Unnamed Formation at Cape May

Unnamed Formation at Cape May - Interbedded gravel, sand, and clay, massive to thickbedded. Informal unit described from a corehole at the Cape May Airport. The lower 18.3 m (60 ft) consists of interbedded gravel; medium- to very coarse grained, poorly sorted sand; and thin to thick beds of medium- to dark-gray, very woody clay. Gravel clasts are typically less than 0.64 mm (0.025 in) in diameter. The upper 12.2 m (40 ft) consists of a thick-bedded, medium-gray, extensively bioturbated clay-silt, which is overlain by an extensively burrowed, fine- to medium-grained glauconitic (about 5 percent) quartz sand. Quartz and siliceous rock fragments compose most sand grains. Feldspar is present in most samples but usually constitutes less than 10 percent of the sand fraction. No calcareous macrofossils were found in the burrowed intervals. Unit is known only to occur on the Cape May peninsula where it lies within a large channel. The unit is about 60 m (197 ft) in maximum thickness. The contact with the underlying Belleplain Member of the Kirkwood Formation is sharp and unconformable; a basal gravel bed as much as 1 m (3 ft) thick is present along the contact. The pollen assemblage in the lower part of the unit is dominated by pine and oak with somewhat lesser amounts of hickory and basswood. Spruce, hemlock, beech, alder, and black gum are minor constituents. Traces of fir, willow, birch, and sweet gum are present, as is exotic Engelhardia. The nonarborial pollen are a Multisia-type composite of the present-day Andean provenance which indicate an exotic cool climate. The lower assemblage suggests a cool-temperate climatic regimen. The pollen assemblage in the upper beds is dominated by oak and hickory with minor amounts of basswood, sweet gum, pine, and Multisia-type composite. Traces of cedar, willow, birch, alder, grass, and Sphagnum spores also are present. This assemblage probably represents a temperate climatic regimen (Les Sirkin, Adelphi University, written commun., 1991). The low percentage of exotic species is characteristic of the late Pliocene, and therefore, the unnamed unit at Cape May may be equivalent to the Beaverdam Formation of the Delmarva Peninsula of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.