Our New Jersey Volcano

Once upon a Jersey time

Sure, New Jersey had volcanoes. Our modern New Jersey once had an active volcano roughly the size of Mount St. Helens.

The site is now known as Rutan Hill in Wantage, NJ, but if we could go back to 430 million years ago, the Beemerville Volcano would be 10 to 20 miles across and spewing lava and ash for millions of years,.

Geologists say that the Beemerville Volcano is an extinct volcano and what we call Rutan Hill is what remains of the “volcanic neck.” The Sussex County location is 7 miles south of New Jersey’s highest elevation at the High Point Monument.

No worries about an eruption but a study from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory identified a new unmapped fault line that runs through Sussex County. On April 5, 2024 a magnitude 4.8 earthquake rocked New York City and shook sections of New Jersey. That's a bit more frightening for our time.

The hill and volcano neck is on private land but there is a road leading up the volcano called Volcanic Hill Road.

Hatfield Swamp

The Hatfield Swamp is a place I often pass in my local travels. "Swamp" is not a word that cries out for you to plan a visit, so let's more accurately and kindly say that this is a freshwater wetland area.

It forms what is sometimes referred to as the "second bank" of the Passaic River at the border area between Morris and Essex counties.

The area of Hatfield Swamp is approximately 2,500 acres (10 km2), located in northern New Jersey at Latitude 40.85 N and Longitude 74.32 W.

The Swamp is part of West Essex Park and there are trails for public hiking. The Essex County Chapter of the Sierra Club and the New Jersey Audubon Society lead trips throughout the swamp in all seasons. A good starting place to explore and get information is the Essex County Environmental Center.

At the western end of the swamp, the Whippany River connects to the Rockaway River. The Rockaway River then travels a short distance into the center of the swamp where it flows into the Passaic River.

After heavy rain and if there is spring snowmelt, Hatfield Swamp floods since three rivers join here.

For animal observation, the area isn't always conducive due to the flooding. Deer, raccoons, possums, skunks and fox all live in the area (West Essex Park) but generally in the less swampy edges the swamp itself where there is higher and drier ground. We might expect to find muskrats there but the flooding would fill their bank dens with water and the area is also not conducive to plant foods that muskrats favor.

In autumn, waterfowl passing through the area rest in the swamp before proceeding south.

This wetlands area is not a place for some tree species (mostly hardwoods), but you will find various oaks, maples, sweet gum, and elm trees. (Find out more about plants found here)

Unfortunately, the three rivers that meet here were all once highly polluted. Things are better today but pollutants that remain in the soil and water have affected flora and fauna. The fish that are most likely found in the Rockaway River and Whippany River are carp and catfish.

Some history: Cornelius Hetfield owned and operated a mill at some point here before the American Revolution. Hetfield was a Loyalist during the Revolution, so his property was eventually confiscated. It was later purchased by Cyrus Crane. It stayed in the Crane family into the 1960s. The mill was dismantled and moved to Allaire State Park in Monmouth County and the swamp area of the park reverted to a slightly modernized Hatfield Swamp.

But let's go way back in Hatfield geologic time. It was the late-Triassic/early-Jurassic and when the North American plate separated from the African plate and created a rift valley. Today we refer to that rift as the Newark Basin. This valley changed over the next few millions of years, the valley faulted, tilted, and eroded and eventually the basalt layers formed ridges.  Then the Wisconsin Glacier ice sheet during the last ice age advances and plugs the gap with its glacial rubble. The glacier melts and the water pools up behind the ridges. The ridges are our Watchung Mountains and the pooled water forms Glacial Lake Passaic. Go forward thousands of years and the lake drains leaving behind swamps. The big one is our Great Swamp which drains from that Passaic River and flows through a gap in ridges passing through Hatfield Swamp.

If you want to visit, an easy starting place is the Essex County Environmental Center, which is in West Essex Park.  This site (download small map) was once a tavern and stagecoach stop, and the nearby bridge over the Passaic River is where Morris County’s historic Patriots Path connects with the Lenape Trail in Essex County.

The Hudson Canyon

Depiction of the Hudson Canyon on the continental margin
 off New York and New Jersey at the outlet of the Hudson River.
The color is added. Public Domain via Wikimedia

As a child, I would hear about fisherman going out to "the canyon" to fish for big fish. It was many years later that I actually knew that they were referring to the Hudson Canyon. This submarine canyon begins from the shallow outlet of the estuary at the mouth of the Hudson River. The Hudson Canyon proper is located about 100 miles (160 km) east of the mouth of the Hudson River off the New Jersey coast.

It extends out over 400 mi (640 km) seaward across the continental shelf. The continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea. Much of the shelves were exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods. This shelf connects to the deep ocean basin at a depth of 3 to 4 km below sea level.

It all begins as a natural channel that is several kilometers wide. It is a 20–40 m depression southward from Ambrose Light, and silt, sand, and mud are carried down the Hudson River and flow into the canyon and out into the deep sea.

Though it is under a lot of water, this is really a "canyon." The walls rise three-quarters of a mile from the canyon floor. That makes it comparable to the Grand Canyon with cliffs that are over a mile deep and 270 miles (430 km) long. It is the largest known ocean canyon off the East Coast of the United States, and one of the largest submarine canyons in the world.

