No. 466
ALBANY, N. Y.
MARCH 1, 1910
New York State Museum
JOHN M. CLARKE, Director
Museum Bulletin 137
GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
BY
D. D. LUTHER
INTRODUCTION
The area embraced within the Auburn-Genoa quadrangles lies between the lines Of 42°30' and 43° north latitude and 76°30' and 76°45' west longitude and contains 455 square miles.
The waters of Cayuga lake cover 65 square miles of this area, Owasco lake 10 square miles and the alluvium along the Seneca river 6 square miles, while about 50 square miles in the towns of Montezuma, Aurelius, Throop and Sennett are a low lying region where no outcrops of bed rock occur but the surface is highly diversified by the large number of lenticular hills or drumlins into which the heavy drift sheet is arranged.
These drumlins, the more prominent of which are 100 to 150 feet in height and usually many times longer than wide, rise quite abruptly at the north ends and extend in a generally south-southeast direction, gradually diminishing in size. The contour lines of the map indicate the position of more than 60 drumlins in characteristic shape and 100 feet or more in height, while many others are equally well defined, though less prominent. The region in which these occur is a small portion of the New York drumlin area which covers 2500 square miles and is estimated to include 10,000 drumlin crests. The drumlins of central western New York have been described by Prof. H. L. Fairchild in State Museum Bulletin III.
The south edge of the drumlin belt is along the foot of the Helderberg limestone escarpment which extends across the Auburn quad
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
rangle from the northeast corner in a southwestern direction to Cayuga lake at Union Springs. Over most of this higher ground south of this limestone escarpment the drift sheet is quite thin, probably something less than 20 feet on the average, but it is gathered in many places into hills of a drumlin character, and, in a few instances in the vicinity of the foot of Owasco lake, into well defined drumlins. The remaining portion of the area included within the limits of these quadrangles is on the sloping sides of the Cayuga lake, Owasco lake and Salmon creek valleys where there are numerous ravines, some of which are large and afford fine rock exposures. The rocks are finely and accessibly displayed by nearly 50 miles of cliffs along the lake shores.
These favorable conditions for the study of the stratigraphy and paleontology of this section of central New York and the easy accessibility of the region, led to its early investigation and description by Vanuxem and Hall, while engaged on the Geological Survey of the third and fourth districts, and have made it classic ground to students of those sciences in later days.
The following geologic formations are represented by colors on the map of the Auburn- Genoa quadrangles in descending order:
| Devonic | Senecan | West Hill flags and shales |
| Devonic | Senecan | Grimes sandstones |
| Devonic | Senecan | Hatch shales and flags |
| Devonic | Senecan | Cashaqua shale |
| Devonic | Senecan | West River shale |
| Devonic | Senecan | Genundewa limestone |
| Devonic | Senecan | Genesee black shale |
| Devonic | Senecan | Tully limestone |
| Devonic | Erian | Moscow shale |
| Devonic | Erian | Tichenor limestone |
| Devonic | Erian | Ludlowville shale |
| Devonic | Erian | Skaneateles shale |
| Devonic | Erian | Cardiff shale |
| Devonic | Erian | Marcellus black shale |
| Devonic | Ulsterian | Onondaga limestone |
| Devonic | Oriskanian | Oriskany sandstone |
| Ontaric or Siluric | Cayugan | Manlius limestone |
| Ontaric or Siluric | Cayugan | Rondout waterlime |
| Ontaric or Siluric | Cayugan | Cobleskill limestone |
| Ontaric or Siluric | Cayugan | Bertie waterlime |
| Ontaric or Siluric | Cayugan | Camillus shale |
The 21 geologic units into which the surface rocks of these quadrangles are divided have an aggregate thickness approximately of 1920 feet, of which 1080 feet appear in ascending from 380 A.T. in the northwestern corner of the Auburn quadrangle to 1460 A.T. in the southwest corner of the Genoa quadrangle and 840 feet are brought up by the northward elevation of the strata at an average of about 25 feet per mile for the whole distance, though the dip is extremely variable and for a few miles in the southern part of the Genoa quadrangle actually reversed.
FORMATIONS IN ASCENDING ORDER
SILURIC
Camillus shale
This formation is that subdivision of the Salina group which, along the line of outcrop, succeeds the red Vernon shale and at or near the base of which the New York rock salt beds are reached in the deep borings at Tully, Ithaca, Watkins and farther west.
The lower part is composed of thin, somewhat uneven layers of dark dolomite and gray marly shales, and the upper of a bed of gypseous shale 35 to 45 feet thick in which thin limestones like those below occur.
This is the well known "land plaster" or gypsum bed that extends from Madison county to Genesee county, the rock which, when pulverized, was for many years considered valuable and extensively quarried as a fertilizer and one of the most important of the economic resources of the State. At present though fallen into disuse for that purpose, it is utilized as an important component in the production of prepared wall plaster. The formation received its name from the town of Camillus, Onondaga co., where the first discovery of gypsum in the United States was made in the year 1792.
A large number of gypsum quarries were formerly operated in the Camillus in the region on the east side of Cayuga lake north of Union Springs but nearly all of them have been long abandoned and afford only small exposures of the gypsum and overlying limestones. The large quarry of the Cayuga Land Plaster Company, formerly known as the Backus quarry, situated east of the railroad at Cayuga junction shows very favorably nearly all of the gypsum bed and a few feet of the Bertie waterlime that succeeds it. There are several old pits on Hibiscus point, also near Crossroads, and 1 1/2 miles farther north.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Outcrops Of gypsum occur in the banks of both branches of Sawyers creek, and the cliff in the northern part of the village of Cayuga shows the upper part of the bed and the overlying limestone. An old gypsum pit, now nearly obliterated, situated between two drumlins 2 miles north of Cayuga and 1/2 mile east of the Mud Lock, seems to be the most northern point at which gypsum has been quarried on this quadrangle.
The only fossil known to occur in the Camillus shale, and that very rarely, is the ostracod Leperditia alta Conrad, though obscure traillike markings sometimes seen may owe their origin to another form of animal life.
Bertie waterlime
The gypsum beds are overlain by evenly bedded impure magnesian limestone, medium hard and dark colored when freshly broken, but weathering to a light bluish or yellowish gray on exposure and becoming softer.
Faint deposition lines may be discerned throughout the formation but the heavier layers which are 1 to 2 feet thick are usually quite compact, breaking with a conchoidal fracture, while a few of the others show quite distinct laminations and weather into a hard slaty shale. Toward the west it becomes somewhat thicker and is less homogeneous. In Erie county it is 49 feet thick and the upper part is the cement rock from which a large quantity of natural or waterlime cement is manufactured while the stratum next below is a dark slaty rock.
Waterlime cement was formerly made in the vicinity of Cayuga junction and near Auburn from outcrops of this rock, but none is made now.
Fossils are rare in this formation as exposed on the Auburn quadrangle, a few Lingulas of two species, an Orbiculoidea, a Rhynchonella with Leperditia alta and fragments of eurypterids constituting the fauna here, but in Erie county the cement rock has afforded a large number of remarkably fine specimens of eurypterids and phyllocarids of the following species:
| Ceratiocaris acuminata Hall | E. dekayi Hall |
| Eurypterus lacustris Hall | Dolichopterus macrocheirus Hall |
| E. lacustris var. pachycheirus Hall | Eusarcus scorpionis Grote & Pitt |
| E. remipes De Kay | Pterygotus buffaloensis Pohlman |
| E. pustulosus Hall | P. cobbi Hall |
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GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
Also Leperditia scalaris Jones and a and Lingulas and traces of the seaweed Bythotrephis les quereuxi Grote and Pitt.
Bertie waterlime was exposed at the top of the wall in nearly all of the old gypsum quarries and small outcrops and loose blocks are still to be found at such localities. It is to be seen at the south end of the quarry at the plaster works; along the railroad at Cayuga junction and at Crossroads; in several of the old pits near the four comers 1 1/2 miles north of Crossroads and at the top of the wall of the old quarry at Cayuga.
Cobleskill limestone
Succeeding the Bertie waterlime there are three or four layers agregating 8 to 10 feet of harder, darker limestone that has received the above designation from the favorable exposures of this rock in its most typical condition along Cobleskill creek, Schoharie county, where it has a thickness of 6 feet.
