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DCNR Home : Geological Survey : Photo Gallery

Photo Gallery

Long periods of weathering and erosion created these "opferkessels" at Beam Rocks, Forbes State Forest, Somerset Count

Ledges of Devonian sandstone overlook Adams Falls, Ricketts Glen State Park, Luzerne County.

Mega-ripple marks cover the surface of these near-vertical beds of Antietam quartzite in Guilford Township, Franklin County.

A group of teachers are collecting from the fossiliferous Mahantango Formation in Monroe County.

Limestone was burned to produce "quicklime" in these kilns at Canoe Creek State Park, Blair Count

Limestone quarry in Chester County. Limestone and dolomite have helped make Pennsylvania a national leader in aggregate production

The "Whaleback" anticline in Bear Valley strip mine near Shamokin, Pa is a natural laboratory for teaching structural geology.

Kinzua Dam near Warren impounds the Allegheny Reservoir. Knowledge of site geology is critical in choosing safe locations for dams.

Pump jack on an oil well in the Allegheny National Forest, northwest Pennsylvania.

Tightly looping meanders of Conodoguinet Creek in eastern Cumberland County.

Interference ripples, or "tadpole nests," Rose Hill Shale (Clinton Group) near Danville, Montour County.

Slumped Homewood sandstone boulders resulting from glacial lake drainage through the Slippery Rock Gorge, Lawrence County.

Small waterfall formed by a resistant bed in the Pottsville Group, Harris Hollow, McConnells Mill State Park, Lawrence County.

Hickory Run Boulder Field, Carbon County, was created by periglacial activity during the Ice Age.

Cheeseman Run erodes through the Homewood Sandstone prior to entering the Slippery Rock Gorge in McConnells Mill State Park, Lawrence County.

Illinoian age kame from the Titusville glaciation, Venango County. The high angle reverse faults are due to collapse after a buried ice block melted.

Muddy Creek flows over the Homewood sandstone in a series of waterfalls where it enters the Slippery Rock Gorge from a hanging valley.

Waterfall at Hickory Run State Park.

Large-scale herringbone cross bedding in the Loyalhanna Formation in southwestern Pennsylvania formed by tidal currents on a large esturarine shelf. The layers stand out in relief due to the differential weathering of alternating quartz-rich and carbonate-rich sand layers.

The Ames Limestone is sandwiched between red and gray claystones at this fossil collecting locality near Creighton, Allegheny County.

Early Ordovician Hamburg sequence rocks of limestone and shale near Mohrsville, Pa., exhibiting severe distortion of rock layers due to deformation while still soft sediments in a deep water environment.

Standing like an ancient sentinel, Nuttles Rocks is one of many spectacular "rock cities" that cap the ridges throughout Warren County.

A karst fenster (subsurface stream emerges and sinks within a closed sinkhole). The stream cascades 20 feet over limestone of the Ordovician Salona Formation. Nippenose Valley, Lycoming County.

basal conglomerate consisting of rock fragments, fossil logs, and other rubble in a Pennsylvanian sandstone from the Pittsburgh area.

Small coal lens in the Pennsylvania Morgantown sandstone at Bakerstown Station, Allegheny County.

In contrast to central Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania rocks are basically flat-lying, as in this roadcut near Carnegie, Allegheny County.

Scarp formed at the head of a landslide in Penn Hills, Alleheny County caused numerous problems for the owner of this house.

Small listric (curved) normal fault in the Brush Creek limestone and associated shales near Corapolis, Allegheny County.

Oil storage tanks and other oilfield equipment coexist with picnic areas along the Samuel Justus recreational trail between Oil City and Franklin in Venango County.

The dark swirling patterns on the lighter colored limestone is Zoophycus, a fossil feeding trace made by a marine worm about 300 million years ago.

Epler Formation limestone and Horse Thief Cave along the Middletown–Hummelstown Railroad, Dauphin County.

Migmatitic pelitic gneiss of the Mt. Cuba Wissahickon formation, at a quarry in southern Media quadrangle, Delaware County.

Scenic vista looking north from Penns View, Centre County, showing characteristic "ridge and valley" topography.

Canoy Creek Conglomerate, Lancaster County.

Allegheny Front foothills in Centre County.

Ice-contact stratified glacial drift, Susquehanna County

Area view of the "Whaleback" anticline near Shamokin, Pa. (Also see page 1 of the photogallery.)

View of a kame terrace along the Mahoning River in the Bessemer quadrangle, Lawrence County.

Stream cut exposure of the sediments in that kame terrace shown to the left.

Aerial view of the Susquehanna River and beyond.

Cucumber Falls, Ohiopyle State Park, Fayette County.

Niagara Falls, Wayne County.

Dropstone in glaciolacustrine sediments, Cochranton, Crawford County.

Flame structure in glaciolacustrine sediments, Cochranton, Crawford County.

Deformed Lavery Till and associated sediments, lake bluff, Pymatuning Reservoir, Crawford County

Folded rocks of the Epler Fm. in the Eastern Industries, Inc. Whitehall Quarry, Lehigh County,

Holtwood pothole, in the Holtwood Gorge along the lower Susquehanna River, York County.

Boxwork calcite in the Middle Cambrian Ledger Fm., Baker Quarry, York County.

Presque Isle is a sand spit built into Lake Erie.

Northwestern Pennsylvania

Climbing ripples in glaciolacustrine sediments, Cochranton, Crawford County

Multiple till section in Mercer County strip mine

Type section of the Slippery Rock Till, Mercer County

Type section of the Slippery Rock Till, Mercer County

Convolute Lake Sediments, Erie Bluffs State Park, Erie County

Ashtabula Till Bluffs, Raccoon Creek Park, Erie County

Booth Run Section, Mercer County

Conneaut Marsh, Crawford Count

Northeastern Pennsylvania

Archbald Pothole, Lackawanna County

Ice-contact stratified glacial drift, Susquehanna County

Hickory Run Boulder Field, Carbon County

Stevens Point, Susquehanna County

Harveys Lake, Lackawanna County

Eagles Mere Striations, Sullivan County

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