It was once not under water and exposed as land. The last time it was above water was during the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago. Sea level was about 400 feet (120 m) lower and the mouth of the Hudson River was near the edge of the continental shelf. That would put the river's mouth about 100 miles (160 km) east of its present site.

Sediment flowing helped carve the canyon along with underwater avalanches of mud and sand.

Tidal currents move up and down the channel and big storms move cold ocean water up the Hudson Canyon so it continues to be cut by traveling sediments.

Rumor has it that the Hudson Canyon also contains the remnants of pollution and trash from when New York City's sewage and garbage was dumped directly into the river. I have read online that there are plans to use new maps of the canyon to track contaminants from abandoned dumpsites off New York Harbor.

The channel from the Hudson River goes southeast into the ocean and deepens
directly east of most of New Jersey's popular beaches.

New Jersey's Watchung Mountains

Looking west to Second Mountain from a ridge of First Mountain - part of the Watchung Mountains in New Jersey

Though New Jersey has many places that are called "mountains," we know that they do not compete with the western U.S. mountain ranges. Probably the best known NJ mountain area is the northwestern area where we find the Appalachian Trail.

But New Jersey also has the Watchung Mountains (once called the Blue Hills) which are actually a group of three long low ridges of volcanic origin, between 400 ft. (122 m) and 500 ft. (152 m) high, lying parallel to each other primarily in northeastern New Jersey.

All of the ridges lie to the east of the higher Appalachian Mountains, which in northern New Jersey are often referred to as the New York-New Jersey Highlands.

Together with the Appalachian Mountains to the west, the Watchungs pen in an area formerly occupied by the prehistoric Glacial Lake Passaic.

The Great Swamp, a large portion of which is designated as the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, is a remnant of this lake. The swamp area is presently retained by what we call the Third Watchung Mountain.

200 million years ago, magma intruded into the Newark Basin, then an active rift basin associated with the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. The magma formed large intrusions like the Palisades Sill. But the magma ultimately broke out to the surface through large, episodic eruptions and formed the Watchung Mountains.

Throughout the early Jurassic period, the Newark Basin underwent extensive dipping and folding, and at the western edge of the Newark basin along the Ramapo Fault System formed alternating synclines and anticlines warped the layers of basalt and sedimentary rock. Jurassic sedimentary rock layers between and above the ridges form the Feltville, Towaco and Boonton formations.

The Watchung Mountains are known for their numerous scenic vistas overlooking the New York City and New Jersey skylines, as well as their isolated ecosystems containing rare plants, endangered wildlife, rich minerals, and globally imperiled traprock glade communities.

If you drive on I-280 up or down the big hill in "The Oranges", you see the cliffs that consist of a single massive lava flow that cooled and cracked into columnar joints.

In some locations, the joints tend to radiate away from a central core in a pattern generated by an uneven cooling pattern in the flow. There are also complex areas in the middle of the outcrop that show a small normal fault that may have formed from seismic activity that occurred about the time that the flows were still cooling. There are also lots of boulders (glacial erratics) scattered in the woods along the hilltop.

The ridges once held back the westward spread of urbanization, forming a significant geologic barrier beyond the Piedmont west of the Hudson River. But in many places within the state, they are smaller islands of natural landscape within suburban sprawl.

Parks, preserves, and numerous historical sites dot the valleys and slopes of the mountains, providing recreational and cultural activities to one of the most densely populated regions of the nation.

From near the summit of High Mountain in Wayne - in the right foreground is the eastern slope of Mount Cecchino
 (third highest peak of the Watchung Mountains)
Garret Mountain in the background (First Watchung Mountain) overlooking Paterson.

The two most prominent ridges are known as First Watchung Mountain (the southeastern ridge) and Second Watchung Mountain (the northwestern ridge). They stretch for over forty miles (64 km) from Somerville (in Somerset County) in the southwest through Morris County, Union County, Essex County, and Passaic County to Mahwah (in Bergen County) in the northeast.

The less prominent and discontinuous ridge formed by Long Hill, Riker Hill, Hook Mountain, and Packanack Mountain is sometimes referred to as Third Watchung Mountain and lies on the northwestern side of Second Watchung Mountain.

The First and Second Mountains are often erroneously referred to as Orange Mountain and Preakness Mountain. "Orange" and "Preakness" more properly applies to specific geographic sections of these ridges.

Third Watchung Mountain is sometimes referred to locally as Hook Mountain.

A smaller fourth ridge exists south of Morristown and west of Third Watchung Mountain. This ridge lacks topographic prominence, only rising to about 100 ft (30 m) above the surrounding terrain and the only named portion (at Harding Township) is known as Lees Hill.

The original inhabitants of the Watchungs were the Native American Lenape. They referred to the mountains as the Wach Unks, or ‘high hills’. Evidence of the Lenape presence in the Watchungs can be seen in numerous camps sites that have been uncovered, mainly along the rivers coursing through mountains and in the small caves abundant in the volcanic rock.

It is thought the Lenape favored the Watchungs for their profusion of natural resources, including abundant freshwater rivers and streams, a variety of forests, and plentiful fish and game. They also took advantage of the rich soils and maintained many farm areas where they raised a variety of seasonal crops.

With the arrival of Europeans, the rivers and streams of the Watchungs also supported grain, grist, and saw mills. Later, the energy of these rivers would be harnessed for industry, most notably at the Great Falls of the Passaic River, where mechanical and hydroelectric systems exploited the energy of water falling over the face of First Watchung Mountain.

