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1 A Stratigraphic Framework for the Catskill Facies,

Southeastern New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania


Frank W. Fletcher, 4 Thompson Court, Reedville, VA, ffletcher@rivnet.net

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Any geologist who has followed this series of rocks from
I am profoundly indebted to Jon D. Inners, Robert G. central New York eastward to the Catskills, and then along their
Sutton, and Donald L. Woodrow for their friendship and eastern slope into Pennsylvania, knows very well that red beds Research Poster Design Services
their insights and good counsel regarding Catskill rocks appear at different horizons in various parts of the area, and
over the years. No man is an island, . . . also realizes the utter impossibility of indicating the same TIME AND ROCK
approximate horizon by drawing a line through the lowest red
beds. C. S. Prosser, 1894. The entire Middle and Upper Devonian sequence
THE CATSKILL DELTA
is thickest in eastern New York and thins
JOSEPH BARRELL wrote the first comprehensive
progressively westward.
description of the thick wedge of Middle and Upper
Devonian clastic rocks known as the Catskill Delta in The coarser, non-marine facies, Pocono and
1913. Since that time the stratigraphy, sedimentology, Catskill, predominate in eastern New York, while
and paleontology of these rocks have been the the finer-grained, shoreline and marine facies,
subject of countless publications, including two Cattaragus, Chemung. Portage, and Genesee,
notable overviews: Shepps (ed.), 1963, and Woodrow make up an increasingly greater proportion of the
and Sevon (ed.), 1985. The stratigraphic relations of
the Catskill Delta are well illustrated on correlation
sequence westward across the state.
charts published by the geologic surveys of New
York (Rickard, 1975) and Pennsylvania (Berg and Tongues of black and dark gray shale of the
others, 1983). Genesee facies extend eastward from the Lake
Erie region, first splitting the non-marine Portage
and Chemung facies of central New York and then
the non-marine Catskill facies of eastern New York,
where the are evidence of marine transgression.

The tongues of black and dark gray shale have


How to orderbeen employed
your poster to sub-divide the facies into four
for printing
groups. Because the anoxic muds that formed
each tongue of black and dark gray shale were
deposited everywhere in the Appalachian foreland
basin at nearly the same time, the shales may be
viewed as time horizons.

To trace a single group, such as the Sonyea


Group, from the Catskill Mountains westward to
Lake Erie is to pass from one magnafacies to
Joseph Barrell's paleogeographic map of the Catskill Delta Representational cross section of Catskill facies east to west across New York state (modified from Isachsen and others, 2000).
another and to cross the Devonian depositional
(Barrell, 1913) basin from alluvial fans, to alluvial plain, to
shoreline, to shelf, to slope, to basin floor,
The sedimentary sequence of the Catskill Delta respectively.
consists six major clastic facies, representing six
discrete environments of deposition associated with
the filling of the Appalachian foreland basin during
the Devonian Period.

Table illustrating the facies of the Catskill delta, together with the Diagram illustrating the magnafacies concept.
associated rock types and depositional environments. Isometric diagram of the facies and depositional environments of the
Catskill Delta (modified from Isachsen and others, 2000).
2
Stratigraphic Explorations
PRESENT AT THE CREATION
The Search for a Paradigm But in northeastern Pennsylvania, Willard adopted much of
Whites flawed stratigraphic column and terminology and,
During the first Geological Survey of New like White, pictured the subdivisions of the Catskill as
York (1836-1843), WILLIAM W. MATHER discrete layers stacked up like pancakes. Willard further
employed the name Catskill to denote the red paradigm: a set of assumptions, concepts, values and
practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the confused the geologic picture by constructing a geologic
strata found in the Catskill Mountains. map that displays these (fictitious) units as concentric
Together with his colleagues James Hall and community that shares them, especially in an intellectual
discipline. bands about the Lackawanna syncline.
Lardner Vanuxem, Mather assembled one of
the famous rock sequences of the eastern
United States: (in ascending order) Genesee,
Portage, Chemung, and Catskill.

