| Needmore Formation | |
| Type: | sedimentary |
| Age: | Emsian[1] |
| Period: | Emsian |
| Prilithology: | shale |
| Namedfor: | Needmore, Pennsylvania |
| Namedby: | Willard and Cleaves, 1939[2] |
| Region: | Appalachian Mountains |
| Country: | United States |
| Underlies: | Marcellus Shale and Millboro Shale |
| Overlies: | Oriskany Formation |
| Extent: | Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia |
The Devonian Needmore Formation or Needmore Shale is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Needmore Formation was originally described by Willard and Cleaves in 1939 as a dark- to medium-gray limy shale, based on exposures in southern Fulton County, Pennsylvania. They considered it part of the Onondaga Group.[2]
DeWitt and Colton (1964) described the Needmore as "soft calcareous medium dark-brownish-gray and greenish-gray shale and mudrock...and soft, slightly calcareous very fissile brownish-black shale" that is not resistant to weathering. They estimated its thickness in their study area (southern Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and most of Allegany County, Maryland) as approximately 150 feet.[3]
DeWitt and Colton (1964) identified brachiopods (Coelospira acutiplicata, Eodevonaria arcuata), trilobites (Viaphacops cristata), and ostracods (Favulella favulosa) in the Needmore.[3]
Type locality is between Needmore and Warfordsburg in southern Fulton County, Pennsylvania.
Relative age dating places the Needmore in the middle Devonian.