Tully Formation Explained

Tully Formation
Type:Formation
Age:Devonian
Prilithology:Limestone
Otherlithology:Shale, Siltstone, and Sandstone
Namedfor:Tully, NY
Namedby:Vanuxem (1839)
Region:


Country:United States
Canada
Subunits:
New York:
  • New Lisbon Member
  • Laurens Member
  • West Brook Member
Pennsylvania:
  • Weissport Member
  • Brodhead Creek Member
  • Lehighton Member
Underlies:Harrell Shale/Genesee Group
Overlies:Hamilton Group

The Tully Formation is a geologic unit in the Appalachian Basin. The Tully was deposited as a carbonate rich mud, in a shallow sea at the end of the Middle Devonian.[1] Outcrops for the Tully are found in New York State and Pennsylvania.[2] It is also found subsurface in western Maryland and northern West Virginia. A number of fossil remains from marine organisms maybe found in Tully out crops.

Description

The Tully is primary made up of limestone. There there are also layers with much higher clay contend resulting in a calcareous shale. To the east the Tully becomes siliciclastic. This is due to sediments being washed in from the Acadian Mountains to the east. By the time the Tully was being deposited the Appalachian Basin had been nearly filled in that the Tully was deposited on a broad planform of rock.[3] The Tully ranges in thickness to less than 1' in western New York to 70'+ thick in central Pennsylvania and 90'+ thick in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.

Fossils

Brachiopods

Tullypothyridina, Camarotoechia Mesocostale, Rhyssochonetes, Emanuella, Pseudoatrypa, Spinatrypa, Tylothyris, Mucrospirifer tulliensis, Cyrtina, Tullypothyridina, Echinocoelia, Strophodonta

Notes and References

  1. Philip H. Heckel . 1963 . Depositional Environment of the Devonian Tully Limestone of Central New York: ABSTRACT . AAPG Bulletin . 47 . 10.1306/bc7439df-16be-11d7-8645000102c1865d . 0149-1423.
  2. Stevenson . R. E . Skinner . W. S. . 1949 . The Tully Clastics of New York and Pennsylvania . Pennsylvania Academy of Science . 23 . 28–33. 44109398 .
  3. Baird . G.C. . Zambito . J.J. . Brett . C.E. . 2012 . Genesis of unusual lithologies associated with the Late Middle Devonian Taghanic biocrisis in the type Taghanic succession of New York State and Pennsylvania . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . 367-368 . 121–136 . 10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.11.010 . 2012PPP...367..121B . 0031-0182.