Abstract
The Jonestown Volcanic Field is a five kilometer by fifteen kilometer
area of volcanic and hypabyssal rocks, basalt and diabase, located in southeastern
Pennsylvania. These igneous rocks presently occur within an allochthonous
belt of Ordovician deep water sedimentary rocks and Taconic flysch rocks
known collectively as the Hamburg Klippe. Detailed field mapping during
this project has revealed that the contacts between the igneous rocks and
the flysch are not conformable. The volcanic rocks are associated with
the Ordovician limestone that is adjacent to these volcanics. This limestone
also is not conformable to the Hamburg Klippe sediments, rather it shares
outcrop characteristics of some Laurentian platform carbonates in the region.
The association between the igneous rocks and the limestone suggests that
the igneous rocks were emplaced on a carbonate platform. Trace element
data gathered from whole rock geochemical analysis suggests that the volcanic
and hypabyssal rocks formed from different melts. They could, however,
have formed in the same magmatic province. The volcanic rocks share geochemical
characteristics with rocks emplaced on continental forelands, while the
hypabyssal rocks show evidence of continental lithospheric influence on
the magma, suggesting the Jonestown igneous rocks were emplaced on a carbonate
platform on the Laurentian foreland, not a seamount. Their origin may be
related to the approach of the Taconic arc. The structural geology indicates
the flysch rocks and the igneous rocks were originally deformed and juxtaposed
during the Taconic orogeny. Detailed mapping has also shown that a sandstone
unit in the Bunker Hills region previously mapped as part of the Hamburg
Klippe sequence is more likely an outlier of the Silurian Tuscarora Formation,
and it is probably not conformable to any of the other rocks in the field
area. The geometry of the deformation of the sandstone in the Bunker Hills
region suggests there was again thrusting in the region during the Alleghanian
orogeny.
Ashcroft, T.J., 2002. Field relations, structural geology, and geochemistry
of the Jonestown Volcanic Field, Lebanon County, southeastern Pennsylvania.
Unpublished MSc. thesis, State University of New York at Albany.
111 pp., +ix; 1 folded plate (map)
University at Albany Science Library call number: SCIENCE Oversize
(*) QE 40 Z899 2002 A84
Return to MS Theses completed in the Geological
Sciences Program, University at Albany