1966); stop 47 of Patchen and Dugolinsky (1979).

STOP 1. Eighteenmile Creek Gorge
Turn left on South Creek Road; park on right side of road. Walk carefully back along the road and over the bridge.
Upstream from the bridge over the main highway are exposures of the Wanakah Shale, Tichenor Limestone, Windom and Penn Yan Shales, Genundewa Limestone, and a few feet of West River Shale. The black shale near the top of the outcrop, which is weathered a reddish color and displays well-developed fractures, is the base of the Middlesex Shale. Notice the weathered pyrite associated with the base of the Tichenor Limestone, along with the abundant fossils, both characteristic of the Tichenor.
It is possible to walk from the exposures on the beach at the mouth of this stream where the Wanakah and Tichenor are present, upstream past the point and see the Middlesex, Cashaqua and Rhinestreet. Thus, continuous exposures from the Ludlowville Formation of the Upper Hamilton Group, through the Moscow Formation, the Genesee and Sonyea Formations, and into the West Falls Formation are present and all visible, representing a large proportion of Middle and Upper Devonian time.

STOP 2. Rt. 5 Bridge Over Eighteenmile Creek
JCT with Rt. 5. Cross and park on right. Descend gorge under the bridge.
The Wanakah Shale is exposed in the stream bed and may be under water, depending on water level. This is followed upward by one or two feet of Tichenor Limestone, about ten feet of Windom and Penn Yan Shale, some thin Genundewa Limestone, about 3 feet of West River Shale, a few feet of dark, platy Middlesex Shale, and the lower few feet of Cashaqua Shale which cap the section. The entire section is perhaps 35 to 40 feet thick and all is accessible.

Railroad Bridge.
Short walk along path to left before RR bridge offers a view of upper Cashaqua and lower Rhinestreet (Stop 3 of Tesmer, 1966).

Excellent, thick exposures of black Rhinestreet Shale
Drive slowly across bridge in right lane; turn around in parking area to right and drive back. Observe excellent, thick exposures of black Rhinestreet Shale in stream banks.

STOP 3: Town Of Evans Nature Park
Exposures of the Rhinestreet may be seen along the road and adjacent to the parking lot by the pedestrian bridge. The base of the Rhinestreet is exposed farther downstream but not here. The shale here is the typical dark, platy shale characteristic of the Rhinestreet, with reddish weathering in places and concretions being very common, although not as evident at this locality as they are in Rhinestreet exposures along I-90 southeast of Hamburg.

Entrance to home of Piarist Fathers
Entrance to home of Piarist Fathers, Stop 48 of Patchen and Dugolinsky (1979); Stop 2 of Tesmer (1966). Exposures of the Wanakah Shale, Tichenor Limestone and Windom Shale are present along the beach. If anyone is interested in examining this site, permission should be obtained from the residents. Also, access to the beach is by way of an old metal stairway. Extreme caution should be used.

Windom Shale to Middlesex Shale interval
Gibra1ter on the Lake (PRIVATE ROAD). Stop 52 of Patchen and Dugolinsky (1979). The Windom Shale to Middlesex Shale interval is exposed along the beach.

Evangola State Park
Turn left at entrance to Evangola State Park. This was Stop 53 of Patchen and Dugolinsky (1979); Stop 5 of Tesmer (1966).

STOP 4: Walnut Creek In Town Of Silver Creek
Park along Parkway near fire hydrant. Walk through small lot to edge of Walnut Creek. Descend into creek bed. Observe Pipe Creek Shale above Angola Shale. Wade under bridge to 60 ft. exposure of Hanover. Dunkirk Shale is exposed 2 miles upstream.
The contacts of the Pipe Creek Shale with the underlying Angola Shale and the overlying Hanover Shale are exposed in the stream bed of Walnut Creek in the Town of Silver Creek. The top 5 feet or so of the Angola is all that is clearly exposed, but the entire Pipe Creek and the lower 60 feet of Hanover are accessible, although wading boots are suggested. Lithologies in the Hanover range from green-gray, thinly bedded shales to silty beds which are more prominent due to higher resistance to weathering.

STOP 5. Point Gratiot, Dunkirk
Turn right (just after paved entrance to power station) into unpaved parking area and park.
The base of the Dunkirk is well exposed on the beach just south of the power plant. The distinct transition zone between the Hanover and the Dunkirk at, and just beneath (but visible in clear water), the water at normal lake level. The greenish-gray beds of the Hanover and the black beds of the Dunkirk are separated by two black and two greenish-gray transition beds. A small exposure may be seen, particularly if the water is calm, by tracing the lighter colored units along the beach and noticing a slight northward dip in this location.
Feeding trails and carbonized plant fragments may be seen on the tops of the beds within the transition zone. Pyrite nodules are common. A freshly broken surface of Dunkirk Shale provides a strong petroleum odor.

New gas wells in vineyards to east.
Along the route notice new gas wells in vineyards to east. These are in the Medina sands (Lower Silurian).

About 55 feet of Dunkirk Shale are exposed in the gully under the bridge.
Cross bridge adjacent to an old bridge on a parallel route to the right (east). This was Stop 55 of Patchen and Dugolinsky (1979). About 55 feet of Dunkirk Shale are exposed in the gully under the bridge. The transitional zone between the Hanover and Dunkirk can be observed in the stream bed.

Observe excellent Hanover-Dunkirk contact on the right.

Cross gorge with fairly poor exposure.

Cross gorge with a good section exposed.

Excellent Rhinestreet exposure
Excellent Rhinestreet exposure along both sides of the thruway near the town of Hamburg water tower. The large concretions are characteristic of the Rhinestreet in this area.

Rhinestreet-Cashaqua contact in the ditch to the east.