The Sharon Conglomerate is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

of early

Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian may refer to: * A person or thing from Pennsylvania * Pennsylvanian (geology) The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, on the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timesc ...

age in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is dominantly conglomerate and quartzarenite

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. In places it is abundantly crossbedded. The Sharon Conglomerate is generally considered a Member of the

Pottsville Formation The Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States. The Pottsville ...

in Pennsylvania and Maryland,Lyons, P.C., Jacobsen, E.F., and Scott, B.K., 1985. ''Coal geology of the Castleman coal field, Garrett County, Maryland'', U.S. Geological Survey, Coal Investigations Map C-98. Scale: 1:24,000
link
but it is a Formation in Ohio.

Exposures

The Sharon conglomerate has no formal type section,
National Geologic Map Database, Geologic Unit: Sharon although it is named after the town of

Sharon Sharon ( 'plain'), also spelled Saron, is a given name as well as a Hebrew name. In Anglosphere, English-speaking areas, Sharon is now predominantly a feminine given name, but historically it was also used as a masculine given name. In Israel, ...

, Pennsylvania. One excellent exposure is located in

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in Ohio that reclaims and preserves the industrial, commercial, and rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron, Ohio, ...

at "the Ledges," located southeast of the town of

Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

, Ohio. Another exposure is at Mary Campbell Cave near

Cuyahoga Falls Cuyahoga Falls ( or ) is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 51,114 at the 2020 census. The second-largest city in Summit County, it is located directly north of Akron and is a suburb in the Akron metropolitan area ...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park geologic cross section

File:Borden-Sharon unconformity.jpg, Outcrop near

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, Ohio showing the Sharon

unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval o ...

overlying the

Borden Formation The Mississippian Borden Group (sometimes Borden Formation) is a mapped bedrock unit in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia,Matchen, D.L., and Kammer, T.W., 1994, Sequence stratigraphy of the Lower Mississippian Price and Borden Form ...

File:Mudshale clasts in pebbly sandstone ("Sharon Conglomerate", Lower Pennsylvanian; Jackson North roadcut, Ohio, USA) 66 (23891106818).jpg, Mudshale clasts in one of the roadcuts near Jackson. Rock hammer for scale. File:Sharon Sandstone (Lower Pennsylvanian; Mary Campbell Cave, Cuyahoga Gorge, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA) 1 (44411342545).jpg, Exposure at Mary Campbell Cave

References

{{morecat, date=October 2023 Pennsylvanian North America