NYSGA 2023
New York State Geological Association
94th Annual Meeting
Field Trip Guidebook
Hosted by
SUNY Brockport
Brockport, NY
September 16, 2023
Produced by
Meeting Organizer: Daisuke Kobayashi
Field Trip Guide Editors: Nandini Kar and Daisuke Kobayashi
2023 NYSGA Executive Secretary: Alexander Bartholomew
Published by the
www.nysgaonline.org

2023 Trip 1 Symbiotic Relationships Among Benthic Invertebrates from the Ludlowville and Moscow Formations (Hamilton Group) in New York State - A Closer look at Faunal Interactions
Stephen Mayer
Paleontological Research Institution
Ithaca, NY
Carlton E. Brett
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
ABSTRACT
Paleontologists and amateurs alike are privileged to collect fossils within the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, among the best-preserved Devonian fossils worldwide. The paleontological record preserved in these sediments of western and central New York includes remarkable specimens of cnidaria, brachiopods, bryozoans, gastropods, trilobites and echinoderms, including crinoids and blastoids. Both the fossils and lithostratigraphic units have been studied for well over 150 years (Hall, 1843, Hall, 1861, Grabau, 1899, Baird, 1979, Brett et al., 1986, Brett et al., 2013, Zapalski, 2014, Vinn, 2017 and numerous others). Fossils from the dense and diverse assemblages also illustrate some of the best documented cases of interactions among ancient organisms including examples of overgrowths, commensalism, parasitism and predation that have been studied for more than a century (see Clarke, 1908). This field trip and accompanying guidebook paper will provide a look at some of the more interesting species and their interactions in some key fossiliferous, stratigraphic intervals of the Ludlowville and Moscow Formations, Hamilton Group, including the Centerfield Limestone, Jaycox Shale, Deep Run Shale and Kashong Shale members.

1 Symbiotic Relationships Among Benthic Invertebrates from the Ludlowville and Moscow Formations (Hamilton Group) in New York State - A Closer look at Faunal Interactions

Meeting Place

Walmart Meeting Point

STOP 1 Unnamed Creek South of Hall Road - Deep Run Shale Member
The first cutbank immediately upstream from (east of) Route 364 bridge exposes the Cottage City Coral Beds. This is the upper of two coral beds within the Jaycox Shale Member, which yields a high diversity of taxa including large Heliophyllum halli and favositid corals, brachiopods, bryozoans and pelmatozoans in a calcareous mudstone. This unit records a shallow water facies (Mayer, 1989); the varied and abundant fossils suggest that symbiotic interactions must have occurred between the living organisms. The Cottage City Coral Beds and approximately 2 feet of succeeding Jaycox Member shales are disconformably overlain by the Tichenor Limestone, which marks the base of the Moscow Formation and, in turn, grades upward into the Kipp Road Bed of the Deep Run Shale Member.
The Kipp Road Beds are the focus of Stop #1 where we will concentrate our search for symbionts in about 4-5 ft. of highly fossiliferous calcareous shales. Particularly evident are the very abundant rhizome-like stems of the camerate crinoids Dolatocrinus liratus and Megistocrinus depressus, which overlap one another throughout the unit. Moreover, fragile crinoids belonging to the superorder Flexibilia, including Taxocrinus lobatus are occasionally found with platyceratid gastropods attached to the crinoid tegmen (see discussion above). Another crinoid species, Synaptocrinus nuntius also occurs in this unit, but less frequently. One specimen of this crinoid was found with parasitic boreholes covering the crown. The most remarkable crinoid discovered thus far (Figure 12) belongs to the subclass Inadunata. George McIntosh, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Curator Emeritus, (pers. comm) has identified it as Poteriocrinites multicosta (Goldring, 1954), but also observed that the ornamentation is slightly different than others he has seen. Therefore, he believes that it could be a new undescribed species.
Complete blastoid fossils are uncommon, although intact theca, are occasionally encountered. Like crinoids, they had a cylindrical stem or column attached to the seafloor by a holdfast. It is likely that blastoid stems are mixed together with crinoid stems in the Kipp Road Beds but due to their similarities are very difficult to distinguish. Three species Devonoblastus leda Hall,1862, Nucleocrinus powelli Reimann, 1935 and Eleutherocrinus cassedayi Shumard and Yan, 1855 occur infrequently in these shale layers.
Platyceratid gastropods Naticonema lineata and Platyceras sp. are found attached to or in very close proximity to these various pelmatozoans suggesting parasitic and/or commensalistic relationship. Furthermore, the corals Heliophyllum halli and Favosites sp. as well as brachiopods, bryozoans and pelecypods are encountered in the Kipp Road Beds each exhibiting different symbiotic interactions as described in the discussion above. Lastly, proetid and phacopid trilobites occur throughout the beds and together with all the other phyla formed a complex interrelated ecosystem.

