GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE BUFFALO QUADRANGLE 



Moscow shale 



This formation rests on the Tichenor limestone and consists of 

 soft, light bluish gray shales that are usually somewhat calcareous 

 and embrace several courses of concretions. The latter become 

 at some exposures continuous concretionary layers crowded with 

 fossils. In the central part of the State, from Ontario to Chenango 

 counties, the Moscow shale is separated from the black Genesee 

 shale above by the Tully limestone. But both the Genesee shale 

 and the Tully limestone fail to extend to this quadrangle as distinct 

 formations. On Canandaigua lake and westward as far as this 

 quadrangle the Tully horizon is marked only by thin lentils of iron 

 pyrites and the Genesee black shale though 90 feet thick in Ontario 

 county thins out toward the west to so great an extent that it barely 

 reaches the eastern part of this quadrangle, being there but a few 

 inches thick. As a lithologic unit it is absent in the exposures on 

 Smoke's creek and Rush creek and along the lake shore, for no 

 black shales appear between the top of the Moscow shale and the 

 Genundewah limestone. Genesee fossils, however, are found a few 

 inches below the Genundewah limestone in beds of light colored 

 shale and soft limestone, that contain also a small number of Tully 

 and Hamilton species. 



Including the 12 to 15 inches of transitional beds at the top just 

 mentioned, the Moscow shales are 17 feet thick at Eighteen Mile 

 creek. Increasing rapidly toward the north and east they measure 

 52 feet on the south branch of Smoke's creek at Windom, where 

 the entire formation is favorably exposed between the two crossings 

 of the electric railroad over the stream. There are also some 

 slight exposures above the Tichenor limestone along the railroad 

 and Rush creek near Big Tree. 



The Moscow shales are everywhere exceedingly rich in fossils, 

 but the specimens are, as a rule, not so well preserved as in the 

 Ludlowville shale, and there is little difference between the faunas 

 of the Moscow and Ludlowville shales. Dr Grabau reports 51 

 species from the latter in the Eighteen Mile creek region and the 

 following are the common forms: 



Phacops rana (Green) C. mucronatus Hall 



Tentaculites gracilistriatus Hall Leptostrophia perplana (Conrad) 



Palaeoneilo tenuistriata Hall Ambocoelia umbonata (Conrad) 



Pholidops hamiltoniae Hall Atrypa reticularis (Linne) 



Spirifer tullius Hall A. aspcra (Dalman) 



S. consobrinus d'Orbigny Streptelasma rectum Hall 



Chonetes deflcctus Hall Cystiphyllum^conifollis Hall 



