The Ordovician Kittatinny Formation or Kittatinny Limestone is a

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dol ...

limestone

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

in New Jersey. The Kittatinny Limestones are located primarily in the

Kittatinny Valley The Kittatinny Valley is a section of the Great Appalachian Valley in Sussex and Warren counties in northwestern New Jersey that is bounded on the northwest by Kittatinny Mountain, and in the southeast by the New Jersey Highlands region. The v ...

where it lies above the Ordovician

Martinsburg Formation The Ordovician Martinsburg Formation (Om) is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is named for the town of Martinsburg, West Virginia for which it was first described. It is the dominant roc ...

within the long valley running from Picatinny Arsenal in

Rockaway Township Rockaway Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's population was 25,341, reflecting an increase of 1,185 (+4.9%) from the 24,156 counted in the 2010 Census. Rockaw ...

, southwest toward Chester Township. It overlies the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

Hardyston Quartzite The Cambrian Hardyston Formation or Hardyston Quartzite is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was originally described by Wolff and Brooks in 1898,Wolff, J.E., and Brooks, A.H., 1898, The age of the Franklin white limestone ...

. The Kittatinny is now usually considered a Supergroup, rather than a Formation, as it includes several other Groups and Formations. Drake and Lyttle made this revision in 1980. The Supergroup includes the

Leithsville Formation The Leithsville Formation is a geologic formation in New Jersey. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in New Jersey * Paleontology in New Jersey The location of the s ...

Allentown Dolomite Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: *Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California *Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taz ...

, and

Beekmantown Group The Beekmantown Group is a late Cambrian to lower–middle Ordovician Group (geology), geologic group that occurs in the eastern Canada (Québec) and northeastern United States, datable from its conodont fauna. It contains Dolomite (mineral), do ...

(which in turn includes the Stonehenge Limestone, Rickenbach Dolomite, Epler Formation, and

Ontelaunee Formation Ontelaunee Township is a township in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 1,646 at the 2010 census. History Ontelaunee Township was organized in 1849. Ontelaunee is the Native American word for Maiden Creek. The Berkley Historic Dis ...

). Richard Dalton wrote a more recent review of the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

of the Kittatinny. The Kittatinny Limestone in New Jersey locally contains hydrocarbons and numerous accessory minerals including fluorite,

sphalerite Sphalerite (sometimes spelled sphaelerite) is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in Sedimentary exhalative deposits, sedimen ...

, arsenopyrite,

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cryst ...

, quartz, albite, and others. The Kittatinny is an exception to the general rule that Paleozoic rocks in this area are generally poor aquifers, since wells drilled into it produce relatively large flows of water. The Kittatinny Formation is named for the

in which it is located. The formation is not connected to or associated with the geology of Kittatinny Mountain, the easternmost ridge of the Appalachians in New Jersey, which is composed of Shawangunk Formation, a silica- cemented combination of quartz arenite and quartz-pebble conglomerate; and the Bloomsburg Formation (known as the "Bloomsburg Red Beds"), consisting of

red shale Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

, and sandstone.Ron W. Witte and Don H. Monteverde
New Jersey Geological and Water Survey Information Circular: Geologic History of New Jersey's Valley and Ridge Physiographic Province
(2012). Retrieved June 30, 2015.United States Geological Survey
Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data: Shawangunk Formation (New Jersey)
Retrieved July 5, 2015.United States Geological Survey
Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data: Bloomsburg Red Bed (New Jersey)
Retrieved July 5, 2015.Anita G. Epstein, Jack B. Epstein, Walter J. Spink, and David S. Jennings,
USGS Bulletin 1243: Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian stratigraphy of northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southeasternmost New York
', (USGS Numbered Series. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967. 74 pages.

References

{{Paleozoic Footer Limestone formations of the United States Cambrian geology of New Jersey Cambrian geology of Pennsylvania Ordovician geology of New Jersey Ordovician geology of Pennsylvania Cambrian System of North America Ordovician System of North America Geologic formations of New Jersey Geologic formations of Pennsylvania