Cockeysville Marble

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Cockeysville Marble
Stratigraphic range: Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician
Marble Cockeysville Plate XXI WBClark 1898.jpg
Polished slab of the marble from Cockeysville. Width of slab inside black border is approximately 10.7 cm.
Typemetamorphic
Unit ofGlenarm Supergroup
Underlies Wissahickon Formation
Overlies Setters Formation
Thicknessabout 750 feet [1]
Lithology
Primary marble
Location
Region Piedmont of Maryland
Type section
Named for Cockeysville, Maryland
Named byWilliams and Darton, 1892 [2]

The Cockeysville Marble is a Precambrian, Cambrian, or Ordovician marble formation in Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard Counties, Maryland. It is described as a predominantly metadolomite, calc-schist, and calcite marble, with calc-gneiss and calc-silicate marble being widespread but minor. [1]

Contents

Sample of Massive Metadolostone Member of Cockeysville Marble, from old quarry near Lower Dam of Loch Raven Reservoir, Baltimore County, Maryland Cockeysville Formation Massive Metadolostone Mbr.jpg
Sample of Massive Metadolostone Member of Cockeysville Marble, from old quarry near Lower Dam of Loch Raven Reservoir, Baltimore County, Maryland

The extent of this formation was originally mapped in 1892 [2] within Baltimore County.

Quarrying

The Cockeysville Marble has been quarried in Beaver Dam within Cockeysville and other locations in Maryland. A historical account is given in Maryland Geological Survey Volume Two. [3]

The Cockeysville was also mined for crushed stone at what is now called Quarry Lake. [4] It was known as the McMahon Quarry in the 1940s.

The Cockeysville was mined by Lafarge and by Martin Marietta Inc. at the Marriottsville Quarry, Marrtiottsville, Maryland.

Cockeysville marble was used in the construction of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. and the Washington Monument in Baltimore.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Geologic Map of Maryland, 1968. Cleaves, E. T., Edwards, J. Jr., and Glaser, J. D. Maryland Geological Survey. Scale 1:250,000.
  2. 1 2 Williams, G.H., and Darton, N.H., 1892, Geologic map of Baltimore and vicinity: U.S. Geological Survey, Map to accompany "Guide to Baltimore".
  3. Maryland Geological Survey Volume Two, by W. B. Clark, 1898. Johns Hopkins University Press. (Google Books)
  4. McMahon Quarry (Greensberg Quarry), Bare Hills, Baltimore Co., Maryland, USA