"TOPOGRAPHIC WATERLIME"
One of the FACIES exhibited within the Ellicott Creek Breccia, upper Fiddlers Green Formation, Bertie Group (Late Silurian) at the Ridgemount Quarry, Bertie Township (now Fort Erie), Ontario, Canada. Waterlimes are notable within New York because they were very early quarried and mined as "natural cements." They are very fine-grained dolostones with an admixture of clay and silica. They quickly became of interest to fossil collectors and paleontologists because of the 'wierd' fossils that were discovered within--namely, the eurypterids The closely spaced lines preserved in this waterlime looked like the lines represented on topographic maps. At Ridgemount Quarry, large mounds on the quarry floor are built up by stromatolitic development during this Late Silurian interval (see photos on other pages within this website).
June 2003 revealed another fine exposure of this interval. A large specimen was retrieved from one (floor) level of the quarry that revealed obviously high energetic development of a stromatolitic interval preserving brecciated areas around the stromatolite. A seismite is probably not necessary to explain the extrodinary geographic occurrence of the Ellicott Creek Breccia. Observations of breccia as far eastwrd as Phelps, New York and even Cayuga Lake simply indicate the nearby occurrence of stromatolites that are not preserved or obvious at these sites. (large specimen is 062203-1 and I hope to have a photo below soon). |
