Cylindrical Structures at the Park of Pillars at the Hughes Quarry
This month provided an opportunity for me to visit the Park of Pillars at the Hughes Quarry. When I learned that the Niagara Peninsula Geological Society had organized a two day field trip to Eastern Ontario, with a stop on Sunday, August 16 scheduled for the Park of Pillars, I had to go. I joined the Niagara Peninsula Geological Society and signed up for the field trip. I was glad that I did as it was a very enjoyable field trip. I don’t know if I’ve ever been on field trip with people so enthusiastic about rocks.
Below are three photos taken at the Park of Pillars. The gentleman that is the scale in the first photo is a little over six feet tall and is holding a meter stick. The second photo shows the concentric rings visible on the underside of the cylindrical structure shown in the first photo. The third photo shows a much larger cylindrical structure about ten feet to the left of the first structure. My photos show the same cylindrical structures figured in the historical references mentioned and reproduced in my earlier blog posting.
Dave Forsyth of Arnprior was our guide. Dave pointed out that the alteration extends beyond the cylinders into the surrounding rock and does not end at the fractures that define the cylinders.
An Occurrence 4.5 kilometers South of Elgin
My earlier blog posting mentioned a few of the locations in Eastern Ontario where the cylindrical structures can be found. One additional location that is worth mentioning is referenced by Sanford and Arnott (2010):
“A similar but much smaller columnar structure was found in the Chippewa Bay Member of the Covey Hill Formation [of the Potsdam Group Sandstone] at station O-30 approximately 4.5 km southeast of Elgin, Ontario (Fig. 42.a, b).”
[B.V. Sanford and R.W.C. Arnott (2010), Stratigraphic and structural framework of the Potsdam Group in eastern Ontario, western Quebec and northern New York State, GSC Bulletin 597, at page 43]
Sanford and Arnott’s description of the two photos that are Figure 42 is as follows:
“Figure 42. Miniature cylindrical column in the Covey Hill Formation (Chippewa Bay Member), 45. Km southeast of Elgin, Ontario at station O-30. a) Plan view of the small columnar structure...b) Partially exposed cross-sectional view of the column.”
This past weekend while returning from an auction I decided to look south of Elgin for cylindrical structures. While I didn’t find the outcrop that appears in Sanford and Arnott’s publication (I must have been very close to their outcrop as I would plot my outcrop on the map that accompanies their report in the identical location as their station O-30), I found an outcrop which shows numerous circular and concentric structures weathering out of sandstone. Below are four of the photographs that I took.
The circular and concentric structures that I found are generally in the range of 5 to 18 cm (2 to 7 inches) in diameter. I believe these circular and concentric structures to be cross-sections of numerous small, cylindrical structures.
The outcrop is a horizontal, glacially polished, surface of off-white sandstone. It is about the size of half a soccer pitch, a third of which exhibits circular and concentric structures. I didn’t count the circular and concentric structures but there had to have been over two hundred of them.
While I believe these circular and concentric structures to be cross-sections of cylinders, they could represent cross-sections through spherical concretions or cones. Both rounded concretions and conical (funnel shaped) structures have been reported in the Potsdam sandstones.
Dr. R. W. Ells of the Geological Survey of Canada was probably the first to report on rounded concretions in the Potsdam sandstone in Canada when discussing the cylindrical structures at Gildersleeve’s Quarry, now referred to as Hughes Quarry:
“In the quarry several curious cylindrical concretions occur which resemble the trunks of fossil trees, and at one time they were regarded as such. They stand upright in the face of the quarry, the two principal ones having diameters of three and four feet, with an outer zone of three inches or more in concentric layers, corresponding to what would have been the bark if the structures had been organic....Numerous rounded concretions, from half an inch to two inches in diameter are found in the vicinity of the supposed trees, which by some persons have been regarded as the fruit. Rounded concretions of this kind are found in similar sandstones at the southern end of Knowlton lake.”
