Bari 

Shal 

es o 

in U 

f 

• • 1age et1c 

er D>evoni 

'f 

Nodules of Diagenetic 

Barite in Upper Devonian 

Shales of Western New York 

By JAMES F. PEPPER, SANDRA H. B. ClARK, 

and WAllACE DE WITT, JR. 

A description of the character, geologic setting, 

and possible origin of barite nodules near 

Silver Creek, Chautauqua County, N.Y. 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1653 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

DONALD PAUl HODEl, Secretary 

U.S. GEOlOGICAl SURVEY 

Dallas l. Peck, Director 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1985 

For sale by the Distribution Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, 

604 South Pickett Street, Alexandria, VA 22304 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Public:ation Data 

Pepper, James F. 

Nodules of diagenetic barite in Upper Devonian shales of 

western New York. 

(U.S. Geological Survey bulletin; 1653) 

Bibliography: p. 10-11 

Supt. of Docs. no.: 119.3:1653 

1. Barite-New York (State)-Chautauqua County. 

2. Geology, Stratigraphic-Devonian. 3. Diagenesis-New 

York (State)-Chautauqua County. I. Clark, Sandra H. B. 

II. De Witt, Wallace, 1920- .Ill. Title. IV. Series. 

QE75.B9 no. 1653 557.3 s 85-600109 

[QE391.B3!;] [553.4'99) 
PREFACE 

The manuscript for this report was nearly completed by James Pepper 

when he died in 1963. That same year, it was partly rewritten by Wallace de 

Witt, Jr., who had worked with him in the field, but it was not published. 

Because descriptions of diagenetic barite rosettes and nodules in New York 

State have never been published, I have reworked the manuscript for publication as a bulletin. I revised and deleted to reflect new concepts and terminology, 

but adhered as closely as possible to Pepper~s observations and interpretations. 

Sandra H. B. Clark 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Reston, VA 22092 

September 7, 1984 

Preface Ill 

CONTENTS 

Preface III 

Abstract 1 

Introduction 1 

Character of the barite nodules 2 

Geologic setting of the barite nodules 5 

Origin of the barite nodules 9 

References cited 10 

FIGURES 

1. Map showing locations of the village of Silver Creek, where the barite nodules described in this report were collected, and places in New York where 

other types of barite have been found 2 

2. Photograph of natural sections of two barite rosettes in a very dark gray 

mudrock in the bed of Walnut Creek showing the radial structure common to 

these nodules 4 

3. Photograph of a natural section of a cephalopod from the Manticoceras zone 

along Walnut Creek showing crystals of barite in the chambers of the shell 

and rosettes of barite in the enclosing rock 5 

4. Generalized columnar section showing the stratigraphic positions of zones of 

barite nodules in the lower part of the Java Formation along Walnut 

Creek 6 

5. Map showing the area of occurrence of barite nodules near the village of 

Silver Creek 7 

6. Photograph of an irregularly shaped coalesced calcareous nodule from the 

Hanover Shale Member on Walnut Creek showing pockmarks where the 

included barite rosettes have been partly etched by weathering 8 

7. Photograph of a shell of a fossilized cephalopod from the Manticoceras zone 

along Walnut Creek showing barite rosettes on the shell 9 

TABLE 

1. Reported occurrences of barite in New York 3 

Contents V 

Nodules of Diagenetic Barite in Upper Devonian 

Shales of Western New York 

By James F. Pepper, 1 Sandra H. B. Clark, and Wallace de Witt, Jr. 