STOP 2 Reeder Creek - Centerfield Limestone Member
One interesting piece of history, albeit only 223 years old, is the ruins of the grist mill (Figure 13) standing adjacent to Reeder Creek. The mill was built in 1800 by Benjamin Dey, a land surveyor, who was granted the land by Cayuga County a few years earlier (Gable, 2015). He also constructed the first house in Romulus in 1794. Then Benjamin Dey passed away in 1824 and the property was willed to his son Alexander H. Dey, who sold the property to Dr. Henry Reeder, for whom the creek was later named. Dr. Reeder died November 14, 1880 and is buried in the West Fayette Cemetery.
Fissile, medium gray shales of the Centerfield Member are exposed along Reeder Creek. Several species of rugose corals including common Heliophyllum halli, Heterophrentis simplex and Eridophyllum subcaespitosum are easily found in the shales whereas the tabulate coral Favosites are much less abundant. Fossil assemblages also contain numerous phacopid trilobites, Eldredgeops and Greenops, various brachiopods including Athyris, Protodouvillina, Mediospirifer, Mucrospirifer and Rhipidomella, fenestrate bryozoans and the platyceratid gastropods Platyceras and Naticonema. These species and many others interacted with each other and their environment constituting a dynamic ecosystem.

STOP 3 Indian Creek - Kashong Member
Indian Creek is structurally complex with at least 2 faults cutting diagonally across the main channel. As a result of these faults the topmost few inches of the Deep Run Member are exposed near the fork between north and south branches of Indian Creek. In turn, these lowest beds are overlain by the Menteth, Kashong and Windom Members of the Moscow Formation. At this stop, we will concentrate on the Kashong Shale Member and in particular the RC Bed and shales immediately below it.
Immediately east of (upstream from) the bridge over Indian Creek near its mouth at Seneca Lake, large irregular shaped concretions are concentrated in the West Bethany (upper) Submember of the Kashong Shale. Scattered fossils are mixed amongst the concretions suggesting this concretionary zone formed diagenetically after burial of the organisms on the substrate.
Still further upstream, at a Y-junction, a south tributary enters the main channel and exposes an unnamed mudstone layer, rich in the orthid brachiopod Tropidoleptus carinatus. Microconchid coiled worm? tubes and Hederella (formerly regarded as a bryozoan and now considered a colonial tube dwelling phoronid) commonly occur as epibionts on the convex surface of Tropidoleptus. Moreover, the examination of over 2500 brachiopods in the Hamilton Group of New York by Bordeaux and Brett (1990) revealed that Tropidoleptus carinatus and athyrids are among the most heavily encrusted shells by epibionts. This commensal relationship suggests the epibionts were aided by elevating them into a higher suspension feeding tier.
The tabulate coral Pleurodictyum americanum also commonly occurs in the unnamed Kashong mudstone layer. Another example of commensalism in the Ludlowville and Moscow Formations was demonstrated by Brett and Cottrell (1982). Their detailed research showed the tabulate coral Pleurodictyum americanum was a semiselective epifaunal organism that favored the dead shells of the gastropod Palaeozygopleura hamiltoniae (Hall, 1843), which were secondarily occupied by sipunculid worms. This strategy allowed the settlement of some larvae on mobile substrates assuring an ample supply of suspended food while remaining above the sediment-water interface as the coral grew.
The RC Bed (Rhipidomella-Centronella Bed) is a distinct 2 ft. thick ledge outcroping along most of the banks and directly above this unnamed mudstone layer in Indian Creek. Brett and Bordeaux (1990) noted that worm borings attributed to Vermiforichnus as well as encrustation by the epibionts Hederella and Microconchus (formerly Spirobis) preferentially covered the brachiopods Spinocyrtia granulosa (Conrad, 1839) and Rhipidomella spp., thus providing additional evidence of parasitism and commensalism respectively. They further interpreted the RC Bed to have recorded multiple episodes of seafloor burial followed by winnowing of sediments, as evidenced by the poor preservation of the fossils, but at any one time symbiotic relationships between several organisms prevailed. These shallow water facies tend to have fewer epibionts on most shells because the shell surfaces were exposed to corrosion which tended to erase fragile encrusters.