MULTIPLE WORKING HYPOTHESES


Lake Erie Catskill Mtns

Cats k ill
Although revision of Upper Devonian stratigraphy had already begun by the
Portage Chemung beginning of the 20th century, not until the 1930's did geologists fully understand that
the Genesee, Portage, Chemung, and Catskill rocks of New York did not lie one above
another in a stacked sequence but were inter-tonguing facies. Chief among the
pioneers of the new paradigm were George H. Chadwick and G. Arthur Cooper in New
Marc ellus
Genes ee Tully Hamilton York and Bradford Willard in Pennsylvania
Onondaga

Layer-cake model of the New York Middle and Upper CHADWICK proposed a radical division of the Catskill red beds into several
Devonian.
chronostratigraphic units. Although his terminology was later abandoned, he
produced the first geologic map showing individual Catskill formations and their Willard's geologic map of northeastern Pennsylvania
(Willard, 1938).
In Pennsylvania 19th Century geologists also recognized a marine equivalents in southeastern New York. He also drew attention to serious errors
layer-cake model for the Genesee, Portage, Chemung, and in I. C. White's Catskill stratigraphy, pointing out that it was scrambled.
Catskill sequence; although debates about Portage-Chemung The publication of STATE GEOLOGIC MAPS, in New
relationships raged into the 20th Century. I. C. WHITE (1881, York (Fisher and others, 1970) and Pennsylvania (Berg and
1882) subdivided the Catskill in northeastern others, 1980), brought forth two very different views of the
Pennsylvania into eight members. White Catskill sequence. The authors of the Geologic Map of
believed that the boundary between the New York State divided the Catskill facies into five time-
Chemung and Catskill occurred at the same rock units totaling over 3,500 feet and mapped these
stratigraphic level everywhere in the region, and across of broad region of southeastern New York. The
that the younger units were stacked up in order geologists of the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, however,
above it. He did not, however, illustrate these illustrated this series of rocks throughout northeastern
subdivisions on his geologic maps of Pennsylvania as a single, monochromatic formation.
Susquehanna, Wayne CATSKILL FACIES
and Pike Counties, which displayed only vast
expanses of the Catskill formation. Geologic map of southeastern New York
(modified from Rogers and others, 1990).

Chadwick's geologic map of southeastern New York


(modified from Chadwick, 1936).

WILLARD (1939) lucidly documented the facies changes of Devonian rocks across
Pennsylvania and the Upper Devonian lithologies involved in the Catskill offlap.

CATSKILL
FORMATION

I. C. White's geologic map of Wayne County,


Pennsylvania. Schematic east-to-west cross section of the Catskill offlap (modified from Geologic map of northeastern Pennsylvania
Willard, 1939. (modified from Miles, 2003).
Middle and Upper Devonian Stratigraphy
3 of the Upper Delaware River Valley
The key to unraveling the complex facies that occur in this Dark gray shale tongues, representing members of
SUBDIVIDING THE CATSKILL FACIES part of the Devonian has proven to be the tracing of the black the Geneseo, Middlesex, and Rhinestreet Formations,
or dark gray shale tongues that persist eastward across the extend south-eastward from the Upper Devonian
major facies boundaries. L.V. Rickard, 1975 marine facies in Broome County, N. Y. and provide a
WALLACE DEWITT, JR. and GEORGE W. COLTON of
the USGS and ROBERT G. SUTTON and his students at The basis for extending the Genesee, Sonyea, and West
University of Rochester demonstrated that the black and Falls Groups from south-central New York to eastern
dark gray shale tongues split the Portage and Chemung A STRATIGRAPHIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF Pike County, Pennsylvania.
(marine) facies of south-central New York and form the CATSKILL SEQUENCES AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS
basis for the defining the principal rock units (groups)--the
Genesee, Sonyea, and West Falls Groups of the Upper Employing well data from Rickard (1989), a structure contour
Devonian Frasnian Stage (see Rickard, 1975). Sutton (1963) map of the top of the Tully-Gilboa interval, shown below, was
traced dark gray shales of the Rhinestreet Formation constructed for this study. The map illustrates a broad syncline
eastward into the Walton Formation of the Catskill facies. underlying a large portion of southeastern New York and plunging
toward the southwest into northeastern Pennsylvania. Further, it
demonstrates that the regional strike of the Upper Devonian strata of
Delaware County (N.Y.) and northern Wayne County (Pa.) is roughly
east to west, fully perpendicular to the strike orientation indicated by
Willard and displayed on his geologic map. Evidently, any structural
influence that the Lackawanna syncline may have on the rocks of the
region is largely local.

