Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Foreknobs Formation

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Type
  
sedimentary

Underlies
  
Catskill Formation

Unit of
  
Greenland Gap Group

Overlies
  
Foreknobs Formation httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Sub-units
  
Mallow Member, Briery Gap Sandstone Member, Blizzard Member, Pound Sandstone Member, and Red Lick Member

Thickness
  
1321 ft at type section

Named for
  
Fore Knobs of Allegheny Front

Primary
  

The Devonian Foreknobs Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Contents

Description

The Foreknobs Formation contains massive sandstones; siltstone; "redbeds" of brownish-gray sandstone, siltstone, and shale containing scattered marine fossils; and occasional quartz-pebble conglomerate or conglomeratic sandstone beds.

Stratigraphy

Dennison (1970) renamed the old Chemung Formation the Greenland Gap Group and divided it into the lower Scherr Formation and the upper Foreknobs Formation. De Witt (1974) extended the Scherr and Foreknobs into Pennsylvania, but did not use the term Greenland Gap Group.

Boswell, et al. (1987), does not recognize the Scherr and Foreknobs Formations in the subsurface of West Virginia and thus these formations are reduced from "group" to "formation" as the Greenland Gap Formation.

Rossbach and Dennison (1994) extended the Foreknobs into the Catawba syncline of southwestern Virginia.

The Foreknobs is divided into the following Members, in ascending order: Mallow Member, Briery Gap Sandstone Member, Blizzard Member, Pound Sandstone Member, and Red Lick Member

Fossils

Red beds within the Foreknobs contain scattered marine fossils, such as brachiopods.

Notable Exposures

Type section: along WV Highway 42, 0.48 km northwest of Scherr, Grant County, West Virginia

Age

Relative age dating places the Foreknobs in the late Devonian.

References

Foreknobs Formation Wikipedia


Similar Topics