Abstracts, Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences, v. 21, no. 4, 1999, December
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NOTE ON THE CAMBRO-ORDOVICIAN BEEKMANTOWN GROUP (SAUK SEQUENCE) IN THE ST. LAWRENCE LOWLANDS OF NORTHERN NEW YORK STATE
Gerald M. Friedman
Department of Geology,
Brooklyn College and Graduate School of the City University of New York,
Brooklyn, NY; Northeastern Science Foundation, Inc., affiliated with Brooklyn
College (CUNY), Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology, Troy, NY; For
correspondence: Northeastern Science Foundation, Inc., 15 Third Street, P.O. Box
746, Troy, NY 12181; [email protected]
ABSTRACT: The St. Regis Valley of the St. Lawrence Lowlands was chosen as a site for the construction of the Superconducting Super Collider. This proposed site is underlain by four rock units which possess excellent quality rock for tunneling. These rock units consist of Precambrian Grenvillian basement which the Cambro-Ordovician Sauk Sequence (Beekmantown Group) overlies. The sequence begins with sandstones of the Potsdam Formation and then grades upward into the dolostones, sandy dolostones, limestones, and sandstones of the Theresa Formation, and farther upward into the Ogdensburg Formation, composed of dolostones.
Eleven cores were drilled for lithology and permeability testing. I served as chief scientist on this study for the Urban Development Corporation of New York. Unfortunately all cores were stolen and destroyed shortly after completion of the drilling program.
The purpose of this note is to report what minor information has been saved. This information consists of borehole logs, a summary of petrographic analyses, and petrographic descriptions. In the cores studied the Potsdam sandstone is a quartz arenite, the Theresa Formation is of variable lithology ranging from sandstone to carbonates, and the Ogdensburg Formation is composed of dolostone that varies from micrite to crystalline dolomite.
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BEEKMANTOWN (CAMBRO-ORDOVICIAN) GAS POTENTIAL IN EASTERN NEW YORK -- A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE AND SUMMARY PROPOSAL
Gerald M. Friedman
Department of Geology,
Brooklyn College and Graduate School of the City University of New York,
Brooklyn, NY; Northeastern Science Foundation, Inc., affiliated with Brooklyn
College, Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology, Troy, NY; For correspondence:
Northeastern Science Foundation, Inc., 15 Third Street, P.O. Box 746, Troy, NY
12181-0746, USA; [email protected]
The purpose of this research project shall be to investigate the gas potential in the eastern New York counties of Schoharie, Madison, Otsego, Delaware, and Chenango, as well as other contiguous New York counties. The aim of this research shall concentrate on understanding the regional geology, stratigraphy, facies analysis, petrophysical characteristics, geophysical and geochemical properties, and the structural geology of this area in order to evaluate its economic potential for natural gas.
This study will be based on many years of research of Beekmantown rocks on surface and in the subsurface. Many students completed their Masters and Ph.D. degrees on Beekmantown formations; others involved in this study were post-doc students. The title of this note includes the words "personal perspective", because it is based on personal involvement with students in the study of these rocks over more than a 35-year span. The references provided in this note and proposal serve as an archive of our past contributions.
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REGIONAL STRATIGRAPHY, FACIES DISTRIBUTION, AND DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF THE BEEKMANTOWN GROUP (SAUK SEQUENCE) OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN NEW YORK
Mossbah M. Kolkas and Gerald M.
Friedman
Department of Geology, Brooklyn College and Graduate School of
the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY; Northeastern Science Foundation
affiliated with Brooklyn College, Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology, Troy,
NY; For correspondence: Northeastern Science Foundation, 15 Third Street, P.O.
Box 746, Troy, NY 12181; [email protected]
ABSTRACT: Petrographic analysis of selected-core samples from the Beekmantown Group (Sauk Sequence) of central and western New York indicates that this group was deposited in a shallow marine environment. The vertical sequence of nine different lithofacies was recognized. These lithofacies, in ascending order, are: 1) Coarse-grained sandstone, 2) Bioturbated, sandy dolostone, 3) Glauconitic, sandy dolostone, 4) Stylolitic, sandy dolostone, 5) Stromatolitic dolostone, 6) Oolitic dolostone, 7) Laminated silty to sandy dolostone, 8) Quartzose dolostone with anhydrite laths, and 9) Fossiliferous dolostone. A depositional model of these lithofacies was constructed to illustrate their paleoenvironmental setting.