It thins out toward the west, from the Cayuga lake region to Phelps, Ontario co., but reappears farther west and attains its greatest thickness at Falkirk, Erie co., where it is known as the "bullhead" and is 14 feet thick.
On these quadrangles this limestone is seen to the best advantage on Frontenac island at Union Springs where the sharp elevation of the strata toward the north brings the three layers of the formation successively into view. The upper layer has a thickness Of 3 feet 2 inches and breaks readily under the hammer into small angular fragments.
This is the most fossiliferous layer except in Stromatopora. The middle layer is 2 feet 10 inches thick and contains Stromatopora concentrica Hall in great abundance, and except that it-is a little darker colored, it has precisely the same appearance as the Stromatopora layer of the Manlius limestone which is 50 to 60 feet higher in the section.
The lower layer, 2 feet 6 inches thick, weathers to a lighter color than the two upper ones and is less fossiliferous, approaching the character of the upper layers of the Bertie waterlime below it. The thickness of these divisions is probably not maintained for any great distance but the character of the rock is quite uniform.
On the mainland the most southern exposure of this limestone is on the southeast side of Howland point where the upper layers are well displayed.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The old O'Conner quarry, 2 miles north of Union Springs, on the east side of the Cayuga road, shows 4 feet 8 inches of Cobleskill with 6 feet of Bertie below it and the exposure extends several rods north over the remarkable conical uplifts hereinafter further described. The cap layer of the old Wooley quarry on the east side of the road 1 mile south of Crossroads is Cobleskill limestone and it appears at the top of the railroad cut 40 rods east of the station at Crossroads.
At the old Thompson quarries near the four corners 1 1/2 miles north of Crossroads there are several old gypsum pits in which there are small exposures of Bertie waterlime and the Cobleskill outcrops slightly at the roadside 60 yards north of the corners with Bertie below, and it is to be seen in place 125 yards farther west and there are many loose fragments of the more fossiliferous layer near by.
The largest exposure and the one most favorable for examination of the strata and collection of the fossils of this formation on these quadrangles is 5/8 mile southeast of Aurelius station on the New York Central Railroad where an outcropping ledge extends many rods north and south of the road to Aurelius, in which there is an old quarry and the upheaval of a row of rock cones, similar to those previously mentioned as occurring at the O'Conner quarry, has broken and disturbed the heavy layers in- an unusual and very striking manner. Two small outliers or rocdrumlins of Cobleskill are located a mile farther north. The New York Central Railroad cuts through the north end of a drumlin 1 1/2 miles northeast of Aurelius station, and another a mile farther east. The surface contour of the Cobleskill may conform to the shape of these hills but the rock does not appear on the surface.
At the foot of the hill next east of the crossing of the road leading north from the village of Aurelius and the New York Central Railroad, a small quarry on the south side of the railroad shows 4 feet 8 inches. of Cobleskill at the base of the section and a few feet of Rondout waterlime above it. Manlius and Onondaga limestone outcrop 60 to 80 feet higher at the crest of the hill.
This formation is covered by drift in the region north of Auburn, except possibly a small outcrop by the side of the Lehigh Valley Railroad a mile south of Throop, but it is fairly exposed 8 rods northwest of the Sennett station of the New York Central Railroad and a ledge of the Cobleskill limestone crosses the little brook west of the station 10 rods south of the railroad.
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GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
Fossils. The following species have been identified from Frontenac island:
Chaetetes (Monotrypella) arbusculus Hall
Favosites niagarensis Hall?
Halysites catenulatus (Linne)
Stromatopora concentrica Hall
Cyathophyllum hydraulicum Simpson
Crinoid sp.
Chonetes jerseyensis Weller
C. undulatus Hall
Rhynchonella pisum Hall & Whitfield
Spirifer crispus var. corallinensis Grabau
S. vanuxemi Hall
Stropheodonta bipartita Hall
S. textilis Hall
S. varistriata (Conrad)
Whitfieldella sulcata (Vanuxem)
Ilionia sinuata Hall
Megambonia aviculoidea Hall
Pterinea subplana (Hall)
Bucania sp.
Cyclonema sp.
Loxonema sp.
Trochoceras gebhardi Hall
Tentaculites gyracanthus (Eaton)
Gomphoceras septore Hall
Orthoceras trusitum Clarke & Ruedemann
Orthoceras large sp.
Beyrichia sp.
Leperditia alta Conrad?
L. cf. scalaris Jones
Rondout waterlime
This formation is composed of dark colored waterlime closely resembling cement rock and shows faint lines of deposition and a tendency to split along these lines. It is 25 to 30 feet thick at Union Springs and increases 10 feet or more in the northeastern part of the quadrangle, and to 45 feet in Onondaga county, but decreases westward to 9 feet at Seneca Falls and is not recognized in the western part of the State.
It is 24 feet thick and the basal layers are extensively quarried for cement at Rondout, Ulster co., N. Y., whence the name of the formation is derived. The contact with the Cobleskill limestone is quite abrupt and is plainly seen where exposed, but at the top the transition to the Manlius limestone is a gradual one and in old exposures not readily discerned.
Rondout waterlime is exposed in the northern part of Union Springs in the gutters of the street leading eastward up the hill opposite the mill pond, and in the old quarry a few rods north of the O'Conner quarry 1 1/4 miles farther north. It appears at the top of the east end of the- cut 50 rods east of the station at Crossroads, and there are several small exposures and numerous blocks of it in the region east of Aurelius station. It may be seen by the side of the New York Central Railroad and along Crane brook a mile west of Auburn. The contact with Cobleskill limestone is shown in the small old quarry at the foot of the hill on the south side of the railroad a mile farther west.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
A shallow cut of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 2 miles north of Auburn shows Rondout waterlime and it is well exposed along and near the New York Central Railroad east of Sennett.
Fossils. The -fauna of the Rondout waterlime in this region comprises but few species and they are very rare. Leperditia alta Conrad and L. scalaris Jones occur and fragments of eurypterids are occasionally found.
Manlius limestone
This formation, formerly well known as Tentaculite limestone, is. 77 feet thick at Manlius, Onondaga co., but it diminishes rapidly toward the west and disappears in the vicinity of Seneca Falls.
It is composed of a series of distinct layers of hard, dark blue limestone from 2 to 5 feet thick, separated by thin partings of black bituminous matter. Some of these layers are quite compact and the lines of deposition are faint, but in others the rock has a straticulate appearance due to an alternation of thin plates of dark bituminous limestone and lighter colored impure limestone or waterlime. The laminations are from 1/4 to 2 inches thick and exposure makes the contrast more noticeable.
The rock splits easily along the lines of deposition and breaks into angular blocks making it valuable for building purposes and road metal.
It is exposed to the thickness of 18 feet 8 inches in the extreme southern quarry on the east side of the Lehigh Valley Railroad a mile south of Union Springs, where it is separated into five distinct layers, with Onondaga limestone above, separated from it by a thin uneven band of dark material representing the Oriskany sandstone.
In the upper bed, 4 feet 5 inches thick, the rock is blue gray with faint lines of deposition and few fossils. The next bed in descending order is 5 feet 3 inches thick and contains Stromatopora concentrica Hall abundantly, making the limestone somewhat purer and harder than the adjacent layers.
This stratum possesses the same condition eastward across Cayuga and Onondaga counties and is well known as the upper Stromatopora layer, a stratum of almost precisely the same appearance in the Cobleskill limestone on this quadrangle and farther, west being distinguished as the lower Stromatopora layer.
The stratum next below, 3 feet 1 inch thick, contains the fossil less abundantly and it is absent in the two lower tiers.
page 13 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA OUADRANGLES
Manlius limestone is also exposed in the ravine in the rear of the sanatorium in the village of Union Springs and in the old quarry near the residence of Mr George Backus 1 mile north of the village from which a large amount has been utilized in building inclosure walls along the highway in the vicinity. The upper beds have been quarried on the Yawger farm 3 miles northeast of Union Springs where they are overlaid by 4 feet 6 inches of Oriskany sandstone, and the formation outcrops half a mile farther north on a hill on the east side of the highway leading to Crossroads. A quarry half a mile west of the Lehigh Valley Railroad station in the city of Auburn shows Manlius limestone at the bottom at the north end with Oriskany sandstone and Onondaga limestone above it. Nearly all of the large quarries in the face of the rock escarpment that extends across the northern part of the city are in the Manlius, with Oriskany at or near the top of the section. The old Phelps quarry on the east side of the highway 2 miles south of the village of Sennett displays the formation finely and several abandoned quarries near the northeast corner of the quadrangle afford most excellent opportunity for examination of the stratigraphy and the fauna of this the highest member of the Siluric system on the Auburn quadrangle.
