Raritan Formation

Short description: Mesozoic geologic formation containing dinosaur fossils and amber

Raritan Formation
Stratigraphic range: Turonian

Outcrop of the Raritan Formation near Rocky Point above Round Bay, Severn River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Type| Sedimentary
Unit of| Potomac Group
Sub-units| Raritan Fire Clay, Farrington Sand Member, Woodbridge Clay Member, Sayreville Sand Member, South Amboy Fire Clay Member
Underlies| Magothy Formation
Overlies| Newark Supergroup, Patapsco Formation
Location
Region| New Jersey, New York, Maryland
Country| USA
Type section
Named for| Raritan Bay
Named by| William Bullock Clark (1893)[1]

The Raritan Formation is a Cretaceous (Turonian) sedimentary geologic formation of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

## Contents

* 1 Overview
* 2 Fossils
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Overview

The formation is described in the USGS publication Tolchester folio, Maryland (1917) as follows:

The formation consists of diverse materials similar to those composing the Patapsco formation, except that, in general, the clays are not so highly colored. White and buff sands; stratified light chocolate-colored sandy clays, in places containing leaf impressions; light-colored argillaceous sands and sandy clays (Fuller's earth); and white, yellow, drab, bluish-drab, and variegated clays all occur in deposits of this age. The variegated clays are well exposed in the steep bluff at Worton Point (see photo below). The delicate pinkish tints which they present at many places have given rise to the local name "peach-blossom clays."[2]

* Vertically jointed clay of Raritan Formation in wave-cut cliff, Worton Point, Kent County (c. 1917)

* The White Rocks off of Rock Point in Anne Arundel County are composed of lithified sands of the Raritan Formation (c. 1917)

## Fossils

Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific genus.[3] A tyrannosauroid similar to Appalachiosaurus is known from the formation.[4]

Many plant fossils have been recovered from the Raritan.[1]

## See also

* List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
* List of stratigraphic units with indeterminate dinosaur fossils

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Flora of the Raritan Formation By Edward W. Berry of the Johns Hopkins University. Geological Survey of New Jersey. MacCrellish & Quigley, Printers, Trenton, NJ. 1911.
2. ↑ Tolchester folio, Maryland, Folios of the Geologic Atlas 204, by B. L. Miller, E. B. Mathews, A. B. Bibbins, and H. P. Little, 1917.
3. ↑ Weishampel, et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution." Pp. 517-607.
4. ↑ Brownstein, Chase D. (2018-02-08). "The biogeography and ecology of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs of Appalachia" (in English). Palaeontologia Electronica 21 (1): 1–56. doi:10.26879/801. ISSN 1094-8074. https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2018/2123-appalachia-biogeography.

* Weishampel, David B.; Peter Dodson, and Halszka (eds.) Osmólska. 2004. The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, 1–880. Berkeley: University of California Press. Accessed 2019-02-21. ISBN:0-520-24209-2

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