The separation of the Hartland Formation and Ravenswood Granodiorite from the Fordham Gneiss at Cameron's Line in the New York City area

Abstract

Recent study of the rocks in City Water Tunnel Number 3 between Roosevelt Island and beneath 34th Street and the 63rd Street subway-rail tunnels at 41st Avenue in Long Island City, as well as study of drill core from other sites in western Queens, establishes that this area of New York City is underlain by the Ravenswood Granodiorite and the Hartland Formation. The Fordham Gneiss does not appear east of the East River at these sites. Cameron's Line can be traced down the east side of the East River, as learned from observations in the tunnels, separating the Middle Proterozoic Fordham Gneiss to the west from the Cambrian and Ordovician Hartland Formation and related Ravenswood Granodiorite to the east. The older, adequately defined, Ravenswood Granodiorite, Hartland Formation, and the Fordham Gneiss, are the rock units that make up the poorly defined Brooklyn gneiss or Brooklyn Injection Gneiss and thus appropriately should supersede these later classifications. -from Authors