Fossils are common throughout the formation and very abundant in some parts. The number o species is quite limited, however, the fauna in this locality, so far as observed, consisting of the following:
Chaetetes (Monotrypella) arbusculus Hall
Stromatopora concentrica Conrad
Schuchertella interstriata Hall
Spirifer vanuxemi Hall
Stropheodonta varistriata (Conrad)
Whitfieldella laevis (Vanuxem)
W. sulcata (Vanuxem)
Holopea antiqua Vanuxem
Tentaculites sp.
Leperditia alta Conrad
DEVONIC
Oriskany sandstone
The basal member of the Devonic system, interstratified between the Manlius limestone and the Onondaga limestone in the central and western parts of the State is an intermitting stratum or series of thin lentils, of coarse pinkish or white sandstone or quartzite, or where these are wanting, a thin mass of black bituminous mud with pebbles of black sand or waterlime. At some outcrops these pebbles occur embedded in the lower part of the heavy layer of limestone that succeeds this horizon.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The line of outcrops of this horizon shows cross sections of the sandstone lentils west of this locality to be quite thin, one exposed in the village of Phelps that measures 6 feet 6 inches being the thickest, and one penetrated by the Livonia salt shaft 4 feet 9 inches thick. The thickness increases eastward attaining 25 feet in a lentil in the western part of Onondaga county and the formation is well developed in the vicinity of Oriskany Falls, whence the name, first applied by Vanuxem in his report on the Geological Survey of the Third District for 1839.
In the Oriskany horizon in the old Shaliboo quarry 1 mile south of Union Springs there are 10 inches of dark conglomerate composed ,of bituminous shale in which there are embedded many pebbles and fragments of waterlime. A stratum of calcareous sandstone 1 foot 6 inches thick, exposed on the north side of the bridge on Center street in Union Springs in which there are many pebbles, represents this formation. An outcrop of typical Oriskany sandstone 2 feet 3 inches thick and containing many fossils occurs on a knoll a few rods south ,of the residence of Mr George D. Backus. An old quarry in the woods 50 rods west of the Yawger cemetery 1 1/2 miles northeast of Union Springs shows 9 feet of friable pinkish sandstone in three layers, all fossiliferous, the lower one 4 feet thick being fairly crowded with large brachiopods.
In the woods on the Yawger farm 3/4 mile north of the cemetery, a ledge extending in a north and south direction 35 to 40 rods, shows Oriskany sandstone 5 feet 6 inches thick in the central part and extraordinarily fossiliferous. Vanuxem refers to this locality on page 127 of the report on the Third District, 1842, and says of it: "The fossils are numerous, and better preserved than in any other locality of the district, state or country that has come to our knowledge, the rock being more solid and the sand of which it is composed purer and whiter."
Where exposed in the western part of the ledge at the crest of the hill 1 3/4 miles north of Aurelius it is 2 feet 1 inch thick in ordinary condition and has many fossils in the lower part of the stratum. It is 10 to 12 inches thick in the old quarries in the northern part of Auburn west of the crossing of North street and the New York Central Railroad, and a small outcrop near the northeast corner of the quadrangle shows about the same thickness.
The occurrence of the fossils of large size and in some outcrops, as north of Union Springs, in great abundance, tends to produce the impression that the fauna of the sandstone in this region is a large one,
GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES page 15
but the number of species is quite limited. The more prominent and persistent forms occurring in this rock in the central part of New York are:
Spirifer arenosus (Conrad)
S. murchisoni Castelnau
Rensselaeria ovoides (Eaton)
Hipparionyx proximus Vanuxem
Chonostrophia complanata Hall
Meristella lata Hall
Onondaga limestone
The heavy beds of bluish gray limestone with embedded nodules and nodular layers of chert or hornstone overlying the Oriskany sandstone and succeeded by the black Marcellus shales, was designated "Cornitiferous limestone" by Prof. Amos Eaton in 1839, and in the early reports of the Geological Survey was considered in two divisions. The basal member, which is usually free from chert and but a few feet thick is the "grey sparry limestone" of the annual reports. In his report on the Fourth Geological District (1839) James Hall first used the term Onondaga limestone applying it to this basal division of the formation. The overlying cherty beds composed the "Seneca limestone" of the early reports and the "Corniferous limestone" of the final reports of Hall and Vanuxem in 1842.
The name " Onondaga Salt Group," applied to the Vernon and Camillus shales, was used in the annual and final reports of the Geological Survey but discontinued some years after. In Clarke and Schuchert's revised " Classification of the New York Geologic Formations " the term Onondaga limestone is expanded to include all of the strata between the Oriskany horizon and the Marcellus black shales. 1
The limestone is usually separated by thin partings of shale or bituminous mud into even compact layers or tiers from 6 inches to 3 feet thick, some of which are nearly or quite free from chert and are valuable as building stone, while others contain a considerable proportion of the flint or hornstone and are utilized extensively when crushed as road material. Shaly tiers occur at some localities but the beds are mostly compact. The hundreds of quarries in the Onondaga limestone along its line of outcrops from the Hudson valley to the Niagara river attest its importance among the economic resources of the State and show the enormous amount of this rock that has been and is still being utilized
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1 For a more detailed history of the names applied to this formation see State Museum Bulletin 128.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
On the Auburn quadrangle quarry walls and field outcrops make an almost continuous series of exposures of the Onondaga extending from the extreme western point of Long point on Cayuga lake to the northeast corner of the quadrangle. Fifteen feet of the lower beds and the Oriskany contact are well shown in the old Shaliboo quarry a mile south of Union Springs. The next quarry at the north between the railroad and the highway exposes 40 to 50 feet of the middle and upper tiers and the old Wood quarry on the hill east of the highway affords a long exposure of the upper beds, with the contact line and 15 feet of Marcellus black shale and impure limestone at the top of the quarry wall.
Owing to the northward dip of the strata at this point the newer quarry at the north on the east side of the road, though about 25 feet lower, shows the same section and it is also shown in a large quarry on the hill a mile east of Union Springs.
The drift sheet is thin over all the region between Union Springs and Auburn where the Onondaga limestone is the surface rock and outcrops are frequent. The lower beds are exposed just north of Oakwood and the top layers in the hill 3/8 mile south of Half Acre. In the vicinity of Aurelius there are broad areas where the limestone is but partially covered and a ledge 50 rods long at the crest of the 'hill on the south side of the railroad 2 miles north of Aurelius exposes the Oriskany contact and 15 to 25 feet of the lower beds.
It lies near the surface and is exposed in numerous places in the northern parts of Auburn and thence northeastward in many quarries and field outcrops in the vicinity of the New York Central Railroad to the east line of the quadrangle.
Fossils are exceedingly abundant in nearly all parts of the limestone layers and occur frequently in the chert and the shaly partings. A list of the species contained in this formation published in State Museum Bulletin 63 for the Canandaigua-Naples quadrangles includes 3 fishes, 39 crustaceans, 13 cephalopods, 3 pteropods, 38 gastropods, 15 lamellibranchs, 48 brachiopods, 4 crinoids and 30 corals, a total of 193 species.
Marcellus black shale
On page 146 of the report on the Geological Survey of the Third District, 1842, Vanuxem describes the Marcellus shales under two divisions: the "lower, calcareous, fossiliferous, and somewhat fissile; ,the upper, shaly, breaking into small irregular fragments" and further says: "These shales extend east and west through the. district commencing near the Hudson and ending on Lake Erie. They are conveniently
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GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
divided into two masses, from the presence of limestone and fossils in the one and their absence in the other."
On page 177 of the report on the Fourth District, Hall describes the lower division and adds: "This division terminates upward by a thin band of limestone above which the shale is more fissile and gradually passes from black to an olive or dark slate color."
The limestone here referred to is now known as the Stafford limestone. It is 8 to 10 feet thick in Erie county and diminishes gradually to 4 inches on Flint creek in Ontario county. This hard limestone layer is not found in exposures of this horizon east of Flint creek but a band of gray calcareous shale containing many species belonging to the fauna of the Stafford limestone, and that are absent from or very rare in the adjacent shale, serves to mark the point of separation between the two divisions of these dark shales.