Abstract 

Barite nodules are present in the basal part of the 

Hanover Shale Member of the Java Formation of late 

Devonian age near the village of Silver Creek, Chautauqua County, New York. Many nodules are spherulitic and 

consist of acicular bladed crystals oriented radially to a 

small mass of equant barite crystals at the center of the 

nodule; these nodules are also called rosettes. The nodules from near Silver Creek are diagenetic, whereas other 

forms of barite reported to exist in the sedimentary rocks 

of the State are replacement deposits or fill pre-existing 

voids. The internal structure of the rosettes and their 

relation to the enclosing strata suggest that the radial 

crystals grew from a central core or nucleus in a gel-like 

clay ooze on the sea floor. The nodules appear to have 

formed a few inches below the water-sediment interface 

during deposition of the enclosing strata and during the 

primary expulsion of water from the mud. Most probably 

the nodules grew in a low-energy environment in a protected embayment seaward of the growing Catskill delta 

at or below effective wave base. 

INTRODUCTION 

Although barite is not a commonly recognized 

constituent of sedimentary rocks, it occurs sparingly 

at many places in New York in sedimentary rocks as 

well as in igneous and metamorphic rocks (fig. 1, 

table 1 ). In the Adirondack Mountains in the northeastern part of the State, many small veins containing 

barite are known in both igneous and metamorphic 

rocks of Middle Proterozoic age and in the bordering 

sedimentary strata of Late Cambrian and Ordovician 

age. Barite in the sedimentary rocks commonly is 

present in veins, vugs, and geodes, and at some 

places, it forms irregular masses associated with dolo1

Deceased. 

mite and celestite. In addition to the occurrences in 

the eastern part of the State, barite has been observed 

in geodes in Silurian strata near Rochester and in the 

vein filling of septaria near Auburn, Buffalo, and 

Laona. Fossils partly replaced by barite were described by Clarke (1904, p. 332, 336, 400, 430-436) 

as being from the vicinity of Java Village, Wyoming 

County, and from the area between the village of 

Naples and Honeoye Lake in southern Ontario County. Martens (1925) noted the presence of barite in 

septaria of Middle Devonian age in the vicinity of 

Cayuga and Seneca Lakes in the central part of the 

State. In most of the occurrences of barite in New 

York, the barite appears to replace some primary 

constituent of the rock or to fill pre-existing voids. 

Unlike barite in other areas of New York, barite 

near the village of Silver Creek, town · of Hanover, 

Chautauqua County, is present as spheroidal nodules 

whose internal structure and relation to the enclosing 

strata suggest that they are diagenetic. During field 

mapping in 194 7 and 1 9 51, many ellipsoidal to spheroidal barite nodules and rosettes were collected from 

the gray mudrock and black shale in the basal27 feet 

of the Hanover Shale Member of the Java Formation 

in the canyons of Silver Creek and Walnut Creek in 

northeastern Chautauqua County. The barite rosettes show a spherulitic structure of acicular bladed 

crystals oriented radially to a small cluster of equant 

barite grains at the center of the nodule (fig. 2). Their 

structure differs from the homogeneous internal 

structure of most of the calcareous nodules and concretions that are abundant in the Upper Devonian 

strata of western New York. Although barite rosettes 

and nodules are common in other States, for example, in important commercial deposits of barite in 

Nevada and Arkansas, nodules or rosettes have not 

been described from the barite occurrences in New 

York State. In this report, these unusual barite nodules and rosettes and their geologic setting are described and an origin is suggested. 

Introduction 
APPROXIMATE SCALE 

I 

25 

25 

I I 

50 

I 

75 

50 

I I 

75 

I 

1 00 KILOMETERS 

100 MILES 

I 

EXPLANATION 

~ Middle Proterozoic granites and gneisses 

.A 2 Occurrences of barite 

X Locality of the spherulitic barite nodules 

collected from the Upper Devonian 

shale for this report (fig. 5} 

Figure 1. Map showing locations of the village of Silver Creek, where the barite nodules described in this report were 

collected, and places in New York where other types of barite have been found. Table 1 lists the reports describing barite 

at each numbered locality. 

CHARACTER OF THE BARITE NODULES 

Most of the barite in gray mudrock occurs in 

rosettes or nodules from Vs inch to 11

12 inches in diameter. The nodules range from spheroidal to discoidal. Some barite is present in irregular masses of 

coalesced nodules as much as 3 inches thick and 8 to 

10 inches long. An individual rosette consists of a 

small nucleus of white to light-gray granular barite 

surrounded by a radiating fringe of acicular, bladed 

crystals of white, light-yellow, light-gray, and lightbrown barite. The bladed crystals, whose length is 

commonly about eight times the diameter of the nucleus, have their long axes normal to the surface of 

the nodule (fig. 2). In cross section, a rosette has an 

appearance similar to that of a small chrysanthemum. The surface of the rosette is generally moderately pustulate and rough; the pustules correspond to. 

the ends of the radiating crystals. Because the rosettes are generally coated by a film of unctuous lightgray clay, their radial structure is not generally apparent. The boundary of an individual nodule is sharply 

defined, particularly if the nodule was embedded in 

soft mudrock. However, the borders of adjacent nodules are indistinct and irregular in places where many 

2 Nodules of Diagenetic Barite in Upper Devonian Shales of Western New York 
Table 1. Reported occurrences of barite in New York 

[Do., ditto] 

Map no. 

(fig. 1) 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

location 

laona - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Eightmile Creek - - - - - - - - - - - -

Buffalo - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cazenovia Creek - - - - - - - - - - -

Java Village - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Varysburg ----------------

Nunda ------------------

Rochester - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Honeoye lake - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naples - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Middlesex - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wolcott------------------

Auburn - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

lodi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Portland Point - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Interlaken - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Pillar Point- -- - - - - - - -- - - - - -

Oxbow------------------

St. lawrence County, Rossie area 

Syracruse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Clinton - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -

Fairfield------------------

little Fails - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sprakers Basin - -- - - - - - - - - - -

Carlisle - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ball's Cave, strontium mine ---

Schoharie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Middleburg - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Catskill - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ancram lead mine - - - - - - - - - -

References 

Beck, 1842,p.209. 

de Witt, 1956. 

Beck, 1842, p. 209. 

Pepper, de Witt, and Colton, 1956. 

Clarke, 1904, p. 336. 

Wallace de Witt, Jr., unpub. data, 

1984. 

Whitlock, 1903, p. 44-45. 

Beck, 1842, p. 206. 

Clarke, 1904,p.332,430-436. 

Clarke, 1904, p. 400, 430. 

Clarke, 1904, p. 434. 

Beck, 1842,p.209. 

Do. 

Martens, 1925. 

Do. 

Do. 

Beck, 1842, p. 206; Merrill, 1895, 

p. 582, 1904, p. 189; Newland, 

1919, p. 33; Hough, 1850, p. 426. 

Beck, 1842,p.206. 

Brown, 1983; Beck, 1842, p. 208; 

Hough, 1850, p. 428; Whitlock, 

1903, p. 7 4-89; Emmons, 1842, 

p. 341; Neumann, 1952; 

Newland, 1919, p. 34; Cushing 

and Newland, 1925, p. 82; Dana, 

1892, p. 903. 

Beck, 1842, p. 206; Merrill, 1904, 

p.190. 

Dale, 1953, p. 77-79, 96. 

Beck, 1842, p. 205; Newland, 1919, 

p. 34; Merrill, 1904, p. 189-190; 

Whitlock, 1903, p. 38-39. 

Do. 

Whitlock, 1903, p. 46-47. 

Grabau, 1906, p. 360; Newland, 

1919,p.34;Beck,1842,p.207. 

Grabau, 1906, p. 357-361; Emmons, 

1835, p. 182-183. 

Grabau, 1906, p. 357-361; Merrill, 

1904,p.189;Shepard,1835,p. 

363-368. 

Beck, 1842,p.208. 

Do. 

Hartnagel and Broughton, 1951, 

p.61;Beck,1842,p.45-46,409; 

Mather, 1843, p. 498-500; 

Newland, 1919, p. 142-143; 

Peterson, 1950, p. 47. 

