Latitude:                             40° 12' 07"N

Longitude:                          80° 12' 19"W

Quadrangle:                       Washington West 7 1/2'

Age:                                   Permian

Formation(s):                     Dunkard Group, Lower Washington Formation, section just below the Washington "A" Coal, which is near top of section.

Purpose:                            This site provides easy access to Dunkard rocks.

Pull into dirt road at failed development and park anywhere. Walk to outcrop on hill side. Parking available for motor coach. Recommended for all age groups.

(Make sure you get an up-to-date PAT Transit schedule:

No PAT Transit service

From the Cathedral of Learning, Drive 0.7 mi. west on Fifth Avenue. Make a Left on Craft Av. Go 0.1 mi., then make a right onto Blvd. of Allies, go 0.3 mi. then bear right onto entrance ramp to I-376. Stay on this highway through the Fort Pitt tunnels. Go a total of 8.0 mi. and exit onto I-79 south. Go 20.5 miles then exit onto I-70 east. Once on I-70 east, go 0.6 miles and exit on Rt. 19 North. Go 1.9 miles north on Rt. 19 and make a left turn into old strip mine/development. Park here.

See map and figures.

 This outcrop provides a relatively thick section of the middle part of the Dunkard Group for close inspection. Limestones, shales, lenticular sandstones, and a coaly layer are present here. A large block of the sandstone that has fallen to the base of the outcrop has excellent cross-beds.

Geologic History: Environment of Deposition:

 During the middle Permian, western Pennsylvania was located approximately 5 to 10 degrees south of the equator and had a tropical to subtropical environment. Some geologists suggest that the area was in a similar setting to that of modern-day New Guinea. Western Pennsylvania was the site of a deltaic system that bordered a large shallow sea coving much of the central North America. Sediments were fed into the delta region by large river systems originating in the growing Alleghanian mountains to the east. The mountains were growing because of the continuing convergent and collision of North America and the African portion of the Gondwana supercontinent.

Locally, large fresh to brackish water lakes would develop in the inter-distributary parts of the delta. According to Harper (1990), deposition in these large lakes involved carbonate precipitation by algae or other organisms. The conspicuous laminations (layering) that can be seen in many limestone layers is attributed to algal growth that occurred in extensive mats. Also found in these limestones are common breccia-conglomerates that may have formed by periodic drying of the lakebed and the formation of desiccation cracks. Long periods of exposure to weathering processes broke apart the lime beds forming breccias. These breccias were then covered with additional lake sediments as the lakes refilled (Berryhill and others, 1971)

The influx of silt and clay that did occur resulted in alteration of thicker carbonate and thinner non-carbonate muds that lithified into the limestones and shales that can be seen in this outcrop. A modern day analogue for these large lakes might be Lake Ponchartrain in the Mississippia delta region.

Below is a satellite image of the Lake Pontrarchain area.

Paleogeographic map showing the region during the during Benwood limestone time. Highly schematic.

Click on the thumbnails below for pictures of the outcrops:

A view of the outcrop. Large trees approximately 10 feet high for scale. Note the dark coaly layer near top of section.

Close-up of symmetrical ripple marks on a large block of sandstone float.

Look on the highly weathered blocks of freshwater limestone float for abundant microfauna such as ostracodes,  fish teeth, scales, pelecepods.

Berryhill, H. L., Jr., Schweinfurth, S. P., and Kent, B. H., 1971, Coal-bearing Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian Rocks, Washington area, Pennsylvania: U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 621, 47p.

Edmunds, W. E., Skema, V. W., Flint, N. K., 1999, Pennsylvanian, in Shultz, C. H., ed, The Geology of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Geological Survey Special Publication 1, p. 149-169.

Harper, J. A., 1990, Fossil Collecting in the Pittsburgh Area, Pittsburgh Geological Society Guidebook. 50 pages.

Johnson, M. E., 1928, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Pittsburgh Quadrangle, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey Bulletin A 27, 236 p.

Leighton, H. 1945, The Geology of Pittsburgh and its Environs: A Popular Account of the General Geological Features of the Region: Carnegie Institute Press, 2nd edition, Pittsburgh, PA , 80p.

Shaw, E. W., and Munn, M. J., 1911, Geologic Atlas of the United States: Burgettstown-Carnegie Folio, United States Geological Survey Folio 177 Field Edition, 123p.

Wagner, W. R., and others, 1970, Geology of the Pittsburgh Area: Pennsylvania Geological Survey General Geology Report G 59, 145p.

Click here for  an image of the County Geologic Map (1880)