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PETROPHYSICAL EVALUATION OF THE BEEKMANTOWN GROUP IN THE HUBBARD#1 BOREHOLE, STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK
Gerald M. Friedman, Mossbah M. Kolkas, and Blanca Y.
Ching
Department of Geology, Brooklyn College and Graduate School of the
City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY and Northeastern Science Foundation
affiliated with Brooklyn College, Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology, Troy,
NY; For correspondence: 15 Third Street, P.O. Box 746, Troy, NY 12181-0746;
[email protected]
ABSTRACT: Based on petrographic analysis of the Beekmantown Group in the Hubbard No. 1 Borehole, Steuben County, New York, this group consists of a basal sandstone facies (Potsdam Sandstone) overlain by a sandy dolostone (Theresa/Galway Formation), and a carbonate facies (Little Falls Formation). Facies analysis indicates that this group was deposited within a shallow marine setting in a peritidal environment.
The diagenetic modifications throughout this group were established using a cathodoluminescence microscope. Several diagenetic events were recognized including dolomitization, silicification, chemical compaction, and calcite cementation. These diagenetic modifications affected the reservoir qualities of the Beekmantown rocks.
Using the mercury-injection technique, the sandstone facies was divided into three (3) petrofacies: Coarse-grained quartzose sandstone (high porosity and high recovery efficiency), moderately sorted quartzose sandstone (intermediate porosity and high recovery efficiency), and well-sorted quartzose sandstone (high porosity and low recovery efficiency). The carbonate facies was divided into three (3) petrofacies: Very fine- to fine-crystalline dolostone (low porosity and low hydrocarbon recovery efficiency), medium- to coarse-crystalline dolostone (intermediate porosity and intermediate recovery efficiency), and coarse-crystalline dolostone (high porosity and high recovery efficiency). These petrofacies were classified according to their petrophysical parameters (porosity, recovery efficiency, average pore diameters, and mercury occupation).
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THE ca. 1144 Ma DRESDEN STATION METAGABBRO, A RE-EVALUATION
1J. Alcock and 2Peter
Muller
1Penn State University, Abington Campus, Abington, PA,
19001; 215-881-7356; [email protected]
2Department of Earth Sciences,
SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820; 607-436-3067;
[email protected]
ABSTRACT: The 1144 ±7 Ma Dresden Station metagabbro, southeastern Adirondack Highlands, is an important marker in Adirondack geochronology because it crosscuts penetrative fabric that is isoclinally folded in adjacent granulite-facies gneiss. The metagabbro retains nearly pristine igneous structures including chilled margins, relict flow-foliation of plagioclase porphyroclasts within a granoblastic matrix, and undeformed narrow apophyses that cut gneissic foliation at high angles. These crosscutting relations imply that regional deformation that produced isoclinal folding and gneissic foliation in the paragneiss pre-dates intrusion of the Dresden Station metagabbro.
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PREDICTED AND ACTUAL SOIL EROSION RATES IN A SMALL AGRICULTURAL WATERSHED IN ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK
Peter A. Kelly and Todd W. Rayne
Department
of Geology, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323*
* This article was written by Peter Kelly as an undergraduate paper for Professor Rayne's Soils and the Environment course at Hamilton College.
ABSTRACT: This study compares the actual erosion rate in a small agricultural watershed to the rate predicted by a standard equation, and uses geologic laboratory methods to help explain the discrepancy. The study focuses on a 7.5 ha field in Oneida County, NY. The predicted erosion rate (0.28 Mg ha-1 yr-1) is based on the Universal Soil Loss Equation, which includes climate, soil properties, length, slope, cover, and erosion-control factors. The actual erosion rate (3.4 Mg ha-1 yr-1), twelve times higher, was calculated from sediment accumulated in a pond, which trapped most suspended material from the watershed.
Soil and sediment samples from the field, the ditch leading to the pond, and the pond were analyzed in a laser-diffraction particle sizer. Given local clay mineralogy, the data suggest that the soil eroded by concentrated-flow as opposed to raindrop-splash erosion. The study suggests that agricultural policymakers should continue to supplement erosion predictions with empirical data.
