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 in 1929, and over the following decade was mapped in adjacent York County, PennsylvaniaStose, 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. and Frederick County, Maryland.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 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."
The rock unit was formalized into a Formation in 1963 by J. D. Glaeser.Glaeser, J.D., 1963, Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the Triassic Newark-Gettysburg basin: Pennsylvania Academy of Science Proceedings, v. 37, p. 179-188. Glaeser re-mapped some areas previously mapped as the Gettysburg Formation to the 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.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. (web release).
Depositional Environment The Gettysburg Formation and other formations of the Newark Supergroup were deposited in the Gettysburg Basin, just one of many Triassic rift basins existing on the east coast of North and South America, which formed as plate tectonics pulled apart Pangaea into the continents we see today.
The conglomerates within the formation were most likely alluvial fan or mudflow deposits, or possibly talus, eroding directly from the Precambrian and early Paleozoic rocks to the north and south. The sandstones and shales were most likely deposited in the flooded rift valley as deltas.
Stratigraphy
The Gettysburg Formation is conformably underlain by the 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, Cumberland, and Lancaster Counties to the southern borders of Dauphin and Lebanon Counties. In these counties and to the north the rock unit is called the Hammer Creek Formation. The formation also encompasses the York Haven Diabase in York county.
The Gettysburg Formation is divided into several members. The upper part is sometimes referred to as the Conewago conglomerate, and the 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".
Fossils The palynomorph Froelichsporites traversei has been identified in the Gettysburg Formation.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. Indeterminate theropod remains similar to Coelophysis are also known from the Gettysburg Formation.
Age Relative age dating of the Gettysburg Formation places it in the Late Triassic period.
In 1977, B. Cornet dated a basalt flow near Aspers, Pennsylvania and led to his conclusion that the Gettysburg is of late Carnian and Norian to Early Jurassic age.Cornet, Bruce, 1977, Palynostratigraphy and age of the Newark Supergroup: Pennsylvania State University, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 505 p. abstract Later, the rocks above the Aspers Basalt were redefined as the Bendersville Formation of Jurassic age.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.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. abstract
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