During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington used the protection of the Watchung mountains to erect the first and second Middlebrook encampment. This position on the high ground also allowed him to monitor the area between Perth Amboy and New Brunswick as well as to identify and disturb British movements between Manhattan and Philadelphia.

During World War Two, an anti-aircraft gun emplacement was made in Mills Reservation (Cedar Grove & Montclair) at the lookout point on the cliffs overlooking New York City. All that remains of this today is a circular cement platform.

In the twentieth century, the Hilltop in Verona, the highest point in Essex County, served as the site of a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. The county hospital was built there because the high elevation provided clean, mountain air away from the cities to the east.

At the height of the Cold War, Campgaw Mountain was selected to house a Nike missile base. Installed on the mountain between 1955 and 1971, the base’s missiles served to guard New York City air space, standing by to intercept nuclear armed Soviet bombers. The facility ultimately was abandoned with the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Two other missile sites were nestled into the forests atop peaks in Mountainside and Morris Township, creating a triangle of redundant sites.

NYC skyline seen from Mills Reservation, First Watchung Mountain

There are many parks and recreational areas to visit along the Watchung Mountains.

Campgaw Mountain Reservation (First and Second Watchung Mountain) is the northernmost ridge of the Watchungs and its northern terminus is the Ramapo Mountains, near the New York border. A shallow gap separates its southern end from Preakness Mountain and Goffle Hill.

Preakness Mountain comprises part of the northern extent of Second Watchung Mountain between the Passaic River and Campgaw Mountain.[ Along with Packanack Mountain (part of Third Watchung Mountain) to the west, Preakness Mountain forms the Preakness Range. The three highest peaks of the Watchungs are located in this range.

Great Falls State Park in Paterson is on First Watchung Mountain.

Nearby Garret Mountain Reservation is 568 acre park located within the Borough of Woodland Park (formerly West Paterson), although it also extends into the cities of Paterson and Clifton. The reservation covers the northernmost part of the First Watchung Mountain and reaches over 500 feet (152 m) above sea level.

Continuing along the Watchung Mountains, popular locations include:
* Mills Reservation, First Watchung Mountain
* Hilltop Reservation, Second Watchung Mountain
* Eagle Rock Reservation, First Watchung Mountain
* Riker Hill Park, Riker Hill (Third Watchung Mountain)
* South Mountain Reservation, First and Second Watchung Mountain
* Watchung Reservation, First and Second Watchung Mountain
* Washington Rock State Park, First Watchung Mountain
* Washington Valley Park, First Watchung Mountain
* Leonard J. Buck Garden/Moggy Hollow Natural Area, Second Watchung Mountain

Cushetunk Mountain

Cushetunk Mountain is a horsehoe-shaped mountain located in Readington and Clinton Township, New Jersey.

It was formerly known as Mount Ployden, Pickel's Mountain and occasionally as Mount Cushetunk or Coshanton. The Lenape called the mountain "Cushetunk" meaning "place of hogs" after the wild hogs that were found there.

Before the arrival of Europeans, Cushetunk Mountain was inhabited by Unami speaking Lenape, particularly the Musconetcongs who ranged between Cushetunk Mountain and Sourland Mountain to the south. An interesting claim put forward by Beauchamp Plantagenet, one of the first Europeans to explore the area around the mountain, states that a Native American king held his seat in a place resembling the valley formed by Cushetunk Mountain. The claim exists today as a legend, and no evidence has ever been found confirming Plantagenet’s story of a ‘Raritan king’.

In the 1960s, the valley at the heart of the mountain was dammed and filled with water to create Round Valley Reservoir.

The mountain’s U-shaped arc is approximately two miles in diameter, with the more massive portion of the mountain occupying the southwest corner of the ridgeline. The man-made lake, Round Valley Reservoir, occupies the valley at the center of the horseshoe.


Cushetunk Mountain is occasionally referred to as a mountain range and includes Round Mountain, a 610 foot peak located about a mile and a half south of Cushetunk Mountain in Readington. Round Mountain is linked to Cushetunk Mountain by a sheet of intruded diabase rock running beneath the surface.

Two famous names from New Jersey’s colonial history owned land on the north slope of Cushetunk Mountain in Potterstown (part of Readington and Clinton Township). One was John Stevens, a delegate to the Continental Congress, whose grandson founded Stevens Institute of Technology. The other was Lord Stirling, an American Revolutionary War General who was ranked 3rd or 4th behind George Washington.


Contrary to popular belief, the ring-like shape of the mountain does not represent a crater, particularly since the mountain was formed primarily within the Earth. Instead, the mountain’s shape seems to be the result of an intruding sheet of magma becoming dramatically flexed as it penetrated local strata.

While most of the mountain ridges in New Jersey run generally north to south, Cushetunk Mountain primarily has an east-west ridge orientation because of the elongated north and south prongs of its horseshoe-like ridge. This produces significantly different microclimates between the north facing and south facing slopes of the mountain.

Because the north slope of the mountain is cooler and shaded, moisture is more easily retained. This results in larger trees, as well as the growth of trees not seen on southern facing slopes. These trees include black birch, tulip tree, white ash, basswood, hickory, beech, and sugar maple. Shrubs are abundant in the understory of the northern slopes, as well as herbs typical of more northern forests, including wild ginger, wild sarsaparilla, black snakeroot, and columbine.