The term Marcellus black shale as now used applies only to the lower division, succeeding the Onondaga limestone and overlaid by the Stafford limestone or in its absence, the lighter shales of the second division now known as the Cardiff shales. Its thickness is 45 to 50 feet on the Auburn quadrangle.
The change is abrupt from the blue Onondaga limestone to the black Marcellus shales in Madison and Onondaga counties but a few thin calcareous layers are interstratified in the succeeding 13 feet and a hard stratum 2 to 3 feet thick, known to geologists as the Agoniatite limestone occurring at this horizon, is a persistent and easily recognized feature of the Marcellus section from Schoharie county to the town of. Phelps, Ontario co., where it is finely exposed in the bed of Flint creek.
The shales that intervene between the Onondaga and the Agoniatite layer in eastern. central New York become more calcareous toward the west and on this quadrangle this bed is composed principally of impure limestones in layers a few inches thick with partings of black shale, and a 5 inch stratum of shale at the base. At the exposure in the bed of Flint creek the proportion of calcareous matter is still larger and in the western part of the State the Agoniatite layer and the strata below it have become so far assimilated to the Onondaga limestone as not to be readily distinguished from it.
The remaining upper part of this formation is a bed of black shale the only notable feature of which is a row of spherical concretions 2 to 3 feet in diameter found in this horizon wherever exposed in the central and western part of the State.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Exposures. The black upper shales with large concretions are exposed by the lake shore on the east side of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 1 1/4 miles north of Levanna. The Agoniatite limestone with 15 feet of black shale above it and the impure limestone layers below, down to the Onondaga limestone, are finely displayed in the upper part of the old Wood quarry a mile south of Union Springs and the lower impure limestones in Wood's new quarry and the Smith quarry 1 mile east of Union Springs also.
The Agoniatite layer outcrops slightly by the roadside a mile east of Half Acre and the black upper beds are displayed in the new railroad cut half a mile farther east.
Marcellus shale crops out slightly in the bed of the stream 1/4 mile north of Soule's cemetery on the Auburn Road (N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.) 3 1/2 miles east of Auburn and 2 miles northeast of the city in -he bank of a small ravine that crosses the road leading from Grant avenue to Franklin street. The large concretions are seen here. The Agoniatite limestone and adjacent black shales outcrop 1/4 mile from the east line of the quadrangle by the side of the third east and west road from the north line of the quadrangle.
Fossils. The lower shales contain:
Orthoceras subulatum Hall
Styliolina fissurella (Hall)
Pleurotomaria rugulata Hall
Liorhynchus limitare (Vanuxenm)
L. laura Billings
Strophalosia truncata Hall
Ambococlia umbonata (Conrad)
Chonetes mucronatus Hall
C. lepidus Hall
Orbiculoidea media Hall
Pterochaenia fragile (Hall)
Liopteria laevis (Hall)
Nuculites oblongatus Conrad
Panenka ventricosa Hall
A list of 28 species found in the Agoniatite limestone in Onondaga and Schoharie counties may be found in State Museum Bulletin 49, but the stratum appears to be less fossiliferous here. Fragments of the large cephalopod Agoniatites expansus (Vanuxem) occur in this layer at Wood's old quarry, Union Springs.
Cardiff shale
The Stafford limestone being absent from these quadrangles the Marcellus shale is succeeded by about 50 feet of dark shale until recently known as the upper Marcellus shale. In State Museum Bulletin 63, published in 1904, this formation was designated by
Page 19 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
the above name on account of its abundant exposure in the vicinity of the village of Cardiff in Onondaga county.
It is composed of soft shales varying in character from medium light colored and calcareous to very dark and bituminous. It contains a row of medium sized spherical concretions and toward the top, thin calcareous lentils composed mainly of Liorhynchus limitare.
At the base a bed of rather light colored shale in the horizon of the Stafford limestone is quite calcareous and contains many fossils most of which are common in the limestone in the western part of the State.
The upper beds are darker, and in some parts quite black and bituminous, and less fossiliferous. Near the top a band of very hard, dark calcareous shale or impure limestone that is continuous across this quadrangle and to Seneca lake, produces cascades in Great gully and Criss creek south of Union Springs. The succeeding shales above this stratum gradually become lighter colored and more argillaceous and pass into the next formation in the series, the Skaneateles shale.
Exposures. The Cardiff shale and the hard layer are exposed along the lake shore half a mile north of Levanna, the hard layer rising from the lake level in a bluff that reaches the height of 12 feet, then with an eight per cent northward dip sinks below the lake to emerge again 15 rods farther north and rise rapidly in the 25 foot bluff that exposes also the dark shales with fossils immediately below it. The hard stratum produces a cascade at the bridge over the next stream south of Great Gully brook (Criss creek), with dark fossiliferous shales below it, and the gray fossiliferous band at the base of -the formation is exposed in the bank of this creek north of the crossing of the private road 1/4 mile farther north. In Great gully the hard layer appears at the crest of a cascade 6 feet high at the mouth of the ravine, 25 rods west from the lake road and, rising toward the east more rapidly than the bed of the stream, is at the crest of a second fall 5 feet high, and 50 rods up the ravine at the top of a third fall 17 feet high.
This stratum, with adjacent shales, outcrops by the roadside near the four corners on the hill 1 1/2 miles south of Oakwood and also along the new railroad from Auburn southward through Genoa, 1 1/2 miles south of Auburn.
Fossils. A full list of the fossils of the Stafford limestone and the Cardiff shale may be found in State Museum Bulletin 63.
page 20 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The collector may expect to find the following species in the Cardiff beds south of Union Springs:
Phacops rana Green
Cryphaeus boothi Green
Homalonotus dekayi Green
Orthoceras subulatum Hall
Tornoceras discoideum (Conrad)
Tentaculites gracilistriatus Hall
Styliolina fissurella (Hall)
Pleurotomaria rugulata Hall
P. itys Hall
P. capillaria Conrad
P. sulcomarginata Conrad
Camarotoechia sappho Hall
Spirifer audaculus Conrad
Strophalosia truncata Hall
Productella spinulicosta Hall
Chonetes mucronatus Hall
C. scitulus Hall
Liorhynchus limitare (Vanuxem).
Ambocoelia umbonata (Conrad)
Orbiculoidea minuta Hall
Skaneateles shale
This name was applied to the beds next above the Cardiff as they appear near the foot of Skaneateles lake, by Vanuxem in his annual report for 1839; and in his final report on the Third District, 1842, it is mentioned as the first or lowest member of the Hamilton group.
It is a mass of dark soft clayey shale with some beds of black shale interbedded but gradually assuming on the whole a lighter color toward the top and contains some thin calcareous lenses composed of fossils and occasional concretions. The lines of contact with the adjacent formations are not clearly defined but on this quadrangle the Skaneateles beds have an estimated thickness Of 200 feet. They are well exposed along the railroad between Aurora and Levanna and in the ravines of Glen creek, Criss creek and in Great Gully brook, also slightly just east of Fleming.
Fossils are not so abundant in the Skaneateles shale as in the succeeding Ludlowville beds. The following is a partial list of the species that may be found in this formation on these quadrangles:
Ambocoelia umbonata (Conrad)
Tropidoleptus coronatus (Conrad)
Athyris spiriferoides (Eaton)
Leptostrophia perplana (Conrad)
Orbiculoidea media Hall
Chonetes coronatus Hall
C. mucronatus Hall
Spirifer audaculus Conrad
Productella spinulicosta Hall
Grammysia arcuata Conrad
Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall)
Actinopteria boydi Hall
Modiomorpha subalata (Conrad)
Buchiola retrostriata (von Buch)
Nuculites corbuliformis Hall
Styliolina fissurella (Hall)
Tornoceras discoideum (Conrad)
Orthoceras subulatum Hall
Cryphaeus boothi Green
Phacops rana Green
Page 21
GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
Ludlowville shale
Next above the Skaneateles beds there are about 25 feet of lighter colored, sandy shales somewhat calcareous and harder than the beds below and above. This band is abundantly fossiliferous containing many large brachiopods and cyathophylloid corals. It is continuous across this quadrangle and westward, with an increasing proportion of calcareous matter and fossils to Ontario county, appearing at Centerfield, 5 miles west of Canandaigua as a distinct stratum of limestone largely composed of corals.