Stratigraphic column illustrating the Middle and Upper Devonian


Index map to wells units of southeastern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania.
and profiles.
The Lackawaxen Formation represents the west-
The current study of the Catskill ward extension of the Slide Mountain Formation,
facies in the upper Delaware River valley which caps the highest peaks of the Catskill
utilized subsurface information derived Mountains, and is the non-marine equivalent of the
from a reexamination of lithic logs Rhinestreet shales. The Stockport Formation can be
originally described by Fletcher (1964) correlated with the Gardeau Formation, while the
and augmented by additional data from Damascus and Honesdale intervals are correla-
Fletcher and Woodrow (1970) and tives of the Nunda and Wiscoy Formations.
The Frasnian stratigraphic record of south-central New York (modified
from Sutton and McGhee, 1983, after Rickard, 1975).
Rickard (1975, 1989). The cross section
displayed below demonstrates that more REFERENCES
FRANK W. FLETCHER and DONALD L. WOODROW than 5,000 feet of rock overlie the Tully- Berg , T., and others, 1983, Stratigraphic correlation chart of Pennsylvania:
(1964, 1970, and 2002) identified dark gray shale tongues Gilboa in this region. The sequence Pennsylvania Geological Survey General Geology Report 75.
includes strata belonging to the Chadwick, G. H., 1936, History and value of the name Catskill in Geology:
of the Middlesex and Rhinestreet Formations among New York State Museum Bulletin no. 307.
Catskill strata in exploratory gas wells and in outcrop at Computer-generated, contour map of the top of the Tully-Gilboa Genesee, Sonyea, and West Falls Fisher, D. W., and others, 1970, Geologic map of New York State: New York
several localities in northeastern Pennsylvania. WALTER interval in southeastern N. Y. and northeastern Pa. (contours in Groups. State Museum Map and Chart Series No. 15.
feet). Fletcher, F. W., 1963, Regional stratigraphy of Middle and Upper Devonian
R. WAGNER (1963) of the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, non-marine rocks in southeastern New York: p. 25-42, in Shepps, V. C.
employing lithic and gamma-neutron logs of five gas ---------- 1964, Middle and Upper Devonian stratigraphy of southeastern New
York: unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Rochester.
wells, traced dark shale horizons in the subsurface Fletcher, F. W., and Woodrow, D. L., 1970, Geology and economic resources of
through the Catskill facies of northeastern Pennsylvania. the Pennsylvania portion of the Milford and Port Jervis 15-minute
quadrangles: Pennsylvania Geological Survey Atlas 223.
Isachsen, Y. W. and others, 2000, Geology of New York: A simplified account
(2nd ed.): New York State Museum Educational Leaflet 28.
Miles, C. E. (compiler), 2003, Geologic shaded-relief map of Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania Geological Survey.
Prosser, C. S., 1894, The Devonian System of eastern Pennsylvania and New
York: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 120.
Rickard, L. V.,1975, Correlation of Devonian rocks of New York State: New
York State Museum Map and Chart Series No. 24.
----------, 1989, Stratigraphy of the subsurface Lower and Middle Devonian of
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Ontario: New York State Museum Map
and Chart Series No. 39.
Rogers, W. B., and others, 1990. New York State geological highway map:
New York State Museum Educational Leaflet 33.
Shepps, V. C., 1963, Symposium on Middle and Upper Devonian stratigraphy
of Pennsylvania and adjacent states: Pennsylvania Geological Survey
General Geology Report 30.
Sutton, R. G. 1963, Correlation of Upper Devonian strata in south-central New
York: p. 87-102, in Shepps, V. C.
Sutton, R. G., and McGhee, Jr., 1983, The evolution of Frasnian marine
community-types of south-central Hew York: p. 211-224, in Woodrow, D.
L., and Sevon, W. D.
Wagner, W. R., 1963, Correlation of Susquehanna Group in part of
northeastern Pennsylvania, p. 63-78, in Shepps, V. C.
White, I. C., 1881, The geology of Susquehanna and Wayne Counties:
Pennsylvania Geological Survey Report G 5.
Willard, B., 1939, The Devonian of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological
Survey Bulletin G 19.
Stratigraphic relation of red beds to gamma ray correlation lines within Woodrow, D L., and Fletcher, F. W., 2002, Late Devonian stratigraphy in
the Catskill facies of northeastern Pennsylvania (modified from Wagner, northeastern Pennsylvania: in Inners, J. D. and Fleeger, G. M. (eds.), From
1963). See profile D-E of the index map. Tunkhannock to Starrucca: Guidebook. 67th Annual Field Conference of
Pennsylvania Geologists.
Cross section from Whitney Point (Broome County), N. Y. to Shohola (Pike County), Pa. illustrating the stratigraphic Woodrow, D. L., and Sevon, W. D., 1983, The Catskill Delta: Geological
intervals of the post-Tully (Late Devonian) sequence. Stratigraphic nomenclature for the rocks of the Shohola region is Society of America Special Paper 201.
based on Fletcher and Woodrow, 1970), while the nomenclature of the Whitney Point rocks is after Rickard, 1975.

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