On the warmer, dryer southern slopes chestnut oak and red oak prevail, although the trees are also common to the northern slopes. In the understory, dogwood is dominant, and the diversity and number of shrubs is reduced. Grasses and sedges are the most prevalent ground cover.

Wildlife supported by Cushetunk Mountain includes a variety of woodland birds, including a nesting pair of bald eagles. Groundwater seeps, particularly on the northern slopes, provide habitat to amphibians, while outcrops of trap rock offer ideal environments for small reptiles.

Further Along on the Watchung Mountains

This post concludes our virtual walk along the parks and reservations of the Watchung Mountains.

We pick up the trail in Washington Rock State Park which is a 52-acre (210,000 m2) state park on top the first Watchung Mountain in Green Brook Township, New Jersey. The park is operated by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry and is currently being managed by the Somerset County Park Commission. It is open daily sunrise to sunset.

It is famous for the scenic overlook which was used by General George Washington in 1777 to monitor British troop movements when the Continental Army was stationed at the Middlebrook encampment. The 30-mile (48 km) panoramic vista covers the eastern plains of New Jersey up to New York City, making it a valuable lookout point during the American Revolution. General Washington used it in June of 1777 when the British army under General William Howe was moving toward Westfield. From the vantage point of this natural rock outcropping, General Washington was able to instruct his troops to circle behind Howe’s troops and cut off their retreat.

One of the oldest state parks in New Jersey, Washington Rock was originally purchased in 1913 to commemorate the historical events of 1777. Situated on top of Watchung Mountain, the park is a popular site for easy walks, picnicking and relaxation.

Closely connected is Washington Valley Park. This 715-acre (2.89 km2) public park is between the first and second Watchung mountain ridge in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater Township. It is also administered by the Somerset County Park Commission.

This partially developed park has a western and eastern section separated by the Bound Brook Gap with the Chimney Rock Road that connects Bound Brook with Martinsville. The terrain is rocky and mountainous and covered with pine and hemlock.

At the center of the western section of the park is the 21-acre (85,000 m2) Washington Valley Reservoir. The reservoir was created in 1920 when the western branch of the Middle Brook was dammed. (Its former name was the Bound Brook/Elizabeth Reservoir.) The eastern section of the park has the much smaller East Branch Reservoir and the Buttermilk Falls of the eastern branch of the Middle Brook.

Adjacent to the park is the Chimney Rock Quarry built atop the old Chimney Rock Copper Mine (a.k.a. Bound Brook Quarry or Washington Mine).  There are still copper mines over 165 feet deep and active mining continues today. Copper from here was used to mold a small brass cannon later used at the siege of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War. There is also still calcite mined from the Chimney Rock Quarry and marble and granite taken from this area.

The reservoirs have no boat access but are of interest to anglers. Species that can be caught include largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and yellow perch.

The park contains numerous trails that are used by hikers and mountain bikers.

At an outcropping of the first Watchung mountain ridge is Chimney Rock Hawk Watch. In the fall, the area is visited by birdwatchers to observe the annual southward migration of species including broad-winged hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, bald eagles and golden eagles. Hawk watching lasts from early September into November, the second half of September being the peak time.

The eastern part of the park was the site of a military fortification that was used by the Continental Army near the site of the 1777-78 Middlebrook encampment. Remnants can be found in the shape of earth walls. A look-out point is preserved that was used to observe movements of the British Army in the plains towards New Brunswick.

Two more areas to visit that are connected brings our walk to a close. The Leonard J. Buck Garden and the Moggy Hollow Natural Area are our last stops along the Second Watchung Mountain.

The Moggy Hollow Natural Area is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) nature preserve near Far Hills in Somerset County. It's an area of geologic interest. The area was designated a National Natural Landmark in January 1970.

As the Wisconsin Glacier advanced and ancient Glacial Lake Passaic formed, it deepened to 240 feet until it found an outlet to spill over at Moggy Hollow. From here the water drained to the Raritan river.

The ledge of harder basaltic rock at 331 feet (101 m) above sea level served as a spillway for Lake Passaic carving a deep ravine out of the softer soil as the lake drained. Moggy Hollow remained the main outlet as the glacier retreated due to natural debris dams until Little Falls and Paterson (Passaic County) emerged from the ice.

This 20-acre property adjacent to the North Branch of the Raritan River and the Far Hills Fairgrounds is a testament to the beauty of once-unchanged floodplains of the region. The floodplain is forested with a mixture of Oak, Maple, and some outstanding Sycamore trees. It is an excellent place to spot Kingfishers or Great Blue Heron. A trail runs parallel to the river and fishing is allowed in the trout-stocked waters.

The woodland and bog have ecological value, providing a diverse mixture of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plant species. But this is not an especially visitor-friendly site. The terrain is very steep and hazardous. Rocky slopes abruptly meet the bog, and walking is difficult, but worth the challenge for those who are interested in glacial geology.
The property is owned and managed by the Upper Raritan Watershed Association. Most of the current site was donated to the association in 1967 by J. Malcolm Belcher, a former mayor of Far Hills, on behalf of the Belcher family.

The ravine is located adjacent to and above the Leonard J. Buck Garden. Visitors can either ask to cross the Buck garden to reach the lower portion of the ravine, or park above on Liberty Corner Road to access the top of the ledge.

