Kittatinny Formation

The Ordovician Kittatinny Formation or Kittatinny Limestone is a dolomitic limestone formation in New Jersey. The Kittatiny Limestones are located primarily within the long valley running from Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township, southwest toward Chester Township. It overlies the Cambrian Hardyston Quartzite.

The Kittatinny is now usually considered a Supergroup, rather than a Formation, as it includes several other Groups and Formations. Drake and Lyttle made this revision in 1980. The Supergroup includes the Leithsville Formation, Allentown Dolomite, and Beekmantown Group (which in turn includes the Stonehenge Limestone, Rickenbach Dolomite, Epler Formation, and Ontelaunee Formation). Richard Dalton wrote a more recent review of the stratigraphy of the Kittatinny.

The Kittatinny Limestone in New Jersey locally contains hydrocarbons and numerous accessory minerals including fluorite, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, galena, quartz, albite, and others. The Kittatiny is an exception to the general rule that Paleozoic rocks in this area are generally poor aquifers, since wells drilled into it produce relatively large flows of water.

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