It is succeeded here by about 100 feet of soft dark shales similar in character to the Skaneateles and containing a somewhat similar fauna.
The upper beds gradually become more sandy, lighter colored and fossiliferous. Thin calcareous lenses, masses of crinoid stems and other fossils occur and there are many small concretions.
The formation is terminated at the top by a continuous layer of crinoidal limestone, formerly the "encrinal limestone," now known as the Tichenor limestone.
These beds were first designated Ludlowville shales by Professor Hall in his report on the geology of the Fourth District (for 1838) 1839.
Exposures. The upper and more fossiliferous part of this formation is exposed along the east side of the Lehigh Valley Railroad for nearly a mile in the vicinity of Portland (or Shurger) point, and also to the thickness of 2.5 feet in the north bank of Salmon creek a mile below Ludlowville. It is below the lake level from the north side of Myers point to Atwaters, but is abundantly displayed in the cliff and ravines along the lake shore and railroad, almost the entire distance between Atwaters and Stony point, the upper beds being most conveniently exposed in the vicinity of King Ferry, and the lower fossiliferous band at Willetts and Stony point.
The soft shales 'of the middle portion of the formation appear in walls of the ravine of Payne's creek and the upper beds capped by the Tichenor limestone at the falls. (WSH note: Moonshine Falls)
There are many outcrops of Ludlowville shale in the small ravines north of Aurora and en the crest of the ridge 2 to 4 miles south of Fleming. The lower beds are finely exposed along the road 1/2 mile southwest from Wykoff and the ravine at Ensenore displays almost the entire Ludlowville section and there are fine exposures along the railroad north and south of Ensenore.
The fauna of the Ludlowville shale is a very large one. For list of species see State Museum Bulletin 63 under Canandaigua shale and Bulletin 99.
Page 22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Tichenor limestone
A stratum of hard bluish gray limestone 10 to 14 inches thick overlies the Ludlowville shale at all exposures of this horizon from Onondaga county to Lake Erie, showing little variation in character though its fossils are much more abundant and better preserved at some exposures than at others.
It usually is composed largely of crinoid sterns, and for this reason received the designation Encrinal limestone from Hall in his annual report on the geology of the Fourth District (for 1838) 1839 and by which it was known until the term Tichenor limestone was applied to it by Clarke in State Museum Handbook 19, from its favorable exposure in Tichenor gully on the west shore of Canandaigua lake. In the southern part of the Genoa quadrangle, in addition to the hard layer, there are 2 to 3 feet of hard calcareous shale and thin limestones that clearly belong to this division.
The most southern exposure of the Tichenor limestone in the Cayuga lake valley is on the east side of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 25 rods south of the cement factory at Portland or Shurger point. It is here a calcareous band 2 feet 9 inches thick, the upper part 18 inches thick being quite hard and compact and the remainder, except a few thin layers, quite shaly.
There are two thin limestones of similar character 5 and 7 feet higher, and the Ludlowville shales below are highly calcareous and fossiliferous. In Shurgers glen the hard layer is exposed at the top of the falls 50 feet above the lake level and in some places contains masses of crinoid stems 8 to 10 inches thick.
It appears 45 feet above the lake level in a small ravine 3/8 mile north of Portland and in the north bank of Salmon creek at Myers 20 feet higher than the lake.
It is above lake level for a few rods at the mouth of Willow creek on the west side of the lake, but is submerged from that point to Kidders where it emerges and rising rapidly toward the north and west produces the lower falls in the ravines of Sheldrake, Groves and Barnum creeks.
On the east side it emerges at Atwaters and is well exposed along the railroad and in several ravines between Atwaters and King Ferry. In the ravine at the latter place it forms the crest of the second falls, 30 feet above the lake, and is also at the top of high falls in three ravines near the lake north of King Ferry.
It forms the crest of the falls in the ravine of Paynes creek and rising toward the southeast, appears in the bed of the stream several times between the falls and the forks of the creek.
Page 23 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
No outcrops of the Tichenor are known on the gently sloping higher part of the ridge between the lakes, but it is finely exposed at the top of a fall in the Ensenore ravine 20 rods below the first highway bridge over the stream west of the station. It is very rich in fossils here, specially large trilobites and brachiopods, and there are several characteristic masses of crinoid columns.
It appears similarly situated and in the same condition in several ravines, south of Ensenore.
The fossils found in the Tichenor limestone are members of the Hamilton fauna and of the same species as occur in the Ludlowville and Moscow shales. For list see State Museum Bulletins 69 and 99.
Moscow shale
The stratigraphic position of this formation is well defined on this quadrangle by the Tichenor limestone at the base and the Tully limestone at the top, both of which show a marked contrast to the medium dark gray soft shales of which it is composed, the few thin calcareous lentils interstratified with the shales not being of sufficient importance to cause any difficulty of identification. It has a thickness of 130 feet.
The light colored middle and lower parts contain fossils in great abundance, but in the darker upper beds they are comparatively rare. For details of the fauna of the Moscow shale see State Museum Bulletin 63.
On the west side of Cayuga lake the large ravines of Bloomer, Grove and Sheldrake creeks cut through the Moscow shale and the numerous small ravines south of Kidders and the shore cliffs as far as Little point show the upper beds to good advantage, and the entire section is displayed between Taghanic point and a mile from the south line of the quadrangle.
On the east side of the lake, exposures of Moscow shale begin half a mile from the south line of the quadrangle and, except for 1 1/4 miles south of Lansing where it is below the lake level, appear in all of the ravines and shore cliffs for 12 miles toward the north to near King Ferry (Clearview) and in the upper part of several ravines farther north, also in the Paynes creek ravine and the one below Chapel Corners.
The more accessible and favorable exposures of the entire section are: along the railroad south of Portland I point; in Shurgers glen and the Salmon creek ravine; the ravines near Atwaters and King Ferry also show the whole section.
page 24
NEW YORK STATE E MUSEUM
There are but few outcrops of the Moscow shale in, the Owasco lake valley within the limits of the Genoa quadrangle but a few miles farther south in the ravines near Moravia the formation is well exposed.
Tully limestone
From near the west shore of Canandaigua lake in the town of Gorham, Ontario co., to Smyrna, Chenango co., a hundred miles east, the Moscow shales are overlain by the Tully limestone, so named by Vanuxem in his report on the geology of the Third District for 1838.
On these quadrangles the formation is composed of four to six compact layers of fine grained blue black limestone that weathers to a light gray or ashen color and has an aggregate thickness varying between 14 and 21 feet. The rock is very hard when fresh but after long exposure breaks easily into small angular fragments. The basal layer which is very hard is 7 to 9 feet thick at some exposures, the others varying from I to 4 feet. Frequent joints divide the strata into large blocks that become detached and are strewn along the lake shores at the base of cliffs in which the limestone occurs and in the bottom of many ravines below cascades produced by it.
The passage from the soft Moscow shale to the base of the limestone is very abrupt but at the top the overlying Genesee shale is quite calcareous for a few feet.
At the top of the low fall where Taghanic creek flows over the limestone at Taghanic point the normal Tully is overlain by 2 feet 4 inches of dark impure limestone succeeded by about the same thickness of densely black. Genesee shale that is succeeded by a 12 inch stratum of dark limestone exposed in the sides and bottom of the stream for about half a mile. As the few fossils in these calcareous layers are of species common in the Genesee shales they are assigned to that formation.
Exposures. The Tully limestone is exposed for several miles in the cliffs along the shores of Cayuga lake and in a large number of ravines cut in the hills it forms the crests of falls or cascades and appears in the rock walls, the hard light colored limestone projecting from the dark soft shales and producing the most striking and picturesque effects.
It emerges, forming a low cliff, on the west side of the lake 3/4 mile from the south line of the quadrangle, rises rapidly to 144 feet above lake level in Willow creek, then descends to lake level half a mile north of Taghanic point. It is submerged for 3 1/2 miles, then appears in a cliff to Little point and in all the ravines to Barnum creek where
Page 25 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
it is seen at the top of falls near the west line of the quadrangle 300 feet higher than the lake.
On the east side the top of the Tully is at lake level-at a small point 1/2 mile from the south line of the Genoa quadrangle, but is covered by beach sand and gravel for 35 rods, then appears between the lake and the railroad, the lower layers submerged at the south end of the exposure but above the water 25 rods farther north. It is displayed in the cliff on the east side of the railroad for 1/8 mile and rises to 640 A.T. in the field 1/4 mile north of Shurgers glen, in the vicinity of which it is well exposed in the quarry of the Portland Cement Company any and adjacent fields and ravines.
It is at the top of the falls of Salmon creek at Ludlowville and appears at the top of the cliffs on the lake shore 1/2 mile north of Myers point, and almost continuously for 3 miles, sinking with a northward dip to partial submergence in the lake, then slowly rising, may be seen in the shore cliffs and at the top of falls in several ravines near the lake in an almost continuous exposure for 10 miles to King Ferry (Clearview).
The falls in some of the larger ravines are made exceedingly interesting and picturesque by the disintegration of the soft Moscow shales beneath the limestone which projects so far as to produce recesses or ,caves of considerable extent. One near the railroad a mile south of Lansing is 50 feet wide and 27 feet deep and there are others not much less extensive. Immense blocks of the limestone partly fill the ravines below the falls producing different but equally striking and -rugged effects. The limestone rises rapidly and recedes from the lake shore north of King Ferry outcropping at 800 A. T. on the Aurora road and at the top of falls in two branches of Paynes creek.
It is well exposed at 830 to 850 feet in the ravine at Chapel Corners. This is the extreme northern outcrop of the limestone in the Cayuga lake valley and from this point to an outcrop in the highway near the four corners a mile north of Scipio its precise position is not known. It produces a cascade at 1160 A. T. in the Ensenore brook 1 1/4 miles farther south.
The limestone is 14 to 15 feet thick in the Barnum and Groves creek ravines, 17 feet 6 inches on Willow creek; 21 feet in Shurgers glen; 18 feet in the Portland Cement Company's quarry and 15 feet at Lake Ridge.
The Tully is usually found to be only moderately fossiliferous but there have been collected from the exposures in the Cayuga lake valley 70 species, of which 14 are corals, 26 brachiopods, 5 lamellibranchs, 15
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page 26
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
gastropods, 8 cephalopods and 2 trilobites, besides crinoid stems and unidentified corals.
For list of species see Sixth Annual Report of the State Geologist, 1887.
Genesee black shale
This term was formerly used to designate all of the thick mass of black and dark shale that succeeds the Tully limestone, up to the base of the light colored Cashaqua shale, but for reasons fully set forth in State Museum Bulletin 118, it is now applied only to the more densely black and bituminous lower beds that lie between the Tully limestone and a thin but well defined, calcareous band known as the Genundewa limestone that from Ontario county westward to Lake Erie separates the beds formerly called the lower Genesee shales from the somewhat lighter colored and more calcareous upper Genesee shales.
The limestone is absent in the Cayuga lake valley but the upper limit of the Genesee shale is well marked by an abrupt change to a light gray calcareous shale in the place of the limestone. Two hard layers 1 foot 6 inches and 12 inches thick near the base of the Genesee in the southern part of the Genoa quadrangle are impure limestone but as the few fossils they contain are of the species found in the higher beds, they are, as previously stated, classified as Genesee. There are also a few calcareous concretions but otherwise this formation is quite uniform in character from bottom to top. Though fissile after exposure the rock when fresh is compact and quite hard, and is less susceptible to erosion than more clayey shales. The beds are usually traversed in two or more directions by vertical joints that divide the surface in small square, triangular or diamond shaped tesselations 1 to 3 or 4 feet across.
Fossils are not abundant in the Genesee shale but the collector may expect to find:
Liorhynchus quadricostatum Hall
Chonetes lepidus Hall
Lingula spatulata Hall,
Orbiculoidea lodensis (Vanuxem)
Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall)
Pleurotomaria rugulata Hall
Styliolina fissurella (Hall)
Tentaculites gracilistriatus Hall
Probeloceras lutheri Clarke
Bactrites aciculum (Hall)
The Genesee shales are exposed in the cliffs on the east side of the' lake near the south line of the quadrangle and at most of the exposures of Tully limestone previously mentioned. This formation attains its greatest thickness in this State, about 100 feet, in Ontario
page 27 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
and Yates counties. It diminishes westward to 1 foot on the shore of Lake Erie and eastward to 65 feet on the Genoa quadrangle and is not known east of Smyrna, Chenango co.
Genundewa limestone
This formation which is fully described in State Museum Bulletins 63 and 118, is a band of thin limestones and calcareous shale extending from Gorham, Ontario co. to Lake Erie. The limestones are composed in a large proportion of the shells of the minute pteropod Styliolina fissurella (Hall) and was formerly known as the Styliola limestone. Except in a few small patches the limestone does not appear in characteristic condition in the Seneca lake valley, but its position is clearly indicated by a band of light gray calcareous shale containing a row of. large concretions. Fossils common to the limestone farther west, particularly Styliolina fissurella , are abundant in both shales and concretions, [see State Mus. Bul. 128]. The formation is less clearly defined in the Cayuga lake valley but may be seen in the rock wall at the Trumansburg creek falls at Frontenac point and at Taghanic Falls.
On the east side of the lake it appears as a rather faint gray band in the cliffs near the south line of the quadrangle about 30 feet below the heavy sandstone that here marks the base of the Cashaqua shales.
The shale is darker, the concretions smaller and fossils more rare here but in the southern part of the Salmon creek valley it is more calcareous and fossils are more common.
It is exposed at the top of the falls in the ravine 2 1/2 miles northeast of Ludlowville and in a 10 foot cliff on the west side of Salmon creek 20 rods north of the highway, 1 mile south of the forks of the creek. At this exposure the bed of the stream is black shale in which 0rbiculoidea lodensis , Liorhynchus quadricostaturn, Chonetes lepidus and other Genesee fossils are common, and the gray band about 10 feet thick with a row of concretions 1 to 2 feet in diameter and 5 to 8 feet apart at the base, succeeded by 1 foot 8 inches of soft gray shale and a harder stratum of calcareous shale 8 inches thick that is followed by 6 feet of gray shale. This horizon is exposed in 3 ravines on the east side of Salmon creek valley between Genoa and Venice Center, but the formation is not so clearly defined, the overlying shales, which are dark to black in the Seneca lake valley, differing but little here in appearance from these beds.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
The following fossils have been found in this gray band in exposures in the Seneca lake and Cayuga lake valleys:
Manticoceras pattersoni (Hall)
Gomphoceras cf. manes Hall
Bactrites sp.
Paleotrochus praecursor Clarke
Pleurotomaria capillaria Hall
Loxonema noe Clarke
Styliolina fissurella (Hall)
Buchiola retrostriata (von Buch)
Palaeoneilo, muta Hall
Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall)
Atrypa reticularis (Linne)
Ambocoelia unbonata (Conrad)
Chonetes scitulus Hall
Liorhynchus multicostatum (Hall)
Orbiculoidea lodensis Vanuxem
Lingula spatulata Vanuxem
Cladochonus, abundant in concretions
Crinoid stems
West River dark shale
In Ontario county and westward to Lake Erie the dark shales between the Genundewa limestone and the base of the Cashaqua shales are separable into two divisions: the West River shale, -a heavy bed of soft dark colored slightly calcareous shales, and succeeding them, the blacker and more bituminous Middlesex shale.
In the Seneca lake valley the distinction between the two formations is scarcely recognizable and in the Cayuga lake valley it seems to be lost entirely and both formations by gradual 'change in the character of the sedimentation become so far assimilated to the succeeding Cashaqua shale that they are not to be distinguished from that formation east of this, or at farthest, the Moravia quadrangle. The horizon of the West River and Middlesex shales is exposed in the upper part of the Sheldrake and other ravines in that vicinity, also in the Trumansburg and Taghanic ravines and others in the vicinity of Heddens and King Ferry. In the Salmon creek valley these beds may be seen at the top of the falls in the ravine 2 1/4 miles north of Ludlowville, and in several gullies on the east side between Genoa and Venice Center.
Fossils are very rare in these beds but a few forms like those in the Genesee beds occur. Among these are:
Bactrites aciculum (Hall)
Gephyroceras sp.
Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall)
Lunulicardium curt um Hall
Buchiola retrostriata (von Buch)
Panenka sp.
