Cambria County PA

I live in Johnstown PA (aka Flood City).  The area is very beautiful and lots of mountains around.  Many of the road cuts show amazing layers of sedimentary rocks and coal seams.  The main pic for this blog is a sample from Route 56 @ Widman Road.  To give you a better idea of scale:

Ford Explorer next to road cut

This pic shows the scale pretty well.  The truck is about 6 ft tall and about 10 feet away from the rock formations.  Directly behind the truck, the layer is highly fractured shale (10 - 15 ft thick).  On top of that is a 2-3ft thick section of sandstone with a minor overlay of coal.  Directly above the coal is a thin layer of Marine Limestone (from a short period of saltwater sedimentation) covered by another layer of sandstone.  This pattern continues for several more layers before being covered by much more recent soil deposits.

Shale over Coal seam

This image is of Shale overlaying Coal @ Lorain Borough Park.  This section was exposed by a tributary stream of the Conemaugh river.  This formation is about 50 ft tall between the park and Ohio Street.  Above the Shale (not pictured) is a layer of sandstone than repeating layers or Coal/Shale/Sandstone.

Upstream shot of Sandstone Cobbles with Coal layer then more Sandstone Cobbles

Looking upstream @ Lorain Borough Park you can see a thick layer of weathered Sandstone Cobbles.  The stream runs over a seam of Coal before continuing into more Sandstone Cobbles.    Sandstone Cobbles in the foreground actually cover a thin layer of Shale beneath the coal seam.  If you look in the left side of picture, you can see an older wall build from the stream cobbles.  Sandstone is abundant and commonly used in the area for foundations and retaining walls.  Many beds like this end up in peoples houses locally.

Waterfall over Shale and Coal Seam

Going even further upstream, Lorain Borough Park has a very nice nature trail (was a pleasant surprise!) that walks the visitor through the wooded section of park.  Following the stream, they have placed a bench next to this formation for quiet reflection.  The lower portion of the falls cascades over a 3 ft thick coal seam and the top cascades over what is left of the Shale above it.  Given the downhill slope to the natural formations, this stream is taking it's time eroding thru the layers.  Just upstream from this location, the stream travels over the top of the Shale layer for about 100 yards.  this layer of Shale is only about 3 feet thick, so it looks like a long flat slide.


These are but a few samples of what i have to look at and enjoy within the City of Johnstown PA