Character of the Barite Nodules 3 
Figure 2. looking down at natural sections of two barite rosettes in a very dark gray mud rock in the bed of Walnut Creek 

showing the radial structure common to these nodules. The core around which the acicular crystals grew shows faintly 

in the rosette next to the hand lens. Note the curved trace fossils in the matrix. Hand lens is% inch in diameter. 

4 Nodules of Diagenetic Barite in Upper Devonian Shales of Western New York 
nodules grew in proximity or coalesced during 

growth. Commonly the core or nucleus of the nodule 

contains one or more well-crystallized cubes of pyrite. Some nodules now consist largely of pyrite, 

although their radial structure indicates that the pyrite probably replaced the barite of the original nodule. In one large calcareous concretion from the barite-bearing strata, which partly encloses a fossilized 

cephalopod 2 inches in diameter, barite is present in 

rosettes in the limestone and as short euhedral crystals in the chambers of the cephalopod (fig. 3). 

Thin-section examination shows that the nuclei 

of many rosettes are made up of many small equant 

grains of gray barite. The wide variation of their 

extinction angles indicates that the nuclei are aggregates of unoriented crystals. 

Barite nodules from the black shale differ from 

those in gray mudrock in the general lack of long 

acicular crystals. The nodules from the black shale 

are composed mainly of unoriented, irregularly 

shaped barite crystals. Pyrite is relatively more abunFigure 3. Natural section of a cephalopod from the Manticoceras zone along Walnut Creek showing crystals of 

barite in the chambers of the shell and rosettes of barite in 

the enclosing rock. Cephalopod is 2 inches in diameter. 

dant and commonly fills the voids between irregular 

barite crystals. Calcite, which is present in small 

amounts in most of the nodules in the gray mudrock, 

is usually absent from most of the nodules in the beds 

of black shale. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING OF THE BARITE 

NODULES 

The barite nodules occur in greatest numbers in 

the lower part of the Hanover Shale Member of the 

Java Formation in the canyons of Silver Creek and 

Walnut Creek near the village of Silver Creek in 

northeastern Chautauqua County. The nodule-bearing strata are better exposed and more accessible for 

study along Walnut Creek south of U.S. Highway 20 

than in outcrops along Silver Creek, although barite 

nodules have been collected from both localities (figs. 

4 and 5). Similar-appearing nodules of barite having 

a spherulitic structure are present locally in the South 

Wales Member of the overlying Perrysburg Formation in the valley of Walnut Creek, but they are less 

abundant than nodules in the Hanover Shale 

Member. 

The rocks that compose the two members of the 

Java Formation-the Pipe Creek Shale Member and 

the Hanover Shale Member-are together about 100 

feet thick in outcrops along Walnut Creek and dip 

south at approximately 40 feet per mile. The stratigraphy of these rocks was described in detail by 

Pepper and de Witt (1950). The Pipe Creek Shale 

Member consists of 2 feet of fissile grayish-black to 

olive-black shale, which lies unconformably on the 

medium-gray mudrock and shale of the Angola Shale 

Member of the West Falls Formation (Pepper, de 

Witt, and Colton, 1956). The upper boundary of the 

Pipe Creek Shale Member is transitional into the 

dark-gray shaly mudrock in the basal part of the Hanover Shale Member through an interval of about 

4 inches ·in which black and dark-gray shale are 

intercalated. 

The Hanover Shale Member is composed largely of medium-gray mudrock, which weathers shaly at 

some places and blocky at others. A few beds of 

gnarly-weathering, medium-greenish-gray calcareous 

mudrock as much as 2 feet thick are present in the 

upper half of the member. Beds of olive-black to 

grayish-black shale from an inch to a foot in thickness are common, particularly in the lower part of the 

member where the barite nodules are concentrated. 