2023 Trip 2 Hydrologically Active Karst and Disappearing Lake Phenomenon in the Onondaga Escarpment, Western New York
Paul L Richards
SUNY Brockport
Brockport, NY,
New York State Professional Geologist No 83
ABSTRACT
Karst-related flooding and disappearing lake phenomenon are occurring between Leroy and Caledonia in an area where water tables exhibit dynamic seasonal variation. This peculiar groundwater environment resulted from the history of deglaciation which has eroded much of the unconsolidated glacial sediments, leaving behind thin, immature soils overlying fractured, karsitic, carbonate bedrock. Stream incisions and highlands to the south (Figure 1) have resulted in high potentiometric gradients and water table events that sometimes respond to individual meteorologic events. This peculiar hydrogeologic regime poses a challenge to current watershed management because of the dynamic nature of subsurface flowpaths and their potential to carry pollution. At least seven well contamination events have occurred because of manure and other pollutants entering karst features. This field trip seeks to understand this groundwater system in the Onondaga Escarpment and evaluate the cause of this flooding, much of which occurs along Route 5, the Village of Leroy, Quinlan and Britt roads.

Site 1. Quinlan Road Swallet Site
https://goo.gl/maps/VX9ATy5HsYfwXSecA
Most karst features on the Onondaga FM in this region are subtle areas of highly fractured bedrock covered by thin soils. The Quinlan Road Sinkhole site is the rare exception of a deep sinkhole that may be a collapse feature (Figures 3,4). The feature receives runoff from a drainage ditch along a nearby cropfield. During Karst-related flooding events, flow into the swallet reverses and groundwater spills out of the feature, flooding the land outside (see figures below). Floods can sometimes flood over Quinlan Road itself. The feature and its flooding were first studied by Rhinehart (2005), and then by Daniluk (2009), who monitored the water level in it for three years and compared it to local precipitation and snowpack data. Daniluk found that this feature did not respond to local meteorological events, but rather followed regional groundwater fluctuations as measured from a transducer in a groundwater monitoring well located at the LVRR plume superfund site. This well is located 4 miles East of the site and is also within a feature that is believed to be a sinkhole.

Site 2. Britt Road Flooding site Watershed area
https://goo.gl/maps/A4UUjKDSvxnZH1P7A
This site does not contain any visible karst features or sinkholes. It floods, however, whenever The Quinlan Road Swallet and the Leroy Golf Course Sinkhole floods (Figure 5). A Master’s Thesis by Simons and Voortman (2009) developed watershed models for this site and the Quinlan Road sinkhole site. Uncalibrated model simulations indicate that flood water from Britt Road is dominantly surface runoff. In contrast, simulations on Quinlan Road revealed that a high percentage of floodwater was groundwater. Due to the lack of any surface karst feature at Britt Road, the site is believed to be underlain by fractured bedrock that has low vertical conductivity. Our interpretation is that under normal circumstances, this conductivity is sufficient to keep the area drained. During karst-related flooding events, runoff and snowmelt exceed the site’s ability to accept allogenic recharge in the bedrock. When this happens, the area floods. The Keeney Road berm is believed to exasperate the flooding by keeping water from flowing East towards Oatka Creek, where, according to local residents, it re-infiltrates back into the ground.

Site 3. LVRR Spill Site (Movie-overview of the hydrology)
https://goo.gl/maps/mtdsUKAbeY1cDwHj7
This stop is located at the site of a train derailment that spilled 30,000 gallons of TCE into the Onondaga Escarpment on December 6, 1970. The spill created a four- mile-long plume that terminates at Spring Creek in the Village of Caledonia. The dynamics and shape of the plume appear to be greatly impacted by recharge coming from overlying karst features. Much of the knowledge of the at hydrology in this area has been collected through well observations and hydrologic modeling needed to understand this plume. This movie (https://youtu.be/5ZrMXOJkB6M ) synthesizes much of the scientific work carried out by the New York DEC, Unicorn Management Consultants, and students and faculty from SUNY Brockport. We will be visiting six sites along its length, starting from where Mud Creek enters the Escarpment to where this water is believed to reappear at Spring Creek.