[Ells, R.W., 1905, The District Around Kingston, Ontario, Annual Report (New Series) for 1901, Volume XIV, Geological Survey of Canada, Report A, at page 176A]
A recent reference to a conical structure in Potsdam sandstone is that “an example of an upward expanding (funnel shaped) cone is observed on Jones Falls Road, Ontario, 2.5 km west of Highway 15, at station O-29" (B.V. Sanford and R.W.C. Arnott (2010), at page 41).
Round concretions and conical structures have also been reported with the vertical cylinders in the Potsdam sandstone in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, New York (Hough, 1850; Dietrich, 1953). Hough reported on vertical cylinders, associated conical structures, and associated spheroidal structures that were “seldom larger than an orange, usually occurring together in great numbers. When broken they present a perfect concentric stratification....” [Hough, Franklin B., 1851, On the Cylindrical Structure Observed in Potsdam Sandstone, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Volume 4, pages 352-354]
Dietrich reported that “Two cylindrical structures, one inverted conical structure and seven structures having circular horizontal sections and vertical sections of unknown shapes occur in the Upper Cambrian Potsdam sandstone two miles north of Redwood, New York.” [[Dietrich, R.V. (1953), Conical and Cylindrical structures in the Potsdam Sandstone, Redwood, New York, New York State Museum Circular 34, at page 1] He found a cylinder 15 feet in diameter and more than 9 feet in length, a cylinder 15 inches in diameter and more than four feet in length, and seven circular horizontal sections with diameters ranging from 2 inches to three and a half feet.
References to Cylindrical Structures found in Lanark County
I have not yet found an outcrop in Lanark County showing cylindrical structures in sandstone, but have noted that part of a sandstone cylinder is on display at the Perth museum and have found additional references to them as having been found in Lanark. (I say “additional” because my earlier posting mentioned specimens from Almonte in McGill’s collection that were referred to by Dawson (1890).)
Not surprisingly, the first reference refers to Doctor James Wilson of Perth:
“In the sandstones near Perth the late Dr. Wilson, nearly thirty years ago, found a number of long cylindrical casts like tree trunks from six inches to one foot in diameter. Last year attention was called to certain cylindrical bodies of larger size than the above which pass almost at right angles through the sandstone beds of this formation near the Rideau canal about eight miles from Kingston.”
[Report of the Royal Commission Upon the Mineral Resources of Ontario and Measures for their Development, 1890, Toronto, Warwick & Sons, at page 40]
I’ve also noted that Jean Dugas, who provided the marginal notes to geological Map 1089A, mentions that cylindrical or conical structures can be found in North Elmsley Township, Lanark County. She commented:
“Peculiar bands showing cylindrical or conical structures noted in the Nepean formation, and best observed on lot 24, Con. VI, North Elmsley tp., are the same composition as the surrounding sandstone , but cut sharply across the beds and are themselves bedded parallel with the walls of the structures. They are probably formed by slumping of the sand due to water structures.”
[M.E. Wilson and Jean Dugas, 1961, Map 1089A, Geology, Perth, Lanark and Leeds Counties, Ontario, Geological Survey of Canada, Geology by M. E. Wilson, 1930 and Jean Dugas, 1949, Descriptive notes by Jean Dugas.]
Lot 24 of Concession VI in North Elmsley Township is 2 km west of Rideau Ferry and lies south of County Road 1.
I have not been able to find Wilson and Dugas’ occurrence in Lot 24 of Concession VI in North Elmsley Township. Wilson and Dugas’ map shows only two outcrops on that lot. I found one of their outcrops. It is about 4 feet high and over 30 yards long and is now part of the front lawns of three houses on West Point Drive that back onto Big Rideau Lake. Crossbedding is visible, but no cylindrical structures could be found on the vertical face of the outcrop. Unfortunately, landscaping (topsoil and grass) has obliterated the top of the outcrop.
In an earlier blog posting discussing Perthite I mentioned that Jean Dugas had presented her doctorate thesis on the rocks of this area (Dugas, Jean, 1952, Geology of the Perth map area, Lanark and Leeds Counties, Ontario; Ph. D., McGill). Unfortunately it is not possible for me to check her thesis to confirm the lot and concession number as her thesis has not been digitized and made available online.