Lingula spatulata Vanuxem
Orbiculoidea lodensis Vanuxem
Liorhynchus quadricostatum Hall
page 29 GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
Cashaqua shale
This formation was named from its favorable exposure along Cashaqua creek, one of the tributaries of the Genesee river in Livingston county. In that locality it is composed almost entirely of light blue gray or olive shale, but toward the cast it acquires a slowly increasing proportion of arenaceous matter and on this quadrangle there are frequent flags and thin sandstones, specially in the upper beds where some of the latter are 1 to 3 feet thick and usually schistose to a degree that makes them valuable for flagging, for which purpose they have been extensively quarried on both sides of the Cayuga lake valley.
Except that the shales in the lower part of the formation are rather less calcareous here than they are in the Genesee valley they are of much the same appearance and character.
The upper limit is at the top of a band of soft dark shale about 265 feet above the base and approximately, at least, in the horizon of the Rhinestreet shale that contains a few small lamellibranchs like those below and is succeeded by more arenaceous sediments that carry an abundant brachiopodous fauna.
The Cashaqua beds are exposed in the ravines between Heddens and Clearview and similarly on the opposite side of the lake, also farther north in the Trumansburg and Taghanic creek ravines. The upper flaggy beds are displayed in a number of large quarries now mostly abandoned between Taghanic Falls and Ovid Center, also at Goodyears and King Ferry. The lower beds appear in the ravines on the east side of the Salmon creek valley north of Genoa and along the west branch of Salmon creek in the vicinity of Little Hollow.
Fossils. The lower soft shales contain, though not abundantly, some members of the characteristic fauna of the Cashaqua beds farther west, viz:
Pterochaenia fragilis (Hall)
Buchiola retrostriata (von Buch)
Probeloceras lutheri Clarke
Bactrites aciculum (Hall)
Spirifer laevis Hall occurs at Taghanic Falls near the top of the lower beds
A thin layer of soft sandstone 35 feet higher exposed in Hunt's quarry 1 1/2 miles
southeast of Interlaken contains:
Spirifer mesacostalis Hall
Productella spinulicosta Hall
Camarotoechia congregata (Conrad)
Chonetes lepidus Hall
Palaeoneilo constricta (Conrad)
Leptodesma sp.
Conularia cf. continens Hall
Helianthaster gyalum Clarke
Stictopora
Melocrinus sp.
PlumaIina
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Burls in the higher sandstones contain:
Manticoceras pattersoni (Hall)
Orthoceras bebryx Hall
Liorhynchus mesacostale Hall
Cyrtina hamiltonensis Hall
Orbiculoidea sp.
Leptostrophia mucronata (Conrad)
Grammysia subarcuata Hall
Cladochonus sp.
and masses of plant remains in which fragments of Lepidodendron are frequent. A considerable number of additional species have been collected from this formation on the Ithaca quadrangle where it is favorably exposed about the head of Cayuga lake.
From Lake Erie eastward as far as Seneca lake the Cashaqua shale succeeds the black Middlesex shale and is overlaid by another band of black shale known as the Rhinestreet black shale, a formation that reverses the usual order and decreases in thickness toward the cast and is not recognized with certainty in the Cayuga lake valley. Both these formations are absent in the Genoa district. Near the south line of the Genoa quadrangle the basal layer of the Cashaqua is a compact sandstone nearly 3 feet thick that thins out toward the north and disappears in a few miles but the' contact is still plainly marked by the abrupt change in the color of the rocks.
Hatch shales and flags
This formation as exposed on the -slopes of Hatch hill in the Canandaigua lake section is clearly defined by the Rhinestreet black shale upon which it rests and the Grimes sandstones by which it is overlain. It there, as here, consists of shales and thin sandstones in frequent alternations, but is thinner and less arenaceous, and though it contains a few fossils, they all belong to the Naples fauna from which brachiopods are, with the exception of a small Lingula, entirely absent.
In the Seneca lake section these beds are found to contain a few brachiopods and the lamellibranchs and cephalopods of the Naples fauna are less common. In the Cayuga lake valley, and specially in the southern part, the number of species of brachiopods and lamellibranchs that are not known in the horizon of these beds in the Naples or Genesee river section is greatly increased, while the representatives of the Naples fauna have almost, though not quite, disappeared.
The thickness of this formation on the Genoa quadrangle is 350 to 375 feet, lack of favorable exposures- making precise measurement impracticable. The numerous exposures of this formation about Ithaca 6 to 10 miles south of the Genoa quadrangle have afforded about 50 species of fossils constituting the well known Ithaca fauna.
page 31
GEOLOGY OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES
On the Genoa quadrangle exposures are less favorable, and the beds apparently less fossiliferous.
The collector may expect to find:
Stictopora meeki Nicholson
Aulopora sp.
Spirifer mesacostalis Hall
S. mesastrialis Hall
Cyrtina hamiltonensis Hall
Leptostrophia perplana var. nervosa Hall
L. mucronata Hall
Productella speciosa Hall
Ambocoelia umbonata (Conrad)
Schizophoria impressa Hall
Pugnus pugnax Martin
Camarotoechia eximia Hall
Cryptonella eudora Hall
Atrypa reticularis Linne
Chonetes scitulus Hall
C. lepidus Hall
Liorhynchus niesacostale Hall
Buchiola retrostriata (von Buch)
Microdon bellistriatus Hall
Schizodus chemungensis Hall
Modiomorpha subalata var. chemungensis Hall
Nucula diffidens Hall
Palaeoneilo constricta (Conrad)
P. filosa (Conrad)
Grammysia subarcuata Hall
Spathella typica Hall
Bellerophon leda Hall
Orthoceras bebryx var. cayuga Hall
Gomphoceras tumidum. Hall
Bactrites aciculum (Hall)
Plumalina plumaria Hall
There are good exposures of these beds along Trumansburg creek from 3/4 mile below the Lehigh Valley Railroad bridge to half a mile west of the village. The lower beds may be seen along Taghanic creek below Halseyville, and 15 feet of fossiliferous shale are exposed below the dam at Waterburg.
There are a few field outcrops of Hatch flags on the ridge between the Cayuga lake and Salmon creek valley, and along the east line of the quadrangle, but they are all small and insignificant.
Grimes sandstones
In the Naples quadrangle the Hatch shales and flags are terminated by the Grimes sandstones, a well defined formation composed principally of thick sandstones in which several species, members of the Ithaca fauna and mostly brachiopods, make their first appearance, making the formation important paleontologically as well as stratigraphically.
The Grimes sandstones arc not exposed on this quadrangle but their position is approximately indicated from exposures at the west and South.
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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
West Hill flags and shales
This formation is composed of thin sandstones and shales having an aggregate thickness of about 600 feet. It contains a mixed fauna embracing species belonging to the Naples and the Ithaca faunas, but is but moderately fossiliferous.
The surface rocks in the southwest corner of the Genoa quadrangle are in the lowest part of this formation, but they are covered by a thin drift mantle.
For further description of the Grimes sandstones and West Hill flags and shales see State Museum Bulletin 63.
INDEX
Actinopteria boydi, 20.
Agoniatite limestone, 17, 18.
Agoniatites expansus, 18.
Ambocoelia umbonata, 18, 20, 28, 31.
Athyris spiriferoides, 20.
Atrypa reticularis, 28, 31.
Atwaters 21, 22, 23.
Auburn, 12, 13, 16, 18.
Aulopora sp., 31.
Aurelius, 10, 11, 14, 16.
Aurora, 20, 21.
Backus, George, residence of, 13, 14.
Backus quarry, 7.
Bactrites Sp., 28. aciculum, 26, 28, 29, 31.
Barnum creek, 22, 24, 25.
Bellerophon leda, 31.
Bertie waterlime, 71 8-9, 10; fossils, 8.
Beyrichia sp., 11.
Bloomer creek, 23.
Bucania sp., 11.
Buchiola retrostriata, 20, 28, 29 31.
Bythotrephis lesquereuxi, 9.
Camarotoechia. congregata, 29.
eximia, 31.
sappho, 20.
Camillus shale, 7-8.
Cardiff shale, 17, 18-20; fossils, 19.
Cashaqua shale, 26, 27, 28, 29-30;
fossils, 29.
Cayuga, 8, 9.
Cayuga junction, 8, 9. Cayuga lake, 16, 31.
Cayuga Land Plaster Company, 7.
Cement, 8.
Centerfield, 21.
Ceratiocaris acuminata, 8.
Chaetetes (Monotrypella) arbusculus, 11, 13.
Chapel Corners, 23, 25.