Some beds of black shale and some of the dark-gray 

mudrock contain many short, slightly curved trace 

fossils of contrasting color (fig. 2). Calcareous nodules and concretions of various sizes and shapes from 

Geologic Setting of the Barite Nodules 5 
<X: a: (/) UJ 

w HEIGHT, ~z CD 

a: a::O ~ IN UJ ~i= UJ FEET (j) ~ 

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a: 

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0 

z 

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z z ~ 0 z i= 0 <l: 

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DESCRIPTION 

diameter 

Gray mudrock containing thin beds 

of black shale 

Calcareous nodules; some barite 

nodules 

Barite nodules in aggregates 

Black shale 

Gray mudrock containing much black shale 

Barite aggregates as wide as 4 inches;worm trails 

N-2 black shale; top contact gradational 

N-4 gray mudrock 

Black shale 

Gray mudrock 

Calcareous concretions; scattered 

barite nodules under the concretions 

Gray mudrock 

N-2.5 black shale 

N-4 gray mudrock 

Barite nodules 1 by 3 inches and 

aggregates of barite nodules 

N-2.5 black shale 

Gray mudrock 

Calcareous nodule 6 by 12 inches 

containing barite nodules 

Black shale; some barite nodules 

Gray mudrock 

Discoidal calcareous nodules 4 by 8 

inches containing barite aggregates; 

Manticoceras sp. 

Black shale; some barite !10dules 

N-3 dark-gray mudrock; barite 

nodules, some in aggregates 

Irregularly shaped calcareous nodules 

3-4 by 10 inches; a few barite 

nodules on surface 

Gray mudrock 

Ramose calcareous nodules 2 by 10 

inches containing scattered barite 

nodules on surface 

A few barite nodules 

Gray mudrock 

Black shale 

6 Nodules of Diagenetic Barite in Upper Devonian Shales of Western New York 
1

h inch to 1 foot in thickness and from 1h inch to 2 

feet in diameter are intercalated in the mudrock and 

shale of the member. Commonly the calcareous nodN 

I 

zl~ S1s 

I-olo I- ~ -:,. 

z a:: 

(§ a: II 0 ~ w z I <t: (f) I I 

I 

I 

0 

I ! I I 

0.5 

I 

I 

EXPLANATION 

* * Area in which barite 

nodules crop out 

1 MILE 

I 

1 KILOMETER 

Figure 5. Map showing the area of occurrence of barite 

nodules near the village of Silver Creek. Sequence shown 

in figure 4 may be seen along Walnut Creek. 

<1111 Figure 4. Generalized columnar section showing the 

stratigraphic positions of zones of barite nodules in the 

lower part of the Java Formation along Walnut Creek, 

town of Hanover, Chautauqua County. Numbers prefixed 

by "N" refer to the rock-color chart of Goddard and 

others {1948). See figure 5 for location of Walnut Creek 

and areas of outcrop. 

ules are concentrated in layers and zones, although at 

some places, they are scattered at random in the 

thicker layers of mudrock. A few beds of argillaceous 

limestone, as much as 1 foot thick, are present in the 

middle and upper parts of the Hanover Shale Member. Several of these beds of limestone appear to 

have formed by the coalescence of many calcareous 

nodules. 

The barite nodules are present as isolated individuals or are concentrated in zones 1 to 4 inches 

thick in the lowermost 2 7 feet of the Hanover Shale 

Member. In the outcrops along Walnut Creek, the 

lowest zone of nodules is about 2 feet above the base 

of the Hanover Shale Member and about 4 feet above 

the base of the Java Formation (fig. 4). The greatest 

concentration of nodules is the interval from 6 to 16 

feet above the base of the formation. Locally, the 

barite nodules are associated with nonbaritic calcareous nodules (fig. 6) and nodules, lumps, and irregular 

masses of brassy-yellow pyrite. Scattered barite nodules are present in beds of rusty-weathering black 

shale in the basal part of the member, but the shale 

contains fewer barite nodules than does the gray 

mudrock. The barite nodules commonly occur in a 

zone at the center of a discrete bed of mudrock or 

shale, whereas the calcareous nodules seem to be randomly distributed in· a given bed. In several beds of 

gray mudrock, rosettes are associated with a large 

form of the cephalopod Manticoceras cf. M. pattersoni, which has been partly engulfed by very fine 

textured, slightly argillaceous calcareous nodules. In 

some specimens, the barite nodules occur partly 

within the shell wall of the fossilized cephalopods 

(figs. 3 and 7) and are, in turn, surrounded by the 

matrix of the enclosing calcareous nodule. 

The structural attitude of the strata containing 

the barite nodules near the village of Silver Creek is 

simple. The rocks are on the gently dipping northwest limb of the Appalachian synclinorium, which is 

inclined to the south at about 40 feet per mile in this 

part of western New York. Locally, small noses and 

terraces are superimposed on the regional monocline. 

Exposures of the lower part of the Hanover Shale 

Member on Walnut Creek lie near the crest and on 

the northeast flank of a slightly asymmetric anticline 

whose axis trends about S. 30° E. (de Witt and Colton, 1953). The rocks in the area are cut by two welldefined sets of vertical joints that strike about N. 60° 

W. and N. 65° E. A less well defined and sparse set 

of joints ranging in strike from N. 10° W. toN. 20o 

W. is present locally. The joint surfaces are commonly tight and do not contain mineral filling or impregnations. The joints cut through the zones of nodules, 

but at no places are the nodules concentrated along 

Geologic Setting of the Barite Nodules 7 
8 Nodules of Diagenetic Barite in Upper Devonian Shales of Western New York 
the joints or at the intersection of joints. The occurrence and spatial relationships show that the nodules 

formed before the joints. 

Several small faults and folds are visible in the 

rocks of the Hanover Shale Member in the steep cliffs 

along Silver and Walnut Creeks. The folds are of low 

amplitude, commonly less than 5 feet. Both normal 

and high-angle reverse faults cut these Upper Devonian strata. The normal faults appear to be the result 

of gravity slumping of large joint blocks along the 

canyon walls. The reverse faults are high-angle 

thrusts dipping 55° to 80° to the northeast and striking on the average not far from N. 50° W., roughly 

parallel to the trend of the major joint systems. The 

Figure 7. Shell of a fossilized cephalopod from the Manticoceras zone along Walnut Creek showing barite rosettes on the shell. Ruler is in inches. 

.,.. Figure 6. An irregularly shaped coalesced calcare~us 

nodule about 8 inches in diameter showing pockmarks 

where the included barite rosettes have been partly 

etched by weathering. The nodule is about 5.3 feet above 

the base of the Hanover Shale Member on Walnut Creek. 

Some pockmarks are highlighted by circles. 

displacement, which is generally less than 5 feet at its 

maximum, can be seen to die out vertically both 

above and below the point of greatest offset. These 

faults appear to be relatively small features that do 

not cut through the entire sequence of Devonian strata. They may have formed during the Pleistocene as 

the result of the pressure of glacial ice, or they may 

have formed more recently as the load of ice was 

removed irregularly. Apparently the forces that locally produced faulting were taken up mainly by minor readjustments and bedding-plane slippage without faulting in most of the thick sequence of shaly 

Upper Devonian rocks. The small size and local 

nature of the faults suggest that they do not extend to 

great depth and that they probably do not penetrate 

the Proterozoic basement complex, which is about 

4,000 feet below sea level in the Silver Creek 

quadrangle. Careful examination of fault surfaces 

failed to reveal traces of mineralization indicative of 

the upward circulation of hydrothermal solutions 

that might have introduced barium into the Hanover 

Shale Member after deposition. The absence of mineralization associated with the faults and joints and 

the absence of other phenomena, such as bleaching of 

rocks adjacent to fault surfaces, indicate that these 

rocks were not permeated by hydrothermal solutions 

after their deposition in Late Devonian time. 