In the early 1980's the Ontario Geological Survey re-mapped the Paleozoic rocks in Eastern Ontario. Williams and Wolf, who mapped the Perth area, reported that “cylindrical structures have been reported by Wilson and Dugas (1961)” [Williams, D.A. and Wolf, R.R., 1984, Paleozoic Geology of the Perth Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey, Map P.2724, Geological Series -Preliminary Map. Scale 1:50,000. Geology, 1982]. However, they did not report finding cylindrical structures. Further, Williams and Wolf ‘s Map P.2724 shows no outcrop in Lot 24 of Concession VI in North Elmsley Township.
Additional References to Cylindrical and Conical Structures in Sandstone in Eastern Ontario
My blog posting from January 29, 2014 listed a few of the locations in Eastern Ontario where cylindrical structures can be found in Potsdam sandstone. Here are additional locations:
1) 2 km north of Morton, roadcut off Highway 15
“Crossbedding is common, and unique cylindrical structures or “pillars” (Dietrich 1953) were observed in a roadcut along Highway 15, 2 km north of Morton.”
[Williams, D.A. and Wolf, R.R. 1984, Paleozoic Geology of the Westport Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey, Map P.2723, Geological Series -Preliminary Map. Scale 1:50,000. Geology, 1982, in marginal notes]
“Sandstone pillars have been reported in the Perth area by Wilson and Dugas (1961), and were observed at several localities in the Westport map area (31C/0). Excellent examples are present in the Highway 15 roadcut 2 km north of Morton (UTM 404120E, 4934250N) (Plate 4).”
Plate 4 is a photograph of the “Cylindrical structure in quartz sandstone of the Nepean Formation, Highway 15 roadcut 2 km north of Morton”.
[Williams, D.A., 1991, Paleozoic Geology of the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Lowland, Southern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 5770, 292 pages, at pages 44 and 41.]
2) Washburn Road, west of Highway 15 and close to Rideau Canal
Source: personal communication, Dave Forsyth, 2015.
3) Along southern Melville Island in St. Lawrence River
“A thicker section of sandstone beds is found in a block along southern Melville Island (Fig. 16), The exposed face displays crossbedding at several levels within the concave-up beds that may be the foreset beds within a large subaqueous dune. The lower image details conglomerate beds, crossbedding and an eroded section of a dewatering structure.” “Fig. 16. Sandstone block with conglomerate and cross-beds; dewatering cylinder at right edge of block.”
[Al Donaldson, Dave Forsyth, Chris Findlay and Bud Andress, 2010,
Fall Geology/Ecology Boat Tour - St. Lawrence River 1000 Islands, at page 20
http://www.frontenacarchbiosphere.ca/explore/fab-education/geology/st-lawrence-river-thousand-islands-geology-boat-tour ]
4) South March Highlands, Kanata
The South March Highlands border Kanata and are south of March Road, east of Huntmar, west of March Road and north of Terry Fox Drive. A Photo with the legend “unequivocal dewatering cylinders preserved in Paleozoic sandstone - An Ancient Spring.” appears at page 14 in a 49 page presentation (in pdf format) entitled “Ottawa’s Great Forest: The South March Highlands” prepared by Carp River Conservation Inc. that can be downloaded from
http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2011-05-17%20SMH%20Overview%20v17.pdf
5) On Huckleberry Island in the St. Lawrence River near Gananoque, Ontario
A photo of this cylindrical structure is Plate 124, which appears between pages 1030 and 1031, in
J. E. Hawley and R. C. Hart, 1933
Cylindrical Structures in Sandstone, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Volume 44, pages 1017-1034
6) Near Westport, Ontario
Source: J. E. Hawley and R. C. Hart , 1933, at page 1020.
7) Jones Falls
Sanford and Arnott report that “an example of an upward expanding (funnel-shaped) cone is observed at Jones Falls Road, 2.5 km west of Highway 15, at Station O-29 .”
B.V. Sanford and R.W.C. Arnott, 2010,
Stratigraphic and structural framework of the Potsdam Group in eastern Ontario, western Quebec, and northern New York State; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 597
Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario
