PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE HAMILTON STRATIGRAPHY OF THE GREEN POND-SKUNNEMUNK OUTLIERS, SOUTHEASTERN NEW YORK AND NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY

The Green Pond and Skunnemunk outliers of southeastern New York and northeastern New Jersey contain Siluro-Devonian sediments separated by approximately 40 kilometers and more from the main New York-New Jersey outcrop belt. The Green Pond and Skunnemunk outliers have previously been determined to be thrust into place by the Allegheny Orogeny, having been transported from farther to the East. The sediments preserved in the outliers represent some of the earliest near shore Hamilton facies; the oldest sediments of the Catskill delta. Hamilton-age units in the Green Pond and Skunnemunk outliers consist of the Cornwall Shale, Bellvale Sandstone, and Skunnemunk Conglomerate.

Further investigation of these units is being conducted to determine patterns of sedimentation aimed at interpreting sea level cyclicity in hopes of refining the correlation of strata originally deposited further to the east to that of the rest of the Hamilton Group to the west. In addition, examination of the paleoecology of the strata will take place as these units provide a rare glimpse at some of the most proximal biofacies of the lower Hamilton interval preserved in the Appalachian basin. Once a detailed stratigraphic framework is in place, it will then be possible to compare biofacies through time; of especial interest will be the comparison of lower and upper Hamilton near-shore and paralic biofacies.