CAPE COD GEOLOGY 



167 



Norton Point 



Near the northeast end of the section at Norton Point there is exposed 

 a bed of tough, compact, stony blue clay, which underlies the Gardiners clay. 

 This bed, which is about 10 feet thick, is exposed at the very tip of the point, 

 where the surface of the bed has a steep shoreward dip. Its relation to the 

 overlying beds makes it appear to have an eroded surface, on which the later de- 

 posits were laid down unconformably. 



FlG 12.— Section at Norton Point, showing old till below Gardiners clay. A, 

 pre-Gardiners till; B, Gardiners clay; C, Jacob sand; D, Manhasset formation. 



Other Exposures 

 Other exposures of beds of gravel that are lithologically like the lowest 

 Pleistocene gravel but that do not show their relations to other beds, have been 

 found at a few places, but these beds cannot be safely employed in the interpre- 

 tation of the geology. One of these beds, which is seen in a cut on the state road 

 near the top of Longview Hill, in Chilmark, consists of bedded gravel similar 

 to that in the anticline at Nashaquitsa cliffs. Another is in a shallow gravel 

 pit a few yards north of the state road, due north of the west end of Chilmark 

 Pond, where the gravel is like that in the bed just described. Another bed is 

 in the Indian Hill region, on the south side of the 275-foot hill. Here a gravel 

 pit discloses greenish sand such as that at the boulder point on Nashaquitsa 

 cliffs. Still another bed is in the cliffs just west of the mouth of Roaring Brook 

 where some gravel may be seen below the Gardiners clay. The section here is 

 so much disturbed, however, that the stratigraphic position of the bed cannot 

 be determined exactly. 



GARDINERS CLAY 

 (See Plate 23) 

 Name 

 The Gardiners clay was named from Gardiners Island, which lies between 

 the north and south flukes at the east end of Long Island. On this island several 

 beds of clay that include some sand are well exposed at a number of places. 1 



1 Fuller, M. L., op. cit., p. 92. 



