Bedford Shale
Encyclopedia
Bedford shale, found in Ohio
, varies by its layers, some of which are 350-450 million years old. The shale is successively coursening upward. Fossils are rare in Ohio shale.
Bedford shale is a marinite
type of grey to dark-grey oil shale
.
Ohio shale can be seen on the Walnut Creek East Roadcut, Franklin
, central Ohio, USA. It can also be seen in Cuyahoga Valley National Park
, most notably by Brandywine Falls.
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, varies by its layers, some of which are 350-450 million years old. The shale is successively coursening upward. Fossils are rare in Ohio shale.
Bedford shale is a marinite
Marinite
Marinite is a gray to dark-gray or black oil shale of marine origin in which the chief organic components are lamalginite and bituminite derived from marine phytoplankton, with varied admixtures of bitumen, telalginite and vitrinite. Marinite deposits are the most abundant oil-shale deposits...
type of grey to dark-grey oil shale
Oil shale
Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
.
Age (see sign at right)
- Berea sandstone (320 million years)
- Bedford Shale (350 million years)
- Cleveland Shale (350 - 400 million years)
Types
- Lower layers include "Gray Bedford" and "Red Bedford", which geologists consider paleoenvironmentally and paleogeographically different. These layers weather and are overgrown.
- Upper layers include unterbedded shales, siltstones and sandstones.
Viewing Ohio Shale
Franklin County, Ohio
Franklin County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. In 2010 the population was 1,163,414, making it the second largest county in Ohio and the 34th largest county in population in the United States. Franklin County is also the largest in the eight-county Columbus, Ohio...
, central Ohio, USA. It can also be seen in Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park preserves and reclaims the rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. The park is the only national park in Ohio.Cuyahoga means "crooked river" in Mohawk....
, most notably by Brandywine Falls.