Depositional environments and sequence stratigraphy of the Rockwell-Price Formation in western Maryland, south-central Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia

The Price Formation of northern West Virginia consists of Upper Devonian - Lower Mississippian siliciclastic rocks that are primarily marine. Members of the Price Formation include from oldest to youngest the Oswayo, Cussewago, Riddlesburg Shale, and Rockwell. Rocks of the Price Formation are considered to be of genetic and temporal equivalence to the Rockwell Formation in south-central Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and the eastern West Virginia panhandle.; The research attempts to (1) interpret sedimentary facies and their depositional environments and (2) identify stratigraphic relationships across six outcrops in the central Appalachian basin. Outcrops have been measured and described along a 150 km transect from (west) Rowlesburg, West Virginia, to (east) Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania. The six exposures, ranging from approximately 56 to 227 m thick, were visually divided into packages of similar rock (stratigraphic units) according to their physical appearance and carefully described. Corel DrawRTM software was used to digitally construct small-scale graphic logs from the unit descriptions. Field descriptions and graphic logs served as the basis for the identification of facies and interpretation of depositional environments. Correlation of outcrops and recognized trends led to statigraphic and paleogeographic relationships. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...