Wenonah Formation

Wenonah Formation - Sand, quartz and mica, fine-grained, silty and clayey, massive to thick-bedded, dark-gray to medium-gray; weathers light brown to white, extensively bioturbated, very micaceous, locally contains high concentrations of sand-sized lignitized wood and has large burrows of Ophiomorpha nodosa. Feldspar (5-10 percent) is a minor sand constituent. Unit crops out in a narrow belt from Sandy Hook Bay on the central sheet and pinches out southwest of Oldmans Creek, Salem County, on the southern sheet. Isolated outliers of the Wenonah are detached from the main belt in the central sheet area. Thickness is about 10 m (33 ft) in the northern part of the central sheet, 20 m (66 ft) in the southwestern part of the central sheet, and 7.5 m (25 ft) in the southern sheet. The Wenonah is gradational into the underlying Marshalltown Formation. A transition zone of several meters is marked by a decrease in mica and an increase in glauconite sand into the Marshalltown. Fossil casts are abundant in the Wenonah. Weller (1907) reported Flemingostrea subpatulata Hop Brook in the Marlboro quadrangle indicating a late Campanian age. Wolfe (1976) placed the Wenonah microflora in his CA5A assemblage, considered to be of late Campanian age. Kennedy and Cobban (1994) identified ammonites including Baculites cf. B. scotti, Didymoceras n. sp., Menuites portlocki, Nostoceras (Nostoceras) puzosiforme n. sp., Nostoceras (Nostoceras) aff. N. colubriformus, Parasolenoceras sp., Placenticeras placenta, P. minor n. sp., and Trachyscaphites pulcherrimus. The presence of M. portlocki and T. pulcherrimus indicates late, but not latest, Campanian.