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42533-B8
Eifelian-Givetian Stage Boundary (Middle Devonian) in the Appalachian and Michigan Basins

D. Jeffrey Over, State University of New York (Geneseo)

Three students funded by the grant, as well as a fourth student funded by an internal grant, worked on the E-G project in the summer of 2007. Five sections that contain the stage boundary interval were measured, described, and collected, as well as four drill cores were obtained, logged, and sampled from the Cherry Valley Formation to the Stafford Member of the Skaneateles Formation in the Hamilton Group, or equivalents. These include:

Lazarus Run, Delaware, Ohio

Oatka Creek, LeRoy, New York

Hansen Aggregate Quarry, Honeoye Falls, New York

Seneca Stone Quarry, Fayette, New York

Monocline Creek, Manlius, New York

AKZO 9454

AKZO 9455

AKZO 9456

AKZO 9457

Tentaculitids, conodonts, and magnetic susceptibility (MS) data were collected from these strata. Tentatively the E-G boundary in New York State is placed at the Hallihan Hill Bed, just above the Cherry Valley Limestone. No Givetian conodonts were recovered from the Cherry Valley Formation. However, tentaculitids suggest that the boundary may be higher in the Chittenango Shale, as one taxon recovered above the Hallihan Hill Bed is not known to range above the Eifelian. Magnetic susceptibility places the boundary above the Cherry Valley Limestone and in the lower Oatka Creek Formation. Study of cores for conodonts and MS continues.

At the end of the summer four student researches presented the results of their individual studies at the Paleontological Research Institute Symposium in Ithaca, NY:

R. D'Andrea - Middle Devonian conodonts from the Hallihan Hill Bed, Oatka Creek Formation, western New York.

P. Donohue - Middle Devonian tentaculitids from the Chittenango Shale, Oatka Creek type locality, LeRoy, New York.

S. Rabideau - Proposed location of the Eifelian-Givetian boundary, Middle Devonian, in western New York using magnetic susceptibility.

A. Wood - Constraining the Eifelian-Givetian boundary (Middle Devonian) using conodont biostratigraphy, western New York.

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