The garden is one of the premier rock gardens in the United States. It features native and exotic plants displayed in a naturalistic setting of woodland, streams, and rock outcroppings. A wooded, rocky ravine is home to numerous wildflowers interspersed among flowering trees and shrubs.

The best and most popular time to visit is in the spring.

The Garden began in the 1930s when geologist Leonard J. Buck, a trustee of the New York Botanical Garden, met landscape architect Zenon Schreiber and the two created varying exposures and microclimates.

The garden is sculpted from the glacial stream valley where waterfalls once cascaded, leaving behind rock faces, outcroppings, ponds and a stream. After Mr. Buck's death in 1974, the garden was donated by Mrs. Buck to the Somerset County Park Commission and was opened up to the public in 1977. A small donation is requested.

The plantings are extensive and include aconite, anemone, azalea, beech, birch, bloodroot, boxwood, Chinese fringe tree, columbine, cyclamen, daffodils, Dawn redwood, dogwoods, enkianthus, forget-me-nots, forsythia, geraniums, grape hyacinth, heathers, herbs, hornbeam, hydrangea, Japanese maple, Japanese painted fern, Japanese peonies, Labrador violets, magnolias, mahonia, maidenhair fern, maples, mountain laurel, narcissus, oak, ostrich ferns, primroses, rhododendron, saxifrage, shagbark hickory, Siberian squill, skimmia, snowbell, star magnolia, sweet woodruff, trillium, viburnum, violets, Virginia bluebells, and wind anemones. You can check their website to see what is in bloom during this season.

Snake Hill

Snake Hill seen from the Laurel Hill Park

Snake Hill (known officially as Laurel Hill) is a 150 foot tall (46 m) rock sticking up in the middle of the Meadowlands. This igneous rock intrusion jutting up from the floor of the Meadowlands in Secaucus, New Jersey is the site of a glacial lake, Lake Hackensack, that only started receding in 8000 B.C. The rock along the Hackensack River bank is the highest point on Laurel Hill which was formed by volcanic action over 150 million years ago.

In Colonial times, people kept away from the peculiar sloped hill because of the many large black snakes found there and the area was nicknamed “Snake Hill.”

From 1855 to 1962 there were Hudson County penal and charitable institutions on Snake Hill. The Almshouse, Penitentiary, Quarry and Hospital for the Insane, Contagious Diseases Hospital, and Tuberculosis Sanatorium, were all grouped on the north side of Snake Hill. Hundreds of people lived at Snake Hill at any given time. The Hudson County Burial Grounds is a Potter's Field associated with the numerous institutions, which had long been forgotten. They were unearthed during the addition to the New Jersey Turnpike for access to Secaucus Junction at exit 15X.

In 1962 Hudson County finished closing their facilities on the site. The County entered into a 20 year contract with Callanan Industries to level much of the hill and the rock formation was largely obliterated by quarrying in the 1960s that reduced its height by one-quarter and its base area by four fifths. The diabase rock was used as building material in growing areas like Jersey City. In the 1960s and 70's, Gallo Asphalt had 4 asphalt plants, side by side, adjacent to the quarry and supplied paving materials throughout the surrounding urban region. Production ended in 1982.

The graffiti-covered remains of Snake Hill are a familiar landmark to travelers on the New Jersey Turnpike's Eastern Spur, which skirts its southern edge.

The rock is most often referred to as Laurel or Snake Hill (Slangenbergh in Dutch) but has also been called Fraternity Rock (because of the Greek letters painted on it presumably by local college fraternities), Long Neck (because it is a volcanic neck), Graffiti Rock and Mt. Pinhorne (after 17th century plantation owner William Pinhorne). The name changed from Snake Hill to Laurel Hill in 1926, when Hudson County freeholder Katherine Whelan Brown said that it was the "crowning Laurel of Hudson County" because of its unusual height prominence in the low lying meadowlands.

Most of the original 184-acre (0.74 km2) parcel is currently being utilized as Laurel Hill County Park, which includes a portion of Hackensack RiverWalk.

Laurel Hill Park is home to the Hackensack Riverkeeper's Field Office and Paddling Center. The Hackensack Riverkeeper also conducts many of its Eco-Cruises from this park.

There is a narrow Ridge Trail along the top of the hill.

View from Ridge Trail atop Snake Hill

The rock is a 61 meter (203 ft) high pipe-like diabase intrusive, which is believed to be an offshoot of the nearby Palisades Sill. It may have been what is known as a volcano plug. Mineralized shales and sandstones, intruded by the diabase, are visible in the north and southwest sections of the property.

Legend has it that a NY advertising executive, passing the hill on a train, is said to have drawn from it the inspiration for the Prudential "Rock of Gibraltar" logo in the 1890s.

The mineral Petersite was discovered at Snake Hill in June 1981 by Nicholas Facciolla, who took it to the Paterson Museum. In 1982 the mineral was recognized as a new discovery and named for Thomas Peters and Joseph Peters curators of minerals at the Paterson, New Jersey, museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, respectively.


Birding, paddling and wildlife trail walking is available at Laurel Hill County Park & Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area. The Saw Mill Creek Trail takes you near the vast mudflat and wide-open space of the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The base of the trail was initially built in the 1920’s and 1930’s as an access road for what are now high tension electric lines. It was reconstructed as a walking trail in 2001. Stone and soil were added, and six seating areas were incorporated. Native plants were used
and there are beautifully-designed entrance gates at the trailheads.

