Reedsville
Welcome to the virtual field trip to the Reedsville and Bald Eagle Formations.
This is an Introductory Geoscience field trip that allows students to visit a sedimentary stratigraphic sequence from the Upper Ordovician of central Pennsylvania. Students are exposed to the Reedsville Formation, an Upper Ordovician turbidite sequence, and are able to make observations of the sedimentary rocks and measure a stratigraphic section. The Bald Eagle Formation sits directly above the Reedsville Formation and allows students to observe the transition from marine to terrestrial sedimentary rocks. Students will make observations of sediment color, grain size and mineralogy, and sedimentary structures; for example, cross-bedding and mud cracks.
The goals of this field trip are:
1) to describe the lithologies that make up the Reedsville and Bald Eagle Formations;
2) to study their arrangement stratigraphically; and
3) to look for (and to describe/document) clues that relate to the depositional environment.
One thing to consider here is what the vertical succession of lithologies might mean: What might have caused the changes you observe? Are there cycles of lithologies that repeat over time? How does the orientation of the stratigraphy relate to the tectonic setting?
The virtual field trip is available here:
