APPALACHIAN DRAINAGE AND THE HIGHLAND BORDER SEDIMENTS OF THE NEWARK SERIES

Abstract

The highland border fanglomerates of the Newark basin in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania show no extraordinary correlation with present drainage either in distribution or lithologic character and degree of rounding of their gravels. The writer found no evidence of deposition of any of the fanglomerates by major streams and no evidence that any of the present streams enter the basin through Triassic-filled remnants of Triassic valleys. Available evidence indicates that streams which deposited the Newark fanglomerates were relatively short and steep, consequent on the northwest border fault scarp or flexure. Variations in lithologic character of the fanglomerates were due largely to the rock types exposed along the margin of the northwest highland block. The lithologic character of the Newark sediments and particularly of the basal Stockton supports this hypothesis.