Cockeysville Marble Explained

Cockeysville Marble
Type:metamorphic
Age:Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician
Prilithology:marble
Namedfor:Cockeysville, Maryland
Namedby:Williams and Darton, 1892[1]
Region:Piedmont of Maryland
Unitof:Glenarm Supergroup
Underlies:Wissahickon Formation
Overlies:Setters Formation
Thickness:about 750 feet

The Cockeysville Marble is a Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician marble formation in Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard Counties, Maryland. It is described as a predominantly metadolomite, calc-schist, and calcite marble, with calc-gneiss and calc-silicate marble being widespread but minor.[2] The extent of this formation was originally mapped in 1892[1] within Baltimore County.

Quarrying

The Cockeysville Marble has been quarried in Beaver Dam within Cockeysville and other locations in Maryland. A historical account is given in Maryland Geological Survey Volume Two.[3]

The Cockeysville was also mined for crushed stone at what is now called Quarry Lake.[4] It was known as the McMahon Quarry in the 1940s.

The Cockeysville was mined by Lafarge and by Martin Marietta Inc. at the Marriottsville Quarry, Marrtiottsville, Maryland.

Cockeysville marble was used in the construction of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. and the Washington Monument in Baltimore.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Williams, G.H., and Darton, N.H., 1892, Geologic map of Baltimore and vicinity: U.S. Geological Survey, Map to accompany "Guide to Baltimore".
  2. Geologic Map of Maryland, 1968. Cleaves, E. T., Edwards, J. Jr., and Glaser, J. D. Maryland Geological Survey. Scale 1:250,000.
  3. Maryland Geological Survey Volume Two, by W. B. Clark, 1898. Johns Hopkins University Press. (Google Books)
  4. https://www.mindat.org/loc-16024.html McMahon Quarry