Foreknobs Formation

Foreknobs Formation
Stratigraphic range: Frasnian - Famennian[1]
Conglomerate from Foreknobs Formation, Rt. 994, near western side of bridge going over Raystown Lake, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
Type	sedimentary
Unit of	Greenland Gap Group
Sub-units	Mallow Member, Briery Gap Sandstone Member, Blizzard Member, Pound Sandstone Member, and Red Lick Member
Underlies	Catskill Formation, or Hampshire Formation in VA
Overlies	Scherr Formation, or Brallier Formation in VA
Thickness	1321 ft at type section
Lithology
Primary	Siltstone, sandstone, shale
Other	Conglomerate
Location
Region	Appalachian Mountains
Extent	Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia
Type section
Named for	Fore Knobs of Allegheny Front
Named by	J. M. Dennison, 1970

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

Description

The Foreknobs Formation contains massive sandstones; siltstone; "redbeds" of brownish-gray sandstone, siltstone, and shale containing scattered marine fossils; and occasional quartz-pebble conglomerate or conglomeratic sandstone beds.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

Rossbach and Dennison (1994) extended the Foreknobs into the Catawba syncline of southwestern Virginia.[5]

The Foreknobs is divided into the following Members, in ascending order: Mallow Member, Briery Gap Sandstone Member, Blizzard Member, Pound Sandstone Member, and Red Lick Member

Fossils

Foreknobs Formation containing abundant Mucrospirifer brachiopods, from near upper reservoir of Bath County Pumped Storage Station

Red beds within the Foreknobs contain scattered marine fossils, such as brachiopods.

Notable Exposures

Type section: along WV Highway 42, 0.48 km northwest of Scherr, Grant County, West Virginia

Age

Relative age dating places the Foreknobs in the Late Devonian.

References

1. Paleozoic Sedimentary Successions of the Virginia Valley & Ridge and Plateau
2. Dennison, J.M., 1970, Stratigraphic divisions of Upper Devonian Greenland Gap Group ("Chemung Formation") along Allegheny Front in West Virginia, Maryland, and Highland County, Virginia: Southeastern Geology, v. 12, no. 1, p. 53-82.
3. de Witt, Wallace, Jr., 1974, Geologic map of the Beans Cove and Hyndman quadrangles and part of the Fairhope quadrangle, Bedford County, Pennsylvania: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map, I-801, 6 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:24,000
4. Boswell, R.M., Donaldson, A.C., and Lewis, J.S., 1987, Subsurface stratigraphy of the Upper Devonian and Lower Mississippian of northern West Virginia: Southeastern Geology, v. 28, no. 2, p. 105-131.
5. Rossbach, T.J., and Dennison, J.M., 1994, Devonian strata of Catawba syncline, near Salem, Virginia, IN Schultz, Art, and Henika, Bill, Fieldguides to Southern Appalachian structure, stratigraphy, and engineering geology: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Geological Sciences Guidebook, Geological Society of America, Southeastern Section, Annual Meeting, Blacksburg, VA, April 7–9, 1994, no. 10, p. 95-126.