Geology and Engineering Geology of the New York Metropolitan Area

66 Pages·6.564 MB·English

Geology and Engineering Geology
of the New York Metropolitan Area
New York Metropolitan Region
July 20-25, 1989
Field Trip Guidebook T361
Leader: Charles A. Baskerville, Editor
Associate Leaders:
Nicholas K. Coch, Sidney Horenstein, Martin Prinz,
John H. PuHer, Geneva R. Roberts-Dolgin and Dennis Weiss
American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 American Geophysical Union
2000 Florida Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009
ISBN: 0-87590-601-X
Printed in the United States of America
COVER PHOTOGRAPH
A low altitude oblique view ofa part of the New Yo'" Metropolitan area from over
central Kings County (Brooklyn) looking a little north of west. The Island of Manhattan
occupies the center of the scene with Governors Island just off its south end. Queens
County is located in the south east corner of the photograph. The State of New Jersey
occupies most of the remainder of the photograph.
CREDn-
NASA Aircraft 10 E-1704-99CT
FRAME NUMBER 109
Provided by the U.S. Geological Survey
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 1
C.A. Baskerville
BUILDING STONES OF THE NEW YORK CITY AREA......•............2
Sidney Horenstein
Introduction ,..2
Excursion stops Part 1. Building stones 4
stop 1. Grand Central Terminal 4
stop 2~ 110 East 42 Street 6
stop 3. 51 East 42 Street 6
stop 4. 330 Madison Avenue 6
stop 5. The New York Public Library 7
stop 6. 530 Fifth Avenue 7
stop 7. Rockefeller Center 8
stop 7a. 30 Rockefeller Center 8
stop 7b. The Associated Press Building 8
stop 7c. British Building 9
stop 8. Sakis Fifth Avenue 10
stop 9. st. Patrick's Cathedral 10
stop 10. Villard Houses 10
stop 11. 477 Madison Avenue ll
stop 12. 666 Fifth Avenue 11
Part 2. Stone Processing 12
stop 13. The Miller-Druck Company 12
Part 3. Original stone Samples for Grand Central
Terminal ........•......................- 12
stop 14. Van Cortlandt Park 12
Part 4. Stone Quarry 13
stop 15. The DiRienzo stone Quarry 13
References cited 14
Suggested Readings 14
ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY AND GEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
THE LOWER HUDSON ESTUARY AND NEW YORK HARBOR 15
N.K. Coch and Dennis Weiss
Introduction 15
Drill core stratigraphy 16
Sea level curve 16
Foraminiferal zonation 17
Post-glacial geologic history - 18
Environmental geology of New York harbor 20
Stations to be occupied 20
Station 1. The Statue of Liberty 20
station 2. Entrance to the East River 21
Station 3. Entrance to the Gowanus Canal 22
station 4. Central part of the Upper
New York Bay 22
Conclusion 23
References cited 23
GEOLOGY OF NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY 26
J.H. Puffer
Introduction 26
Geologic setting of northeastern New Jersey,
Proterozoic rocks of the New Jersey Highlands 26
Granites 26
Hornblende granites and alaskite (Byrum
Intrusive Suite) 26
Pyroxene granite and pyroxene seyenite 27
Quartz-oligoclase gneiss 27
Amphiboli te 28
v
contents
Paqe
Marble ......................•.....................28
Other Proterozoic rocks 29
Paleozoic rocks of northeastern New Jersey 29
Hardyston Formation 29
Allentown Dolomite 29
Martinsburg Formation 29
Shawangunk Formation and Green Pond
Conglomerate 30
Alkalic intrusives 30
Triassic and Jurassic rocks of the Newark Basin 30
Mesozoic stratigraphy 30
Stocton Formation 30
Locatong Formation 30
Passic Formation .............................•....31
Orange Mountain Basalt 31
Feltville Formation 31
Preakness Basalt 31
Towaco Formation 32
Hook Mountain Basalt 32
The Boonton Formation 32
Palisades sill 32
GIaciaI geology 33
Field trip stops 33
stop 1. Ross Dock 33
stop 2. Great Falls, Paterson, New Jersey 34
The Ramapo Fault 34
stop 3. The Quartz-oligoclase gneiss 35
stop 4. Hook Mountain Basalt 35
Type sections of the Orange Mountain and Preakness
Basalt flows 35
References cited .................•.....................36
NEW YORK CITY: JUXTAPOSITION OF CAMBRIAN AND
ORDOVICIAN MIOGEOCLINAL AND EUGEOCLINAL ROCKS 39
C.A. Baskerville
Introduction 39
Previous work 39
stratigraphy 41
Fordham Gneiss 41
Yonkers Gneiss 41
Lowerre Quartzite 41
Inwood Marble 41
The Manhattan Schist 42
Hartland Formation 42
Ravenswood Granodiorite 43
Structure 43
Field trip stops .................•.....................44
stop 1. The Lake in Central Park 44
stop 2. Isham and Inwood Hill Parks 44
stop 3a. Johnson Avenue, Spuyten Duyvil
section of Bronx County 45
stop 3b. Eastern side of Broadway north and
south of Mosholu Avenue in Van Cortlandt Park ...45
stop 3c. Van Cortlandt Park East at East 235th
