# Gettysburg Formation

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{{Short description|Rock Formation}}
{{Infobox Rockunit
| name = Gettysburg Formation
| image = Gettysburg Formation outcrop.jpg
| caption = Outcrop of Gettysburg Formation along Conewago Road in [York County, Pennsylvania](/source/York_County%2C_Pennsylvania), facing east from the bridge over [Conewago Creek](/source/Conewago_Creek_(west))
| type = sedimentary
| prilithology = sandstone, conglomerate 
| otherlithology = shale
| namedfor = [Gettysburg, Pennsylvania](/source/Gettysburg%2C_Pennsylvania)
| namedby = Stose and Bascom, 1929<ref name=Stose1929>Stose, G.W., and Bascom, Florence, 1929, Description of the Fairfield and Gettysburg quadrangles [Pennsylvania]: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Atlas of the United States, Fairfield-Gettysburg folio, no. 225, 22 p.</ref>
| region = 
| unitof = [Newark Supergroup](/source/Newark_Supergroup)
| subunits = Heidlersburg member,<ref name=Stose1929/><ref name=Wood1980/> Arendtsville fanglomerate lentil,<ref name=Stose1929/> Elizabeth Furnace conglomerate member,<ref>Jonas, A.I., and Stose, G.W., 1930, Geology and mineral resources of the Lancaster quadrangle, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey Topographic and Geologic Atlas, 4th series, 168, 106 p., scale 1:62,500</ref> Conewago conglomerate member<ref name=Stose1939/>
| overlies = [New Oxford Formation](/source/New_Oxford_Formation)
| underlies = 
| thickness = 5000 m (16,000 feet)<ref name=Stose1929/> 
| extent = Pennsylvania, Maryland
| age = Late [Triassic](/source/Triassic)
}}

The '''Gettysburg Formation''' is a mapped bedrock unit consisting primarily of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales.

The Gettysburg Formation was first described in the Gettysburg area of [Adams County, Pennsylvania](/source/Adams_County%2C_Pennsylvania) in 1929,<ref name=Stose1929/> and over the following decade was mapped in adjacent [York County, Pennsylvania](/source/York_County%2C_Pennsylvania)<ref name=Stose1939>Stose, G.W., and Jonas, A.I., 1939, Geology and mineral resources of York County, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey County Report, 4th series, no. 67, 199 p.</ref> and [Frederick County, Maryland](/source/Frederick_County%2C_Maryland).<ref>Jonas, A.I., and Stose, G.W., 1938, Geologic map of Frederick County and adjacent parts of Washington and Carroll Counties (Maryland): Maryland Geological Survey County Geologic Map, 1 sheet, scale 1:62,500</ref>  It was then typically called the "Gettysburg shale," and was described as "thick red shales and soft red sandstones."  The majority of this early mapping was done by G. W. Stose, A. I. Jonas, and Florence Bascom.  Later workers described it as "Red, medium- to fine-grained sandstone and shale."<ref name=Wood1980/>

The rock unit was formalized into a Formation in 1963 by J. D. Glaeser.<ref>Glaeser, J.D., 1963, Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the Triassic Newark-Gettysburg basin: Pennsylvania Academy of Science Proceedings, v. 37, p. 179-188.</ref>  Glaeser re-mapped some areas previously mapped as the Gettysburg Formation to the [Hammer Creek Formation](/source/Hammer_Creek_Formation).

A major groundwater resources study of the Gettysburg Formation and other formations of the Newark Supergroup in Pennsylvania was published by Charles R. Wood in 1980.<ref name=Wood1980>Wood, C. R., 1980, Groundwater resources of the Gettysburg and Hammer Creek Formations, southeastern Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser., Water Resource Report 49, 87 p. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071122192555/http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pub/water/w049.aspx web release]).</ref>

==Depositional Environment==
The Gettysburg Formation and other formations of the [Newark Supergroup](/source/Newark_Supergroup) were deposited in the Gettysburg [Basin](/source/Sedimentary_basin), just one of many Triassic [rift basins](/source/Rift) existing on the east coast of North and South America, which formed as [plate tectonics](/source/Extensional_tectonics) pulled apart [Pangaea](/source/Pangaea) into the [continent](/source/continent)s we see today.