Laurel Hill Park is home to the Hackensack Riverkeeper's Field Office and Paddling Center, which is open weekends from April thru October and weekdays by appointment. Hackensack Riverkeeper also conducts many of its Eco-Cruises from this park.

During this winter season, hiding along the channels and main creek, using the reeds as windbreaks on cold winter days, you will find Common and Hooded Mergansers, Common Pintail, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead, Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals, Canada Goose and Mute Swan, some of which also breed in the Meadowlands. A glance at the electrical towers near the Turnpike may turn up a Peregrine Falcon or Red-tailed Hawk. Look across the marsh where the vegetation has died back and see the 3-foot tall dome-shaped lodges made by the common muskrat. Great Cormorants and Bald Eagles may also be seen.

Directions: Follow County Avenue south from Secaucus. Bear right on New County Road just before the New Jersey Turnpike overpass. Follow for about one mile past the county jail complex (on the left) into Laurel Hill Park. Get driving directions via Google Maps

Sources:

• www.hudsoncountynj.org/county-park-system.aspx
• njmeadowlands.gov
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Hill

A Billion Years Ago in New Jersey

How old are the oldest rocks in New Jersey and where are they located?

Geologists know that the rocks in the mountains of North Jersey’s Highlands are the remnants of ancient Appalachian Mountains that at one time rivaled the Rocky Mountains.

It has been accepted that they are the oldest in the state at about a billion years old.

But the actual dating wasn't known precisely until the New Jersey Geological Survey, within the Department of Environmental Protection, teamed up with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Australian National University in a project funded by private grants to provide the most precise dating ever of New Jersey’s oldest rocks.

Rocks collected from the Highlands were analyzed using a highly sophisticated dating technique at the Australian National University. The technique allowed researchers to date the rocks to within nine million years of certainty, a degree of specificity never attained before.

The NJ Highlands at the Wanaque Reservoir

 
They found that the rocks are actually quite a bit older than the generalized billion-year-old estimate ascribed to them. Most of the rocks fell in a range of 1.02 billion to 1.25 billion years old, but a narrow belt stretching from Wanaque to Ringwood was dated at 1.37 billion years old, making these the oldest rocks in New Jersey.

“Unraveling the geologic history of the New Jersey Highlands from the age of bedrock obviously is interesting to scientists,” said State Geologist Karl Muessig. “But it also has practical applications for environmental risk assessment. For example, potassium-rich granites of a certain age in the Highlands contain higher concentrations of radioactive elements than most other granites and are likely to produce higher radon levels in soil and water. More precise mapping of these granites will help better identify areas that may pose greater public health risks from radon.”

Geologists have long understood that the mountains of the Highlands were formed during a mountain-building period known as the Grenville Orogeny, which occurred about a billion years ago.

Amazingly, this was a time when land that is now part of South America was adjacent to what is today New Jersey.

“Rocks of the New Jersey Highlands form the roots of the ancestral Appalachian Mountains that were formed during a collision of continental land masses about one billion years ago,” Volkert said. “The result of this mountain-building event uplifted the earth’s crust in eastern North America, including the Highlands, to heights rivaling the present-day Rocky Mountains.”

Hundreds of millions of years of weathering have left erosion-resistant granite and gneiss that form the rugged ridges and steep-sided hills that are characteristic of the Highlands region. But the wearing-away occurred unevenly, meaning the rocks that you see jutting from a hillside or at a valley floor - or even just a short distance from each other - are likely to be of differing ages.

When you consider that it has only been 65 million years since the extinction of the dinosaurs, and 200 million years since continental drift and plate tectonics opened up the Atlantic Ocean, the age of the rocks is awe inspiring.

via http://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2010/10_0137.htm

Pyramid Mountain and Tripod Rock

The Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area is a good day trip hike (it's more than a "walk"). I think it's best known for Tripod Rock. The rock is a huge, 160-ton boulder naturally balanced on three smaller boulders. Here's a nice spot for a geology lesson if you are with children. The four rocks were deposited there by the Wisconsin Glacier over 18,000 years ago. The park also has the less well known Bear Rock which is one of the largest glacial erratics in New Jersey.

Go ahead and climb on top and join the thousands of people who have taken photographs there. Take a snack break, and think about how the glaciers pushed through New Jersey during the last ice age. It's pretty awesome (in the true sense of awe) to think of the huge chunks of sedimentary rocks there that were split and carried by the glacial movements.

I have heard and read (but with no confirmation) that Tripod Rock was a place used by the Lenape, NJ’s Native Americans, for summer solstice celebrations.

Pyramid Mountain is located in Kinnelon, Morris County and is about 1500 acres of trails, forests and wetlands. It has several unobstructed views of the New York City skyline.

Though people have been visiting the area for thousands of years, it was only established in 1987 as the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area to protect it from development.

Along the way (depending on the trail you choose), there are old stone ruins, a seasonal waterfall, 100 species of birds and 30 species of mammals including black bears, beavers and the very elusive and endangered bobcat.

Comments on several websites by birders list eagles, herons, egrets, vultures, red hawks, scarlet tanagers, yellow warblers, indigo buntings, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers and black-capped chickadees.

There is a nice diversity of habitat including blueberry patches, rhododendrons, chestnut oaks, American beech trees, and holly shrubs.

The area is important for supplying water to downstream reservoirs and replenishing area aquifers.