Street •.........................................46
stop 4. Cross Bronx Expressway at Boro Hall Park .46
stop 5. East 233rd street in Seton Falls Park 46
stop 6. Madison Avenue and East 122nd street 46
References cited 47
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contents
paqe
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 49
Martin Prinz
Suggested reading 50
S.C.H. Bailey collection 50
Clarence S. Bement collection 50
George F. Kunz collection 50
Mineral, gem, and meteorite collections 50
History of the Museum 50
THE GEOLOGY OF STATEN ISLAND AND WESTERN LONG ISLAND,
KINGS COUNTY AND QUEENS COUNTIES, NEW YORK 51
G.R. Roberts-Dolgin
Introduction 51
Geologic setting 51
staten Island 51
Basement rocks 51
Serpentini t e 52
Triassic-Jurassic Newark Basin 52
Cretaceous coastal plain deposits 53
Pleistocene geology 54
Pensauken Formation 54
Holocene tidal and upland marsh deposits 54
Western Long Island .............•......................54
Basement rocks 54
0 •••••••••••••••••
Cretaceous sediments 55
Pleistocene deposits 55
Holocene tidal marsh 55
Field trip stops 56
staten Island 56
stop 1. Bay and Canal streets 56
stop 2. Victory Boulevard on the east
side of Silver Lake Reservoir 56
stop 3. Forest Avenue between Van Name
and Coonley Avenues 56
stop 4. Veterans, Road and Arthur Kill Road 57
Western Long Island 57
stop 5. Highland Park 57
stop 6. Playground at 10th Street and 36th Avenue,
Long Island City 57
References cited 57
ix
Leader:
Charles A. Baskerville
U.S. Geological Survey
922 National Center
Reston, VA 22092
Associate Leaders:
Nicholas K. Coch
Geology Department
Queens College of CUNY
Flushing, NY 11367
Sidney Horenstein
Department of Invertebrates
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street and Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192
Martin Prinz
Department of Mineral Sciences
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street and Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192
John H. Puffer, Chairman
Department of Geology
Rutgers, The State Univ.
Newark, NJ 07102
Geneva R. Roberts-Dolgin
New York City Department of General Services
1 Center Street
New York, NY 10007
Dennis Weiss, Chairman
Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
City College of CUNY
138th St. and Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
xi
INTRODUCTION
Charles A. Baskerville
This field trip enables delegates attending the Twenty-eighth
International Geological Congress to spend several days in the largest
city in the united states. Local geologists have designed day-long field
trips to acquaint participants with the complex geology of the New York
city metropolitan region. The papers included in this book will serve as
guides to the planned trips but may not necessarily follow the order in
which the trips will be scheduled.
T~e City of New York lies at the junction of three physiographic
provlnces-~theManhattan Prong of the New England Upland in the northeast,
the Atlantlc Coastal Plain in the southeast, and the Newark Triassic
Jurassi~ Basin (Triassic Lowland) in the west (Lyttle and Epstein, 1987;
Baske~vllle, 1982; Thornbury, 1965). The juncture of these provinces also
constltutes the eastern edge of the New York promontory (Williams, 1978),
the narrowest east-west section of the Appalachian Piedmont-Coastal Plain
rock units.
The first day will include an orientation at The City College of the
City University of New York and a visit to the American Museum of Natural
History to look at the museum's fine collection of rocks and minerals from
the New York City region. We will also get a glimpse into some of the
laboratories not open to the pUblic.
During the following four days we will cover the following areas: (1)
most of the major Proterozoic to Ordovician rock units of the Manhattan
Prong; (2) Cretaceous to Pleistocene and Holocene sediments of the Atlantic
Coastal Plain; (3) the southernmost tip of the Manhattan Prong and
easternmost edge of the Newark Triassic-Jurassic Basin on staten Island and
Long Island; (4) the rocks of the Newark Basin,especially of northeastern
New Jersey, and the Proterozoic to lower Paleozoic gneisses, granites, and
sedimentary rocks of the New Jersey Highlands, in the Reading Prong
(Thornbury, 1965; Lyttle and Epstein, 1987); and (5) the use of stone in
New York city for construction purposes in some famous and not-so-famous
buildings. We will visit a quarry where some of the building stone is
obtained and a mill where stone finishing is done. We will also board an
oceanographic research vessel to see how scientists perform estuarine
studies of the waters surrounding the metropolitan area.
To avoid confusion, please note that this city is composed of five
counties, which are also called boroughs: New York County (Borough of
Manhattan), Bronx County (Borough of the Bronx), Queens County (Borough of
Queens), Kings County (Borough of Brooklyn), and Richmond County (Borough
of staten Island). New York City covers a land and surface-water area of
about 950 km2•
REFERENCES CITED
Baskerville, C.A., 1982, The foundation geology of New York City, in
Legget, R.F., ed., Geology under cities: Geological society of America
Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. 5, p. 95-117.
Lyttle, P.T., and Epstein, J.B., 1987, Geologic map of the Newark 1° x 2°
quadrangle. New Jersey. Pennsylvania. and New York: Miscellaneous
Investigations Series 1-1715, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.
Thornbury, W.O., 1965, Regional geomorphology of the united states: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 609 p.
Williams, Harold, compiler, 1978, Tectonic lithofacies map of the
Appalachian orogen: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Map No.1, scale
1:1,000,000.
T361: 1
BUILDING STONES OF THE NEW YORK CITY AREA
Sidney Horenstein
Department of Invertebrates
American Museum of Natural History, New York
INTRODUCTION setting; and (4) that they serve as
an excellent way to popularize
New York city, especially the geology.
island of Manhattan, is a treasure Trip participants will observe a
trove of building stones, a small sample of the variety of the
repository of materials that are construction materials used in New
imported from many regions of the York City and address the points
world. It is also a library of mentioned above. The study of
dimension stone no longer being dimension stone in buildings is
quarried. Many factors contribute to instructive to architects and others
the variety of stone including in the building industry who need to
competition among architects, price, make decisions about future choices.
and quality. The choice of a In this context we will examine
particular stone for a building several locations where problems
project is a complex series of associated with design as well as
decisions based on the architect's poor choice of material are apparent
design, availability of material, (fig. 1). Many "problems" are
appropriate physical properties, such esthetic, such as discoloration and
as compressive strength, absorptive (or) loss of polish. Although not
capacity, appropriate mineralogy for necessarily detrimental to the
the particular climate, and cost. strength of the stone, discoloration
Decorative stones for interior use- may indicate other problems in the
lobbies, offices and rest rooms--need building or the site.
to meet minimum requirements for The excursion is divided into four
strength and resistance to parts: (l)a walking tour from Grand
weathering; therefore, they include a Central Terminal at 42nd Street and
much broader array of materials than Park Avenue to Fifth Avenue and 52nd
dimension stone used for exterior street; (2) a visit to a small stone
facades and monuments. Choice of shop in the South Bronx where
materials for exterior use in New dimension stone is cut, shaped and
York City take into account the polished; (3) a walk in Van Cortlandt
amount of rainfall, the maritime Park, Bronx to view original stone
climate, and the freeze-thaw cycle. samples for Grand Central Terminal;
Another important factor is the and (4) a visit to the last remaining
susceptibility of a stone to dimension stone quarry in westchester
disruption by the crystallization of County (fig. 1).
salt used to melt ice during the One point that should be addressed
winter. at this time is the naming of
The study and documentation of building stones. Quarriers and stone
building stones are important because dealers have coined their own
we see: (1) how building stones descriptive names for stones for
respond to the processes of marketing identification. This
weathering, and thus provide insights practice leads to much confusion
for future use; (2) how these stones because the commercial names usually
are a record of changing contain geological terms, but the
architectural styles and thus an names may not match the scientific
important historical record; (3) how meaning of these terms. "Granite,"
they are an important resource for for instance, is used by dealers for
students, an outdoor classroom of almost any coarse grained igneous
worldwide stratigraphy and rock, including "Canadian Black
paleontology, including strata no Granite" which is an anorthosite.
longer exposed in their original For clarity, wherever the commercial
T361: 2
NOTTOSCALE
FIGURE 1 BronxandManhattan location map. The numbersreferto thesites discussedin
the textandto be visitedin the field.
1. GrandCentralTerminal 7c. BritishBuilding
2. BowerySavings Bank 8. Sak'sFifthAvenue
3. East42Sf. office building 9. Sf.Patrick'sCathedral
4. Madison Ave. ottice building 10. VillardHouses
5. N. Y. Public Library 11. Madison Ave. ottice building
6. Bankandottice building 12. Tishman Building
7. RockefellerCenter 13. Miller-DruckCompany
7a. 30RockefellerCenter 14. Van CortlandtPark
7b. AssociatedPress 15. DiRienzoStone Quarry
T361: 3