Geology of the Pfeiffer Nature Center

Beach-front Property

Beach-front Property

     Gaze west across the misty green valleys below Wendy's Cabin.  The far ridge, seen on a clear day, is Allegany State Park.   Perhaps a hawk soars on a warm summer breeze.  Now close your eyes and look again.  A quiet blue sea ripples in the sunlight and laps at your feet.  You stand on a white sandy beach at high tide on a Tuesday during the Devonian Era, 350 million years ago.  Behind you, a broad, lazy delta rises gently eastward to join the Acadian Mountains in New England.  The Acadians will disappear, worn away by the forces of nature.  Rain, wind, ice and the sun erode the Himalayan-high mountains and wash the sediments into the shallow sea at your feet. The sea once covered all of New York State, as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and others. Mud settles in the deep, quiet basin.  Silt collects on the shelf off-shore.  Sandy beaches grow where the waves wash the land.  Slowly, the basin fills in and a huge delta grows westward, like the Mississippi Delta grows today, only with primitive fern trees and maybe a lungfish peeking above the water in the ooze. Sometimes, sea level would rise and submerge the delta, depositing mud atop the sand. Eventually, the sea retreats. The weight of the overlying sediments squeezes the mud, silt and sand into shale, siltstone and sandstone, the layered rocks beneath the Pfeiffer Nature Center. Now open your eyes and look again. The higher ridge tops are beach and delta sandstones, siltstones and shales of the Cattaraugus Formation. The steep valley walls are deeper water shales of the Chadakoin formation. Wendy's Cabin sits on the edge, where the shore met the sea.

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