Education Department Bulletin 



Published fortnightly by the University of the State of New York 



Entered as second-class matter June 24, 1908. at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under 



the act of July 16, 1894 



No. 466 ALBANY, N. Y. March i, 1910 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



Museum Bulletin 137 



GEOLOGY|OF THE AUBURN-GENOA QUADRANGLES 



BY 



D, D. LUTHER 



INTRODUCTION 



The area embraced within the Auburn-Genoa quadrangles Hes be- 

 tween the lines of 42° 30' and 43° north latitude and 76° 30' and 

 76° 45' west longitude and contains 455 square miles. 



The wateis of Cayuga lake cover 65 square miles of this area, 

 Owasco lake 10 square miles and the alluvium along the Seneca 

 river 6 square miles, while about 50 square miles in the towns of 

 Montezuma, Aurelius, Throop and Sennett are a low lying region 

 where no outcrops of bed rock occur but the surface is highly 

 diversified by the large number oi lenticular hills or drumlins into 

 which the heavy drift sheet is arranged. 



These drumlins, the more prominent of which are 100 to 150 feet 

 in hight and usually many times longer than wide, rise quite abruptly 

 at the north ends and extend in a generally south-southeast direction, 

 gradually diminishing in size. The contour lines of the map indicate 

 the position of more than 60 drumlins in characteristic shape and 100 

 feet or more in hight, while many others are equally well defined, 

 though less prominent. The region in which these occur is a small 

 portion of the New York drumlin area which covers 2500 square miles 

 and is estimated to include 10,000 drumlin crests. The drumlins of 

 central western New York have been described by Prof. H. L. Fair- 

 child in State Museum Bulletin iii. 



The south edge of the drumlin belt is along the foot of the Helder- 

 berg limestone escarpment which extends across the Auburn quad- 