Chonetes coronatus, 20.
jerseyensis, 11.
lepidus, 18, 20, 27, 29, 31.
mucronatus, 18, 20.
scitulus, 20, 28, 31.
undulatus, 11.
Chonostrophia complanata, 15.
CladochonuS, 28.
sp., 30.
Clarke, J. M., cited, 15, 22.
Clearview, 23, 25, 29.
Cobleskill limestone, 9-11; fossils,11.
Conularia cf. continens, 29.
Crane brook, 11.
Crinoid sp., 11.
Crinoid stems, 28.
Criss creek, 19, 20.
Crossroads, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13.
Cryphaeus, boothi, 20.
Cryptonella eudora, 31.
Cyathophyllum hydraulicum, 11.
Cyclonema sp., 11.
Cyrtina hamiltonensis, 30, 31.
Dolichopterus macrocheirus, 8.
Drumlins, 5-6.
Eaton, Amos, cited, 15.
Ensenore, 21, 23.
Ensenore brook, 25.
Eurypterids, 8, 12.
Eurypterus dekayi, 8.
lacustris, 8. var. pachycheirus, 8.
pustulosus, 8.
remipes, 8.
Eusarcus scorpionis, 8.
Falkirk, Erie county, 9.
Favosites niagarensis, 11.
Fleming, 20, 21.
Flint creek, 17.
Frontenac Island, 9; fossils from 11.
Frontenac point, 27.
Genesee black shale, 26-27; fossils 26.
Genoa, 27, 28.
Genundewa limestone, 26, 27-28; fossils, 28.
Geological formations, represented, 6; thickness, 7.
Gephyroceras sp., 28.
Glen creek, 20.
Gomphoceras cf. manes, 28.
septore, 11.
tumidum, 31.
Goodyears, 29.
Gorham, 24,
Grammysia arcuata, 20.
subarcuata, 30, 31.
Great Gully brook, 19, 20.
Grimes sandstones, 30, 31.
Groves creek, 22, 23, 25.
Gypsum quarries, 7-8.
Half Acre, 16, 1&
Hall, James, cited, 15, 17, 21, 22.
Halseyville, 31.
Halysites catenulatus, 11.
Hatch shales and flags, 30; fossils, 31.
Heddens, 28, 29.
Helianithaster gyalum, 29.
Hibiscus point, 7.
Hipparionyx proximus, 15.
Holopea antiqua, 13.
Homalonotus dekayi, 20.
Howland point, 9.
Hunt's quarry, 29.
Ilionia sinuata, 11.
Interlaken, 29.
Kidders, 22, 23.
King Ferry, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29.
Lake Ridge, 25.
Land plaster bed, 7.
Lansing, 23, 25.
Leperditia alta, 8, 11, 12, 13. cf. scalaris, 9, 11, 12.
Lepidodendron, 30.
Leptodesma Sp., 29.
Leptostrophia mucronata, 30, 31.
perplana, 20.
var . nervosa, 31.
Levanna, 18, 19, 20.
Lingula spatulata, 26, 28.
Lingulas, 8, 9.
Liopteria laevis, 18.
Liorhynchus laura, 18.
limitare, 18, 20.
mesacostale, 30, 31.
multicostatum, 28.
quad ricostatum, 26, 27, 28.
Little Hollow, 29.
Little point, 23, 24.
Long point, 16.
Loxonema sp., 11. noe, 28.
Ludlowville, 21, 25, 27, 28.
Ludlowville shale, 21; fossils, 21,
Lunulicardium curtum, 28,
Manlius limestone, 10, 11, 12-13, fossils, 13.
Manticoceras pattersoni, 28, 30,
Marcellus black shale, 16-18; fossils, 18.
Megambonia aviculoidea, 11.
Melocrinus Sp., 29.
Meristella lata, 15.
Microdon bellistriatus, 31.
Middlesex shale, 28.
Modiomorpha subalata, 20. var. chemungensis, 31.
Monotrypella arbusculus see Chaetetes (Monotrypella) arbusculus.
Moravia, 24.
Moscow shale, 23-24; fossils, 23,
Myers, 22.
Myers point, 21, 25.
Nucula diffidens, 31.
Nuculites corbuliformis, 20. oblongatus, IS.
Oakwood, 16, 19.
O'Conner quarry, 10, 11
Onondaga limestone, TO, 12, 13, 15-16; fossils, 16.
Orbiculoidea, 8, 9. sp., 30. lodensis, 26, .27, 28. media, 18, 20. minuta, 20.
Oriskany Falls, 14.
Oriskany sandstone, 12, 13-15; fossil s, 15.
Orthoceras sp., 11.
bebryx, 30.
var. cayuga, 31.
subulatum, 18, 20.
trusitum, 11.
Ovid Center, 29.
Palaeoneilo constricta, 29, 31, filosa, 31. muta, 28.
Paleotrochus praecursor, 28.
Panenka sp., 28.
ventricosa, 18
Payne's creek, 21, 22, 23, 25.
Phacops rana, 20.
Phelps, 9, 14, 17.
Phelps quarry, 13.
Phyllocarids, 8.
Pleurotomaria capillaria, 20, 28.
itys, 20.
rugulata, 18, 20, 26.
sulcomarginata, 20.
Plumalina, 29.
plumaria, 31.
Portland, 22.
Portland Cement Company, 25.
Portland point, 21, 22, 23.
Probeloceras lutheri, 26, 29.
Productella speciosa, 31.
spinulicosta, 20, 29.
Pterinea subplana, 11.
Pterochaenia fragilis, 18, 20, 26, 28, 29.
Pterygotus buffaloensis, 8. cobbi, 8.
Pugnus pugnax, 31.
Rensselaeria. ovoides, 15.
Rhinestreet shale, 29, 30.
Rhynchonella, 8. pisum, 11.
Rondout waterlime, To, 11-12; fossils12.
Salmon creek, 21, 22, 25, 27.
Salmon creek valley, 23, 27, 28, 29, 31.
Sawyers creek, 8.
Schizodus chemungensis, 31.
Schizophoria impressa, 31.
Schuchert, cited, 15.
Schuchertella interstriata, 13.
Scipio, 25.
Seneca Falls, -11, 12.
Sennett, 10, 12, 13.
Shaliboo quarry, 14, 16.
Sheldrake creek, 22, 23, 28.
Shurger point, 21, 22.
Shurgers glen,. 22, 23, 25.
Skaneateles shale, 19, 20; fossils, 20.
Smith quarry, 18.
Smyrna, 24.
Soule's cemetery, 18.
Spathella typica, 31.
Spirifer arenosus, 15.
audaculus, 20.
cripsus var. corallinensis, 11.
laevis, 29.
mesacostalis, 29, 31.
mesastrialis, 31.
murchisoni, 15.
vanuxemi, 11, 13.
Stafford limestone, 17, 18; fossils, 19.
Stictopora, 29,
meeki, 31.
Stony point, 21.
Stromatopora concentrica, 9, 11, 12, 13.
Strophalosia truncata, 18, 20.
Stropheodonta bipartita, 11,
textilis, 11.
varistriata, 11, 13.
Styliola limestone, 27.
Styliolina fissurella, 18, 20, 26, 27, 28.
Taghanic creek, 24, 28, 29, 31.
Taghanic Falls, 27, 29.
Taghanic point, 23, 24.
Tentaculite limestone, 12.
Tentaculites SP., 13. gracilistriatus, 20, 26. gyracanthus, 11.
Thompson quarries, 10.
Throop, 10.
Tichenor limestone, 21, 22-23; fossils 23.
Tornoceras discoideum, 20.
Trochoceras gebhardi, 11.
Tropidoleptus coronatus, 20.
Trumansburg creek, 28, 29, 31.
Trumansburg creek falls, 27.
Tully limestone, 25-26; fossils, 25.
Union Springs, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19.
Vanuxem, Lardner, cited, 14, 16, 20, 24.
Venice Center, 27, 28.
Waterburg, 31.
Waterlime cement, 8.
West Hill flags and shales, 32.
West River dark shale, 28; fossils, 28.
Whitfieldella laevis, 13. sulcata, 11, 13.
Willetts, 21.
Willow creek, 22, 24, 25.
Wood quarry, 16, 18.
Wooley quarry, 10.
Wykoff, 21.
Yawger cemetery, 14.
Yawger farm, 13, 14.