Rocks along the Youghiogheny 10
October 26, 2017
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This entry was posted on October 26, 2017 by Linda Grashoff. It was filed under Nature, Plants, Stones and Rocks, Surfaces and was tagged with lichen, Ohiopyle State Park, rocks, Youghiogheny River.
Romancing Reality 
Now that is very interesting. I wonder exactly what is in the picture. I’d like to know what the black stuff is.
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October 26, 2017 at 4:25 AM
I’ve been wondering, too, Jessica, but not in a very focussed way. So thank you for the nudge. Here’s a page about the geology of the park: http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_009017.pdf. Perhaps the most relevant paragraph is this:
“The youngest rocks in the area, Pennsylvanian in age, are economically important because of their interbedded coals. The oldest of this age is called the Pottsville Group and consists of tan to gray sandstone and conglomerate. These rocks make the scenery, since they form the falls and rapids in the river and the prominent cliffs along the sides and top of Laurel Hill. The younger Pennsylvanian rocks are mostly tan to dark-gray shales with some sandstones and coal beds. The rock layers exposed in the park were deposited as sediment during the Paleozoic Era of geologic time. ”
The rocks shown in my recent posts are north northwest of the place on the map designated as Ohiopyle Falls.
Scientist-husband David says the rocks I’ve been photographing are sandstone and that the black stuff is degraded plant matter, short of coal.
Here’s another relevant (but less informational) link: http://www.gis.dcnr.state.pa.us/topo/ogf/OGF_OhiopyleFalls.pdf. Where the people are in the left photo (you have to increase the size on your computer to make them out), is where I took most of my rock photos.
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October 26, 2017 at 9:16 AM
Thank you very much for finding out all that information about the rocks. A fascinating read. We have similar rocks from the Carboniferous in South Wales which I often visit. I had thought that the black stuff might be related to coal, just a very thin layer of altered plant material. It looks from that photograph showing the location for your photographs in the second link that it might have been a bit treacherous and slippery with such fast flowing water so close. Somehow I had imagined a much more tranquil situation for the rock shots.
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October 27, 2017 at 2:41 AM
Actually, those rocks were pretty dry that day at least. They are quite a bit higher than the river, and wind didn’t blow water that way. When I’m in the zone, anything can be tranquil! I’m sure you’ve experienced that feeling.
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October 27, 2017 at 9:54 AM
I’ve had a fascination with rocks off and on for some time – the strata, the colours and the lichens that bejewel them. I was walking home last weekend and popped into the church graveyard and spent a few minutes photographing the ancient gravestones each with a crop of lichens. Another project lurks…
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October 27, 2017 at 12:26 PM
Oh, yes. I look forward to seeing your bejeweled (great descriptor!) gravestones, Andy. I have been surprised, frankly, by how many people say they love rocks. Many of the residents where I live display them outside their units. I don’t think this love is widely known even though it seems to be widely practiced.
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October 27, 2017 at 3:58 PM
Isn’t it great that you can often find out quite a lot about a place you’ve been to just with a quick search? There’s a group in this state that does plant surveys and publishes plant lists of many places – very useful when I can’t ID something. Good to have that hubby guy around too. Is there rockphilia? I’m sure there’s a real word somewhere. You make a good point about many people being attracted to rocks, but it sort of slips under the radar in a way that being fond of birds doesn’t.
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October 28, 2017 at 4:48 PM
Oh, I like that, Lynn. That makes me a rockphiliac, I think. To answer your question: Yes, if I were to be banned from looking up things on the Internet, I guess I would have to move into a library. And even then, searches would take so looooong. And it would be hard to learn things about pop culture. Please don’t take my Internet awayayayay. (I’m even doing fine without my Kodachrome.)
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October 28, 2017 at 8:57 PM