ORIGIN OF THE BARITE NODULES 

The barite nodules in the Hanover Shale Member present two related questions: (1) What was the 

source of the barium? and (2) How did the nodules 

form? 

One possible source of the barium that formed 

the barite nodules may have been pre-Devonian 

rocks that were exposed to erosion east and southeast 

of the Silver Creek area during Late Devonian time. 

At this time, the northern part of the Appalachian 

basin was partly covered by a shallow epicontinental 

sea into which the sediments of the great Catskill 

delta were being transported westward from source 

areas to the east and southeast. Freshwater mixed 

with the saline water of the epicontinental sea on the 

periphery of the Catskill delia, whose shoreline during Java time lay well southeast and east of the Silver 

Creek area. In the delta area, the coarser grained 

fraction of the stream-transported sediment accumulated near the shore along beaches and bars, whereas 

the finer grained components, mud and clay enriched 

in barium, were carried westward into a prodelta setting in western New York. The upper few feet of 

black and gray mud below the sea floor accumulated 

Origin of the Barite Nodules 9 
in a low-energy, reducing environment and was most 

probably a gel-like ooze rich in organic material. In 

this euxinic environment, the barium could have remained in solution in the presence of dissolved hydrogen sulfide derived from decaying organic debris. 

When the hydrogen sulfide in the soft sediment had 

reacted with iron to form various sulfides of iron, 

small crystals of barite may have begun to grow in the 

relatively large volume of interstitial water trapped in 

the soft sediment just below the sediment-water 

interface. 

The small semiequant crystals of barite in the 

cores of the nodules show much interference of crystals during growth of the nuclei of the nodules, suggesting that, at first, crystal growth was rapid from 

solutions nearly saturated with barium. Probably as 

the saturation decreased as these small crystals precipitated, the rate of crystal growth decreased, permitting the longer bladed crystals to form radially to 

the nucleus of the rosette. Small cubes of pyrite in 

the cores of some nodules suggest that the pyrite may 

have initiated the precipitation of the surrounding 

barite. 

The presence of barite nodules on the shells of 

Manticoceras and in and on the surface of the surrounding dense carbonate nodules (figs. 3 and 7) indicates that the barite was precipitated in its present 

form at the time that the sediment was undergoing 

diagenesis. The presence of barite nodules associated 

with uncompacted fossilized shells and adjacent to 

undistorted trace fossils (fig. 2) is strong evidence 

that the nodules formed while the enclosing mud was 

soft. Significantly, the largest carbonate nodules in 

the barite-nodule zone of the Hanover Shale Member 

on Walnut Creek are associated with a large form of 

cephalopod whose undeformed shells have the intraseptal cavities partly filled with barite crystals, indicating that the cephalopods were quickly enveloped 

by the calcium carbonate of the enclosing nodules 

before the delicate shell structure was crushed by the 

weight of accumulating sediment. The preservation 

of the undistorted fossils required the rapid protection of the enclosing nodules, and the ammonia released by the decomposing of the animal proteins 

may have increased the alkalinity of the water surrounding the animals to promote the deposition of 

the calcium carbonate in an environment in which 

the carbonate would not otherwise have precipitated. 

The barite nodules enclosed in the carbonate nodules 

are similar in size, shape, and form to the nodules in 

the main body of mudrock; this similarity shows that 

the growth of the barite nodules enclosed in carbonate nodules was complete before the carbonate nodules were formed, and that barite growth in general 

was approximately coeval with carbonate growth. 

These data indicate an early genesis for the barite 

nodules. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Beck, L. C., 1842, Mineralogy ofNew-York: Albany, N.Y., 

534p. 

Rrown, C. E., 1983, Mineralization, mining, and mineral 

resources· in the Beaver Creek area of the Grenville 

Lowlands in St. Lawrence County, New York: U.S. 

Geological Survey Professional Paper 1279, 21 p. 

Clarke, J. M., 1904, Naples fauna in western New York, 

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