GEOLOGY OF THE BUFFALO QUADRANGLE

The strata composing the surface rocks of this quadrangle as
delineated on the map have an aggregate thickness of 804 feet,
of which 310 feet are exposed by the difference of elevation between
the lowest horizon, 570 feet above tide, where the north line of
the quadrangle crosses Niagara river, and the highest land 880
feet above tide in the southeast corner near Orchard Park; 494
feet of this thickness are brought up by the northeastern elevation
of the beds which thus show the average dip to be 28 feet a mile.

This dip, however, is variable as the strata roll in broad undula¬
tions, and it is also modified by changes in the thickness of the
different formations throughout their extent. In the vicinity of
Black Rock the dip is about 40 feet a mile toward the south, while
in the southern part of the quadrangle it decreases to 25 feet.

In a well put down by the Lackawanna Steel Co. in 1904 on the
bank of Smoke's creek in West Seneca, the bottom of the Onondaga
limestone was found at the depth of 292 feet or 288 feet above
tide, and that horizon appears in the quarry of the Buffalo Cement
Co., io|^ miles north of the well at 640 feet above tide, showing a
southward dip of 352 feet or an average of nearly 34 feet a mile.
 

SUCCESSION OF STRATA

The following formations are represented on this quadrangle:
 

•a

i
 

r
 

•a

P
 

' Neodevonic -l Senecan
 

r
 

Mesode-
vonic
 

Paleo-
devonic
 

Erian

I Ulsterian
Oriskanian

Cayugan
 

I
 

r

1 Portage

Genesee

^ Hamilton

[ Marcellus

Onondaga

. Oriskany

Salina
 

f
J
 

( Rhinestreet black shale
V Cashaqua gray shale
' Middlesex black shale

( West River shale

K Genundewah limestone

( Genesee black shale

f Moscow shale
J Tichenor limestone
j Ludlowville shale
t Skaneateles shale

( Cardiff shale

•< Stafford limestone

i Marcellus black shale

Onondaga limestone

Oriskany sandstone

Cobleskill waterlime

i Bertie waterlime
Camillus shale