Manhattan Granite Bedrock

According to the american museum of natural history the island of manhattan is built on three layers of rock known as manhattan schist inwood marble and fordham gneiss the layers were once flat laying like a sandwich.

Manhattan granite bedrock. The oldest rocks will be fordham gneiss dating from c. The rocks that form manhattan. The television comedy the flintstones is set in the town of bedrock. Barr along with two colleagues from fordham published a study in december issue of the journal of economic history debunking what he calls the manhattan bedrock myth.

The billion year old fordham gneiss was formed during another ancient mountain building episode the grenville orogeny when continents fused into an ancient super continent. The flint stones neighbors are the rubble s fred flintstone works for mr. 1 1 ga billion years. Manhattan schist outcropping in central park.

It is a strong competent metamorphic rock that was created when pangaea formed. Slate at slate rock and gravel pebbles flintstone works at pyrite advertising agency and the local newspapers are the daily granite and the daily slab. The inwood marble was metamorphosed from limestone by heat and intense pressure and formed the 150 to 500 foot thick marble beds beneath the. The bedrock underlying much of manhattan is a mica schist known as manhattan schist of the manhattan prong physiographic region.

It is interesting to consider how the formation of this particular part of north america molded by the same processes as the whole globe created such a unique city that is known. For your convenience the five field trip stops are shown on the map figure 1 and table 1 and figure 4 tie the stops to specific geologic events. Geologic names are easy to spot in the cartoon. The youngest muscovite bearing granite and pegmatite with ages of 380 ma million years.

It is well suited for the foundations of tall buildings.