You can do hikes that loop around for about 3-5 miles that are moderately difficult - mostly because of a few steep and rocky sections like Lucy’s Overlook and the actual Pyramid Mountain. Otherwise, I would consider it good for beginning hikers. For a longer hike, you might connect with the trails on  Turkey Mountain.

There is a visitor center, a small parking lot and a trail kiosk that should have trail maps. 

If you live in the area, you might consider some of the volunteer opportunities at the park.

There is a map online to get you started.

For more details on a 4 mile-3 hour loop hike that passes the Taylortown Reservoir (popular fishing spot too), Tripod Rock and Bear Rock and has two panoramic viewpoints, look at the page on the nynjtc.org site.

Calendar of Events at Pyramid Mountain




Video by http://www.njhiking.com

Riker Hill Park

Riker Hill is a 204.68-acre complex off Beaufort Avenue located in the western section of Essex County in Roseland and is composed of three parts: 1) The Riker Hill Art Park, a 42-acre former US Nike missile tracking base, acquired in 1977. Its former army barracks are now occupied by artists, sculptors and craftsmen; 2) Dinosaur Park, a fossil site of 16 acres (6.5 ha) at the border between Roseland and Livingston. It is one of the major sites in United States where a large number of dinosaur tracks are preserved. It was acquired in 1970 and 3) Becker Park, a 147-acre tract of undeveloped parkland that was purchased in 1969 in part through the Green Acres Program.

Riker Hill Art Park was a United States Army Nike Missile Base in the 1950's. The tract was purchased from the federal government for one [$1.00] dollar, in 1974. The buildings that once housed army facilities have been converted to art studios where sculpture, painting, photography, and various crafts now flourish.

Not only does Riker Hill Art Park provide a unique opportunity for local artists to work together in a communal setting, but it is the only self-supporting park in the park system. The art studios rented to the artists, along with art instruction, the gallery, and concerts held there, produce revenues for the County that help support the cost of the park's operation.

Originally, the site was part of a 55 acre Roseland Quarry owned by the Kidde Company. (There is still quarrying nearby.) In 1968, dinosaur tracks were discovered at the quarry. A 14-year-old named Paul E. Olsen who lived in Livingston started visiting the site with his friend Tony Lessa. They eventually uncovered more than one thousand dinosaur, animal and insect tracks from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic period over the course of several years.

Paul and Tony helped get the Riker Hill Fossil Site named a National Natural Landmark. The two teens thought that one way to prevent the site from being developed was to send a cast from a footprint of Eubrontes Giganteus to President Richard Nixon to get his support.

Cast of Eubrontes giganteus track by Paul Olsen (1970)
Photo taken at National Archives, Washington, D.C.(2009) via wikimedia.org/

Two happy endings to the story. First, the quarry was divided and the most productive portion was preserved and donated to Essex County Park Commission and named after Walter Kidde. It was declared a National Natural Landmark in June 1971. The rest of the quarry was later developed into the Nob Hill apartment complex.

The second happy ending is that young Paul Olsen grew up to become an actual paleontologist.

He studied and wrote about where he grew up too. The Newark Group, also known as the Newark Supergroup, is the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic sedimentary rocks which outcrop intermittently from Nova Scotia to North Carolina that is named for the city of Newark, New Jersey.

The red rock beds that he explored feature ripple marks, mud cracks, and even rain drop prints. Dinosaur footprints are common, though actual body fossils are very rare. The beds dip to the east, while the faults dip westward.

These beds of sedimentary rock are intruded by numerous dikes and sills made from igneous activity like lava and magma flows. The New Jersey Palisades sill is a huge example of that.

The Passaic Formation was previously known as the Brunswick Formation since it was first described in the vicinity of New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is now named for the city of Passaic, New Jersey, which is near where its type section was described by paleontologist and Professor Paul Olsen.

I took my son's Scout troop to Riker Hill more than a decade ago and explained that we were basically standing at the edge of glacial Lake Passaic where lava from deep within the Earth once flowed and where dinosaurs may have once stood to drink from the lake.

Following these USGS Directions, from Interstate 280 westbound, take Exit 4A and turn south on Eisenhower Parkway. Drive 1.1 miles and turn left onto Beaufort Avenue. After another 0.4 mile turn left onto the entrance road to Riker Hill Park. Drive up hill and park at the Geology Museum. Follow the trail from the museum parking past the ruins of a Nike missile platform, and down hill through the woods about .25 miles to an abandoned stone quarry.

You will see fresh exposures of sedimentary red beds of the Early Jurassic Towaco Formation. They consist of layered shale and intervening sandstone that preserves a variety of sedimentary structures like ripple marks, mud cracks and even trace fossils (rare dinosaur tracks which are very tiny).

It is illegal to remove anything, especially fossils, from the area.

About 200 feet further, there is a high wall of basalt, which is an igneous rock intrusion feature. Though the red rocks you see there are sedimentary rocks, this igneous rock was formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.

• Riker Hill Complex
• USGS description of site
• Map of site
• Hiking directions

Earth Science Week October 10-16

The American Geological Institute (AGI) invites teachers and students to take part in Earth Science Week 2010 during October 10-16.

Earth Science Week 2010 will encourage people everywhere to explore the natural world and learn about the geosciences.

“Exploring Energy,” the theme of Earth Science Week 2010, will engage young people and the public in learning about Earth's energy reources.

Since October 1998, the American Geological Institute has organized this national and international event to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the Earth Sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth.