Site 4. Mud Creek Sinkhole
https://goo.gl/maps/tn8Q1ZmtpTrmyBs46
Sites 4 and 5. Mud Creek Fracture Zone
In this region, Mud Creek is the only stream that crosses completely over the Onondaga escarpment, except for Oatka Creek. The stream flows along a major fracture trace. This narrow bedrock stream is heavily fractured and contains many small sinkholes along its length. The flow here is non-existent during most of the year, despite that it receives flow from the Dolomite Products SPDES outfall, which releases an average of 4.5 cfs continuously into it (Figure 6). It is subject to karst-related flooding in the segment overlying the Onondaga Escarpment (Figure 7). Flow from the SPDES outfall typically disappears within a hundred meters of its outfall. During events and spring runoff, the stream will flow all the way into the Mud Creek Sinkhole. We will be visiting two sites in this feature: the Mud Creek Sinkhole, which is the swallet that captures most of the flow in this system and the canyon north of Golf Road, where the character of the streambed, fractures, and smaller sinkholes can be seen.
Site 4. Mud Creek Sinkhole This large circular feature is located just north of the tunnel underlying the LVRR tracks (Figure 8). The regional water table is exposed in it. The feature receives all of the runoff from Mud Creek Watershed, which is a 30 sq km watershed. The feature was instrumented with a water level recorder in 2008 and discharge measurements before and after indicate that almost all of the water from Mud Creek watershed disappears in this feature and flows East towards Spring Creek. Only when the water table rises above it during karst flooding events, does water pass this feature and flow along Mud Creek Canyon to its outlet in Oatka Creek.

Site 5. Mud Creek Canyon
https://goo.gl/maps/gZPn7WWu6qihQtEP9
(Note: coordinates in the guidebook take you back to Site 2. This placemark was located using the linked map image).
At this site, we will walk along the exposed bedrock to see one of the many smaller “sinkholes” caused by enhanced weathering at the intersection of fractures (Figure 9). Because most of the water disappears in the Mud Creek Sinkhole, the creek bed here receives very little flow. It runs only during the most extreme snowmelt or karst-related flooding events. A study by Richards 2010 measured the flow at the outlet of Mud Creek over a two-year period and determined that virtually no flow makes it to Oatka Creek. The flow was only observed once (out of 18 measurements) during a January flooding event.

Site 6. Church Hill Road Sinkhole
https://goo.gl/maps/Q1f28DwGX85fMFCn8
(Note: coordinates in the guidebook take you back to Site 2. This placemark was located using the linked map image).
This large, deep, sinkhole is overlain by thin carbonate soils. It does not flood when karst-related flooding events take place in these other sites. A LiDAR hillshade indicates the sinkhole may have been modified through erosion by glacial meltwater moving towards the Genesee River Valley at the end of the last Glacial Retreat. NYS-DEC drilled two wells in this sinkhole in the 1990’s. When the first well (DC-7) was drilled, the driller hit a void and the borehole collapsed. As a consequence, a second well was drilled (DC-7R). Well-level measurements indicate that the vertical hydraulic gradient is generally downward. The lack of flooding in this feature suggests the sinkhole is underlain by a heavily fractured zone with enough vertical permeability to recharge any precipitation or snowmelt event. It is interesting to note that in some TCE isoconcentration maps, the plume thins in the region of this sinkhole.

Site 7. Rte 5 Sinkhole / “popup ridge”
https://goo.gl/maps/MEnA5H5soqAT8LND8
(Note: coordinates in the guidebook take you back to Site 2. This placemark was located using the linked map image).
A small unnamed tributary with a watershed area of 9.2 sq km flows into this feature which consists of a waterfalls made up of in situ bedrock (Figure 10). After the waterfalls, the flow is lost in the wetland. The feature sometimes floods the southern shoulder of Route 5. All channelized flow terminates in this feature. A broken anticline or “pop up ridge” is located just East of this feature.

