Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-01-11
GEOLOGY OF OIL oRBBK-THE STRATA

and shales
CongIomeratc rock is made up Of pebbles
mixed with more or less sand, and all ce
mentcd into a close, hard rock These peb
! bles vary in size and quality, in different
localities, being usually of quartz, through
sometimes of sandstone and they are
| found from the size of pea to that Of a
! goose-egg, and occasionally even, though
not in this part Of the State, with a diane
ter measuring four or five inches They
have evidently been formed into the shape
III which we now find them, by the action
them together and sweeping them along, by
which the sharp ang les that they must have
had when first torn from their native bed
have been broken and worn by attrition,
until they present the well known smooth
and rounded form which so distinctly char
acterizes them.
The conglomerate Of this vicinity belongs
to what is called the VEsPERrINE formation,
II the Pennsylvania Survey. 1t is founde
in sjtu, or in its native bed only upon til
tops Of our highest hills !; but pieces of
which have been broken off, generally by
their own weight after the softer rock be-
meath had been decomposed and washed a.
way, are found scattered over the hll-sides,
sometimes III immense masses, or blocks,
which are 50 enduring as to defy the action
Of the elements, and to bear record in their
ruins Of former conditions and ch lrges
which their more yielding neighbors, the
underlying sandstones and states, could
not survive.
As found here, it is not coarse, the peb-
I,; ~
and become smaller as we trace this forma-
tion westward, while the opposite will hold
true if we 90 eastward The accompany
ing Vespertine sandstones and states also
become finer in their texture, and the whole
formation becomes thinner as it spreads
westward-from 1000 on the Susquehanna
River, to not over 100, or $50 feet at Oil
Creek
From this thinning down of the mass to-
wards the west, and a corresponding change
in the texture, from coarse to fine we are
led to believe that the. materials from which
the rocks of this formation are composed,
were derived from a continent lying on the
east or northeast Of the Appalachian range,
previous to their upheaval and that these
materials after being brought down to the
sea through the channels of rivers flowing
west or southwest, were distributed to their
present locations by powerful ocean cur
rents that were subject, doubtless, to laws
similar to those which govern our present
great Rivers of the Sea.
For a familiar illustration, take a long
mill-pond or lake, with a creek flowing in
to it at one extremity and out at the oppo-
site--the creek will bring down, especially
at the time Of a flood, large quantities of
loose stones pebbles, sand, black mud or
vegetable mould, and blue mud or clay
and it will dispose them over the bottom of
the pond or lake in the order in which we
have named them that is at the upper
end Of the lake, at the mouth Of the creek
will be found the large stones, than the
sand carried beyond the pebbles, then as
the force of the current becomes less, the
black mud was deposited, and finally the
caycy mud which the water held longest
and carried farthest; and the beds will be
found to become thinner as they become
finer III texture, thus corresponding to the
conglomcrates, ,sandstones, states and shales
OF the New York State and Pennsylvania
formations OF the secondary rocks.
1t will be readily inferred from the fore
going, that sandstone is only very fine
also that black carbonace-
Gus states may be attributed to vegetable
origin: and that argilacious shales or the
of the oil diggings, and derived
from clayey formations.
The VERGENr SERIES of rocks-so called
by Professor Rogcrs-is Immediately be-
meath the NEsPERTINE and it corresponds to
the Chemung and Portage groups of the
New York State Biologists. This forma-
ton consists Of sandstones, states and
shales interspersed, the sandstones in their
layers varying in thickness from five to fif
tv feet, while the states and shacs are
found in immense deposits, sometimes of
800 to 900 feet in thickness. To this SER
les belong the sandstones, states and shales |
which appear III the bluffs of the creek
it's whole length, also the first,
second and third sandrocks of the wells,
with their Intervening states and shales, as
far as the drill has yet penetrated, and how
much deeper it extends is unknown. 1t
will probably be found that the fourth sand
rock Of Pthole corresponds t. the third of
Oil Greek, and that the first 1T Pithole is
with one found above the bottoms,
along the bluffs of our valley; although it
is by no means impossible that the continu
ity does not exist, for there were causes
operating at the time where these rocks
were deposited, which produced local
changes and variations Of greater or less
Importance for instance third sand is
found in Church Run, while no trace of one
is found on the flats around Wtusville and
the third sand or great oil-bearing rock of
the lower end and middle of Oil Creek val
ley, disappears at the upper end of the Fos-
ter farm, and we have not learned that any
has been found in any portion of the valley
above IWuSrUe Herald.