Geology Club

Sideling Hill

Location: I-68W,6 miles west of Hancock, Washington County. (N 39^o43.1', W 78^o16.9').

Features: An awesome anticline exposed by a road cut. Rockwell and Rurslane Formations (Lower Mississippian): post-Acadian, pre-Alleghanian sediments shedding into the epeiric seas of the Laurentia craton.

Website(s): Geology of Sideling Hill, Sideling Hill WMA

Chesapeake Beach/Calvert Cliffs

Location: Calvert County

Features: A nice beach. Miocene marine fossils - mostly sharks.

Website(s): Brownie Beach/Chesapeake Beach, Calvert Cliffs Starte Park

Cumberland Cave

Location: La Vale, Allegany County. (N 39^o41.33', W 78^o47.24').

Features: Excelent fossils. Helderberg Group, Keyser Limestone: post-Taconic, pre-Arcadian carbonates. Also, the cave (that was mostly destroyed for the railroad) was a great source of late Pleistocene mammal fossil, some of which can still be found.

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Great Falls

Location: McLean, VA off Route 193. (OK, so it's not technically in MD, but part of it is).

Features: Wissahickon Formation (Precambrian [Cryogenian?]) - metamorphic rocks: schists, gneisses, metagraywackes, metaconglomerates. The Potomac downcut into the formation during the last Ice Age as a result of a drop in sea level.

Website(s): Great Falls NPS, Great Falls MGS

Swallow Falls State Park

Location: Garrett County

Features: Youghioghenny River, 6th highest waterfall in MD. Conemaugh Formation (Pennsylvanian Period).

Website(s): Swallow Falls MGS, Swallow Falls State Park

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