NOTES ON THE INTRAFORMATIONAL CONTORTED 

 STRATA AT TRENTON FALLS 



BY WILLIAM J. MILLER 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1908 the writer published a short paper in the Journal of 

 Geology ^ describing the contorted strata within the Trenton forma- 

 tion at Trenton Falls in central New York and offering an ex- 

 planation of the phenomena. 



Recently (191 3) there has appeared an elaborate paper by the late 

 F. F. Hahn in the Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, Geologic und 

 Paleontologie ^ in which the contorted strata at Trenton Falls are 

 particularly discussed and an entirely different explanation is offered 

 for the phenomena there, as well as for apparently similar phenom- 

 ena in certain other parts of the world. 



Grabau ^ (1913) discusses the contorted zones at Trenton Falls 

 and similar phenomena elsewhere and fully accepts Hahn's explana- 

 tion, but he neither states nor presents arguments against the present 

 writer's hypothesis. 



It is not the present purpose to consider intraformational cor- 

 rugations in general, but rather to confine attention to such features 

 as are to be observed at Trenton Falls. It will be shown that 

 Hahn's explanation can not apply there. It is generally agreed that 

 intraformational contortions may be produced in several ways, and 

 the present concern is to find the correct explanation of the cause 

 of the particular phenomena at Trenton Falls. For certain details 

 not repeated in this paper, the reader should consult the two papers 

 above cited. 



THE CONTORTED ZONES WITHIN THE TRENTON FORMATION 



Excellent examples of highly folded or contorted strata between 



nonfolded strata may be seen along the sides of the gorge at 



Trenton Falls where the disturbed beds occur at two very distinct 



1 Highly Folded Between Non-folded Strata at Trenton Falls, N. Y. Jour. 

 Geol., 16: 428-33. 



2 Untermeerische Gleitung bei Trenton Falls (Nordamerika) und ihr 

 Verhaltnis zu ahnlichen Storungsbildern : Neues Jahrbuch. 36 : 1-41, 

 1913. 



3 Principles of Stratigraphy, p. 783-84. 