The conglomerates within the formation were most likely [alluvial fan](/source/alluvial_fan) or [mudflow](/source/mudflow) deposits, or possibly [talus](/source/Scree), eroding directly from the [Precambrian](/source/Precambrian) and early [Paleozoic](/source/Paleozoic) rocks to the north and south.<ref name=Wood1980/>  The sandstones and shales were most likely deposited in the flooded rift valley as [deltas](/source/River_delta).

==Stratigraphy==
[[Image:Gettysburg formation conglomerate.jpg|thumb|right|Boulder of the conglomerate along Crone Road near the top of the [Conewago Mountains](/source/Conewago_Mountains) (rock hammer for scale)]]
The Gettysburg Formation is [conformably](/source/unconformity) underlain by the [New Oxford Formation](/source/New_Oxford_Formation), which is the basal unit of the Newark Supergroup in south-central Pennsylvania.  The Gettysburg is mapped from the Maryland border through [Adams](/source/Adams_County%2C_Pennsylvania), [Cumberland](/source/Cumberland_County%2C_Pennsylvania), and [Lancaster](/source/Lancaster_County%2C_Pennsylvania) Counties to the southern borders of [Dauphin](/source/Dauphin_County%2C_Pennsylvania) and [Lebanon](/source/Lebanon_County%2C_Pennsylvania) Counties.  In these counties and to the north the rock unit is called the [Hammer Creek Formation](/source/Hammer_Creek_Formation).<ref name=Wood1980/> The formation also encompasses the [York Haven Diabase](/source/York_Haven_Diabase) in [York county](/source/York_County%2C_Pennsylvania).

The Gettysburg Formation is divided into several members.  The upper part is sometimes referred to as the Conewago [conglomerate](/source/conglomerate_(geology)), and the [Conewago Mountains](/source/Conewago_Mountains) in York County are underlain by it.  The Heidlersburg Member, in the middle of the formation, is "red, green, and gray shale and argillite and minor gray to white sandstone".<ref name=Wood1980/>

==Fossils==
The [palynomorph](/source/palynomorph) ''Froelichsporites traversei'' has been identified in the Gettysburg Formation.<ref>Litwin, R.J., Smoot, J.P., and Weems, R.E., 1993, Froelichsporites gen. nov.; a biostratigraphic marker palynomorph of Upper Triassic continental strata in the conterminous U.S.: Palynology, v. 17, p. 157-168.</ref> Indeterminate [theropod](/source/theropod) remains similar to ''[Coelophysis](/source/Coelophysis)'' are also known from the Gettysburg Formation.

==Age==
Relative age dating of the Gettysburg Formation places it in the Late [Triassic](/source/Triassic) period.

In 1977, B. Cornet dated a basalt flow near [Aspers](/source/Bendersville_Station-Aspers%2C_Pennsylvania), Pennsylvania and led to his conclusion that the Gettysburg is of late [Carnian](/source/Carnian) and [Norian](/source/Norian) to Early [Jurassic](/source/Jurassic) age.<ref>Cornet, Bruce, 1977, Palynostratigraphy and age of the Newark Supergroup: Pennsylvania State University, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 505 p. [http://www.sunstar-solutions.com/sunstar/Cornet77thesis/Cornet77thesis.pdf abstract]</ref>  Later, the rocks above the Aspers Basalt were redefined as the Bendersville Formation of [Jurassic](/source/Jurassic) age.<ref>Smoot, J. P, 1999, Stratigraphy and sedimentary tectonics—Early Mesozoic—sedimentary rocks, ''in'' Shultz, C. H., ed., The geology of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th series, Special Publication 1, p. 180-201.</ref><ref>Faill, R. T., 2003, The early Mesozoic Birdsboro central Atlantic margin basin in the Mid-Atlantic region, eastern United States: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 115, p. 406-421. [http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/115/4/406 abstract]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Triassic geology of Pennsylvania

Category:Triassic Maryland
Category:Adams County, Pennsylvania
Category:York County, Pennsylvania
Category:Frederick County, Maryland
Category:Sandstone formations of the United States
Category:Shale formations of the United States
Category:Conglomerate formations of the United States
Category:Geologic formations of Maryland
Category:Geologic formations of Pennsylvania

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gettysburg Formation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Formation) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Formation?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.