DATA COLLECTION, AND ANALYSIS OF SEDIMENTS EXPOSED ON STATEN ISLAND, NY

During the summer of 2004, six high school students enrolled in the College of Staten Island's Discovery Institute studied two contiguous formations in a newly excavated outcrop of sediments that are exposed at the south end of Staten Island.

In this particular “inquiry-based field investigation” they collected the samples of sediment, took field measurements, sieved and weighed the samples, examined SEM images of grains, statistically analyzed the data and cataloged the samples for future studies. They recorded all of their work in a laboratory notebook and gave the date of all entries. They observed a lower formation of cross-bedded white silt and clay that measured 1.1 m (above road). They observed an upper formation consisting of a sequence of 4 yellow/beige units: (Unit 1) A layer (1 meter thick) of poorly sorted gravel containing cobble size grains. At the west side of the outcrop, this layer contains yellow/beige/gold/orange types of gravel with cobbles of up to 10 cm in length of red sand stones, quartz grains, quartzite, and partially decomposed rocks. At the east end of this outcrop they observed large(0.26 m thick) irregular blocks of red yellow sandstone.(Unit 2) A layer of well sorted, cross-bedded silts and clays(0.43 m thick) containing quartz and clay minerals. (Unit 3) A thin layer of poorly sorted gravel containing cobbles. (Unit 4) Another layer of well sorted cross-bedded silts and clays, 0.27m thick. They measured the dip of the cross-beds (33° to the west).

They determined that the cross-bedded sediments in both the lower and upper formations were deposited in a fluvial (stream) environment. Based on their observations and data analysis they concluded that the lower formation is the Cretaceous Raritan Formation and the upper unit is suggestive of the Pleistocene Pennsauken Formation. These students worked under the direction of this author and acquired the necessary skills of data collection, record keeping and analysis so they could bring it back to their high school and do future scientific work.