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DECONTAMINATION OF DREDGED MATERIAL FROM THE PORT OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
1K.W. Jones, 2E.A. Stern,
3K.R. Donato, and 4N.L.
Clesceri
1Building 901A, Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Upton, NY 11973-5000
2US Environmental Protection Agency - Region
2 - DEPP-PBPB, 290 Broadway, New York, NY 10007-1866
3US Army
Corps of Engineers - New York District, CENAN-PL-ES, 26 Federal Plaza, New York,
NY 10278-0090
4Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590
ABSTRACT: The Port of New York and New Jersey ranks first in the United States in volume of petroleum products handled each year. In addition, many refineries are in operation on the New Jersey side of the Port. These activities have led to the discharge of significant amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons into the waters of the New York/New Jersey region. Intense industrial and commercial activities have also brought about major inputs of other organic and inorganic contaminants as would be expected in an industrialized, heavily populated urban port. Sediments that then are contaminated are a major problem for the region since they can no longer be disposed of by the traditional method of ocean disposal following the dredging operations required for the efficient operation of the Port. Decontamination and beneficial reuse of the dredged materials is one component of a comprehensive dredged material management plan being developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. A demonstration decontamination project extending from bench- to field-scale operations is now in progress in the Port, and its current status and relevance for other regions is summarized.
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A SOLUTION COLLAPSE BRECCIA IN THE HOYT FORMATION OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK: AN INDICATOR OF EUSTATIC SEA LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS DURING THE LATEST CAMBRIAN
1 Neal C. Grasso and 2Richard
H. Lindemann
1The Department of Geology, Skidmore College,
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-1632; Currently at: Lawler, Matusky & Skelly
Engineers LLP, One Blue Hill Plaza, P.O. Box 1509, Pearl River, New York
10965-8509; [email protected]; (914) 735-8300 (voice); (914) 735-7466
(fax)
2The Department of Geology, Skidmore College, Saratoga
Springs, NY 12866-1632; [email protected]; (518) 580-5196 (voice); (518)
580-5199 (fax).
ABSTRACT: A rapid lowering in eustatic sea level is understood to have occurred approximately 500 million years ago during the Late Cambrian (Hallam 1992). A previously unreported set of dissolution features has been observed in the upper beds of the Upper Cambrian (Franconian-Trempealeauan) Hoyt Formation in an abandoned quarry and railroad cut in Greenfield, New York. These features include solution collapse breccias, a partial loss of beds and the solutional enlargement and subsequent in-filling of joints. These features are also similar to other dissolution features reported throughout the Cambro-Ordovician sequence of rocks in eastern New York state and south throughout the Appalachians. The depositional environments of the affected beds are interpreted to be a set of prograding facies that range vertically from shallow subtidal to a sabkha-like supratidal setting. The collapse breccias are temporally bracketed by the products of soft sediment compaction, such as deformed allochems, and post lithification chemical dissolution, such as well developed stylolites produced late in the unit's diagenetic history. The collapsed beds observed in the Hoyt may have resulted from multiple episodes of sub-aerial exposure. These exposure events may be associated with a eustatic sea level fall which occurred prior to the major drop in relative sea level observed in latest Cambrian strata of the northeast. This final drop in sea level is correlative with the end Cambrian extinction of trilobites in North America.
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MATTHEW CAREY LEA: CONTRIBUTIONS TO COAL RANK STUDIES IN THE SOUTHERN ANTHRACITE FIELD OF PENNSYLVANIA
James C. Hower
University of Kentucky Center
for Applied Energy Research, 2540 Research Park Drive, Lexington, KY 40511;
voice: 606-257-0261; fax: 606-257-0360; [email protected]
ABSTRACT: Matthew Carey Lea, the son of a prominent geologist and coal land developer, made the first quantified observations of the variation in coal rank, the degree of metamorphism, across the Southern Anthracite Field of Pennsylvania. In the latter studies, he documented the east to west decrease in coal rank through the use of the proximate analysis. His career as a coal chemist was brief. Generally working from a laboratory in his house, he went on to study platinum group metals and the chemistry of photography, contributions recognized by his election to the National Academy of Sciences.
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