CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE AQUIDNECK SHALES. 



AREA OCCUPIED BY THE AQUIDNECK SIIAUE SERIES. 



East of the complex of rocks called the Kingstown sandstones, owing to 

 the characteristic and frequent appearance of sandstone beds in the section, 

 lies an equally great area, in which shales form almost all of the exposures, 

 excepting where synclinal folding has allowed an overlying conglomerate to 

 be locally preserved. The shales of this eastern area contain isolated sand- 

 stones and thin conglomerate beds, but the latter are so rare that the term 

 "shale series" has peculiar force in designating the general lithological 

 character of the rocks in question. The shales occupy (1) the southern half 

 of Conanicut Island as far north as Round Swamp, excepting (a) the small 

 area included in Fox Hill, already described as the top of the Kingstown 

 section, and (b) a small area of arkose on the east side of Mackerel Bay, 

 north of the granite hills. They form (2) the southern and larger division 

 of Prudence Island (PI. XXIII), excepting the western margin. of the island, 

 north of Prudence Park. They are frequently exposed (3) in almost all of 

 Bristol Neck, north of the granite area, only the most western exposures on 

 the neck belonging to the Kingstown series. The shales form also (4) almost 

 the whole of Aquidneck Island, excepting («) at the top of the syncline south 

 of Butts Hill, and in those areas occurring along Q>) the southeast shore of 

 the island at Woods Castle, (c) in the Paradise-Purgatory region, (rf) at the 

 Newport Cliffs, (e) on Miantonomy Hill, and (/) at Coddington Point, where 

 the overlying conglomerates prevail. The (#) pre-Carboniferous rocks of 

 the Newport Neck region must also, of course, be excluded. Owing to the 

 abundant exposures of the shales on Aquidneck Island and the belief that 

 all these shales form one great series, the Aquidneck exposures are considered 

 typical, and the shale series wherever exposed is therefore called the 

 Aquidneck shale series. 



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