Raritan Formation

Raritan Formation - Consists of an upper clayey silt (Woodbridge Clay Member) and a lower sand (Farrington Sand Member). Formation occurs only in northern part of central sheet. Woodbridge Clay Member - Silt, clayey, dark-gray; weathers to red brown or white, locally interbedded with light-gray, clayey, fine- to very fine grained sand (primarily quartz and mica with little feldspar). Very micaceous (muscovite, chlorite, and biotite) in both silty and sandy beds. Very woody, mostly fine pieces in layers and coated with pyrite. Locally, tree stumps, in upright position, are found near base of unit as are transported individual logs several feet in length. Siderite occurs in discontinuous beds and as flattened slab concretions as much as 0.6 m (2 ft) in maximum diameter. Fossil casts of marine mollusks are present, particularly near the top of the formation. Locally, well-developed burrows of Ophiomorpha nodosa filled with iron oxides weather out of the clay-silt. The Woodbridge is approximately 20 m (66 ft) thick in the vicinity of Sayreville, Middlesex County, where the South River has stripped away the overlying Magothy Formation, and it crops out in many places in the Perth Amboy and New Brunswick quadrangles to the north, but not in the quadrangles to the south or southwest. The Woodbridge does not crop out in the Delaware River valley southwest of Trenton. The late Cenomanian ammonites Metoicoceras bergquisti and Metengonoceras sp. were described from the upper part of the Woodbridge (Cobban and Kennedy, 1990). Pollen from the unit belongs to the Complexipollis-Atlantopollis Assemblage Zone of latest Cenomanian and early Turonian age (Christopher, 1979, 1982). Farrington Sand Member - Sand, quartz, fine- to medium-grained, crossbedded, very micaceous, white, interbedded with thin to thick, dark, silt beds. Rock fragments are a minor sand constituent. No burrows were observed in the unit. Unit is exposed only in pits dug below the overlying Woodbridge Clay Member. Typically, thickness is about 9 to 10.5 m (30-34 ft). Pollen from the Farrington is similar to the pollen in the Woodbridge.