Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Scherr Formation

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Type
  
sedimentary

Named by
  
J. M. Dennison, 1970

Primary
  
Slate

Overlies
  
Unit of
  
Greenland Gap Group

Named for
  
Scherr

Underlies
  
Sub-units
  
Minnehaha Springs Member

Thickness
  
1004 ft at type section

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

Contents

Description

The Scherr Formation consists predominantly of siltstone and shale. Lower part of unit includes considerable fine-grained sandstone, while upper two thirds contains almost no sandstone. It weathers light olive gray.

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.

The Minnehaha Springs Member is a "clastic bundle" consisting of interbedded medium gray siltstone and olive gray shale with some grayish-red siltstone and shale and some sandstone. It is interpreted as turbidites. This same member is proposed to exist at the base of the Scherr's lateral equivalent, the Lock Haven Formation.

Notable Exposures

  • Type section: along WV Highway 42, Grant County 39°11′45″N 79°10′48″W
  • Age

    Relative age dating places the Scherr in the late Devonian.

    References

    Scherr Formation Wikipedia


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