Site 8. Mackay Spring
https://goo.gl/maps/RK6PeEGxfFc6t5oQ7
Mackey Spring is one of the many large springs in Caledonia that supply water to Spring Creek. Spring Creek has a very small surficial watershed area. It is much too small to account for its high rate of discharge. It is believed that Springs such as this site and others contribute to its steady flow. Unicorn Management Consultants Geologists Richard Bush and Mike O’ Connor discovered through fieldwork and well drilling that Spring Creek is a fault. This fault creates a low piezometric zone inMackey Spring is one of the many large springs in Caledonia that supply water to Spring Creek. Spring Creek has a very small surficial watershed area. It is much too small to account for its high rate of discharge. It is believed that Springs such as this site and others contribute to its steady flow. Unicorn Management Consultants Geologists Richard Bush and Mike O’ Connor discovered through fieldwork and well drilling that Spring Creek is a fault. This fault creates a low piezometric zone in the escarpment where groundwater can drain to. Meteoric water recharges into swallets and thinly-soiled karst at the top of the escarpment, ultimately draining out of springs along the Spring Creek Fault. An analogous situation is the the escarpment where groundwater can drain to. Meteoric water recharges into swallets and thinly-soiled karst at the top of the escarpment, ultimately draining out of springs along the Spring Creek Fault. An analogous situation is the headwaters of Bigelow Creek along Seven Springs Road near Batavia. This stream and its springs occur on the Clarendon Linden Fault system. Those springs are probably fed by sinkholes and thinly soiled karst zones at the top of the escarpment (Richards et al, 2010, Reddy and Kappel, 2010).
Mackay Spring rarely dries up. It is shallow and underlain by open fractures in Akron Bertie bedrock that are as wide as 10 centimeters (Figure 11). Water flows out of these fractures. White speckles of what is presumably calcium carbonate can sometimes be seen in the water if sediment is kicked up within it.

Site 9. Spring Creek
https://goo.gl/maps/ByL5iBWyXBMJkPPV6
In our last site, we will visit Spring Creek where it flows through a railroad tunnel. Water from the many springs along Spring Creek in Caledonia ultimately come together to form this stream segment, which is located just downstream of the NYS DEC Caledonia Fish Hatchery. The stream then flows North to its confluence with Oatka Creek in Mumford, NY.
The stream was gaged by the author for an approximately 18-month period. This data was used to calibrate the SWAT model that was used to evaluate recharge into the LVRR plume (Richards, 2016). Streamflow records indicate Spring Creek is not very responsive to precipitation events. The shape of its discharge curve strongly resembles the water level record at well cluster DC-5, which is located four miles west of Spring Creek. This well is located far outside of its surficial watershed divide (south of the LVRR spill site and just west of Mud Creek sites). Spring Creek has a mean annual discharge to the drainage area that is many times higher than streams in the area (if the surficial watershed area is used in thisThe stream was gaged by the author for an approximately 18-month period. This data was used to calibrate the SWAT model that was used to evaluate recharge into the LVRR plume (Richards, 2016). Streamflow records indicate Spring Creek is not very responsive to precipitation events. The shape of its discharge curve strongly resembles the water level record at well cluster DC-5, which is located four miles west of Spring Creek. This well is located far outside of its surficial watershed divide (south of the LVRR spill site and just west of Mud Creek sites). Spring Creek has a mean annual discharge to the drainage area that is many times higher than streams in the area (if the surficial watershed area is used in this calculation). If this ratio is recalculated by including the watershed area of the LVRR plume and all the tributaries that enter sinkholes that overly the plume (Figure 12), the resulting annual discharge to drainage area ratio in Spring Creek is much more consistent with other streams in the area.
A geochemical study of the groundwater by Richards (2017), made possible by water quality sampling conducted by NYS-DEC, and Unicorn Management Consultants (UMC, 2014), SUNY Brockport Undergraduate Theses (Libby, 2009 and Simmons, 2011), and Cornell University (Pacenka et al, 2017) suggests that Spring creek contains very little meteoric water. Its chemistry, which contains more sulfate than carbonate, is dominated by a blending of groundwater from the Camillus and Akron-Bertie Formation. A chemical mixing model suggests that Camillus groundwater may provide anywhere from 41 to 83% of its water. This chemistry data would also be consistent with a groundwater origin for the Creek.