Click on the following links to see the many ways that everyone can participate in Earth Science Week.

• Mission and Theme:
  Check out the Earth Science Week mission and objectives.
• Events Near You:
  Find Earth Science Week events in your community.
• Earth Science Week Newsletter:
  Read our newsletter.
  
• Past Earth Science Week Highlights:
  Look at what went on during past Earth Science Weeks.
• Future Dates:
  Link here to information about future Earth Science Week dates and themes.
• Our Sponsors:
  AGI would like to extend a special thank you to all who have provided support for Earth Science Week.
• Order an Earth Science Week Toolkit!

 AGI hosts Earth Science Week in cooperation with sponsors as a service to the public and the geoscience community. Each year, local groups, educators, and interested individuals organize celebratory events. Earth Science Week offers opportunities to discover the Earth sciences and engage in responsible stewardship of the Earth. The program is supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, the National Park Service, the AAPG Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, ExxonMobil, ESRI, and other geoscience groups.

Geological Hike at Haney's Mill

The Delaware Water Gap is bounded by Mt. Minsi in Pennsylvania and Mt. Tammany in New Jersey. Once touted as a scenic Wonder of the World, it is an impressive site when motoring through on Interstate 80 or viewed from the overlooks along Rt. 611 on the Pennsylvania side.

Before the Gap formed. Mt. Minsi and Mt. Tammany formed one continuous ridge -- the Kittatinny Ridge, along which the Appalachian Trail runs through the park today. Here at the Gap, this ridge is composed of two different sedimentary rock formations: the Shawangunk Formation, and the Bloomsburg Redbeds.

Haney’s Mill in in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area of New Jersey, and it offers beautiful view and an interesting geologically-themed hike that allows you to walk back 430 million years. (That should impress the kids.)

via http://www.geocaching.com

The presence of limestone not far from the sandstones and shales on neighboring Kittatinny Mountain, is evidence of environmental changes that occurred in this region over millions of years.

If you look up and to the west, you’ll see the crest and western flank of Kittatinny Mountain. The rocks you see on Kittatinny Mountain are older than the limestones in the outcrop there.

The gray, white and red rocks on Kittatinny Mountain, called sandstones and shales, formed from sediments that were deposited in rivers and shallow marine environments. The light gray rocks where you will be hiking are limestones, formed under different conditions, in the quieter waters of lagoons and intertidal zones.

The gray sandstones are middle Silurian in age, approximately 430 million years old. They formed from quartz-rich sediments left behind by fast-moving rivers that once flowed through the Taconic Mountains. The Taconic Mountains were part of a mountain range that once existed to the east and north of this site, but have since eroded away.

Over several million years, conditions changed, and the environment became more tranquil. Slow-moving rivers carried less sand and clay to the coast, and the coastal waters became clear. Slowly the type of sediment that formed in the marine waters changed from river-supplied sand and clay to limestone formed by marine animals.


THE TRAIL: A footpath, located across Capner Street, can be accessed through the paved parking lot on the north side of the park. The entrance to the footpath is just before the electrical transfer station adjacent to the Morales Nature Preserve. Once on the footpath, proceed north approximately 50 yards, until you see a path to the right angling down toward the brook. The exposures run north-south along the brook.

You can park in the small dirt lot just south of the bridge over Flat Brook.

This is a popular fly-fishing spot too.



Information for Teachers and Lifelong Learners:
http://www.nps.gov/dewa/forteachers/curriculummaterials.htm
http://www.njgeology.org/
DELAWARE WATER GAP  (Images of America)
When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey
When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey

Two Hundred Million Years Ago in New Jersey

Time travel back about two hundred million years ago in your time machine that is sitting in Mine Brook Park (Flemington, NJ). When the dials stop, you would find yourself in a rifting Pangaea amidst volcanic activity that is occurring throughout New Jersey.

Okay, we don't have a time machine, but if you take note of the rock exposures along the Walnut Brook and many other locations in NJ, you can read the story of our state's geologic past.

Pangaea (see map) is a term that comes from Ancient Greek "pan" meaning "entire" and Gaia meaning "Earth" and is used to the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago before the component continents were separated into their current configuration.

Throughout the history of the planet, Earth's plates have merged together then split and drifted apart. This action is a byproduct of a well-known geologic theory called plate tectonics. This theory states that the Earth's surface is broken up into roughly 20 or so giant pieces of rigid crustal plates that carry the oceans and continents with them as they move slowly around the planet.

It's a topic that hasn't just been for classroom study lately with the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile - and even a few small ones in Somerset County, NJ recently.

In New Jersey, earthquakes are measured with seismographs operated by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Delaware Geological Survey. New Jersey doesn't get many earthquakes, but it does get a few small ones.

Pangaea was cracking apart or "rifting" and as the North American Plate moved westward, separating from what is now Africa, volcanic activity deep in the earth was triggered. The rift would lead to the formation of the Atlantic Ocean.

The magma (molten rock) that erupted on the surface as a lava flow eventually cooled and solidified to form the igneous rock called basalt that is known as the Orange Mountain Basalt.

Along Walnut Brook, you can see the contact points between the basalt and the older red shale of the Passaic Formation. That older red shale is from lake sediment deposits which was covered by the lava flow.


Want to try a geocaching trip to Walnut Brook? (or just get direction and more info) Check out http://www.geocaching.com