File:Quartzose sandstones (Byer Sandstone over Black Hand Sandstone, Lower Mississippian; old quarry at Black Hand Gorge, Ohio, USA) 1 (30773711190).jpg

Quartzose sandstones in the Mississippian of Ohio, USA.

The thin-bedded sandstones at top are the lowermost beds of the Byer Sandstone Member of the Logan Formation. The Byer Sandstone is one of four stratigraphic units in the Mississippian-aged, siliciclastics-dominated Logan Formation of eastern Ohio. Ascending from the base, they are the Berne Conglomerate Member, the Byer Sandstone Member, the Allensville Member, and the Vinton Member. The Byer is dominated by quartzose sandstones. The presence of the Berne at this site can't be confidently determined from a distance.

The thick-bedded sandstone below is the uppermost Black Hand Sandstone, a prominent, cliff-forming sedimentary unit in the Mississippian of parts of eastern Ohio. This photo was taken next to the type locality - Black Hand Gorge in Licking County, Ohio, where an American Indian pictograph formerly existed. The "Black Hand" was destroyed long ago by canal builders. The pictograph represented an early "highway sign" that roughly indicated directions to Flint Ridge, where arrowhead-quality flint was quarried.

The Black Hand Sandstone consists of horizontally bedded and cross-bedded quartzose sandstones, granulose sandstones, pebbly sandstones, plus minor quartz-pebble conglomerate. Stratigraphically, the unit was traditionally considered as a coarse-grained upper member of the Cuyahoga Formation (Lower Mississippian) and represented a delta deposit.

A revised understanding of the Black Hand Sandstone was published in the 2000s by West Virginia geologists. The unit is now understood to be temporally and genetically unrelated to the Cuyahoga Formation, and therefore cannot be considered one of its members. The Black Hand Sandstone is now interpreted as an incised valley fill deposit.

The Black Hand Sandstone in parts of Ohio produces some oil and natural gas. Oil drillers refer to the Black Hand as the “Big Injun Sandstone”.

This is the wall of an old quarry ("Rock Glass Sandstone Quarry"; "Everett Sand Quarry") that was operated by the Edward H. Everett Company in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Black Hand Sandstone from here was reduced to sand and melted to make glass in Newark, Ohio.

Stratigraphy: Byer Sandstone Member of the lower Logan Formation (Osagean Stage, upper Lower Mississippian) over Black Hand Sandstone (Lower Mississippian)

Locality: old quarry on the southern side of the Licking River at Black Hand Narrows, Licking Gorge, west of the town of Toboso, far-eastern Licking County, eastern Ohio, USA (40° 03' 04.82" North latitude, 82° 13' 47.20" West longitude)

Some references on the Black Hand Sandstone:

Ver Steeg, K. 1947. Black Hand sandstone and conglomerate in Ohio. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 58: 703-727.

Szmuc, E.J. 1970. The Mississippian System. pp. 23-67 in Guide to the Geology of Northeastern Ohio. Cleveland. Northern Ohio Geological Society.

Walker, D.A. 1978. Paleontology and Paleoecology of the Cuyahoga and Logan Formations of Central Ohio. Senior Thesis. Denison University, Granville, Ohio, USA. 9+102+11+(1)+2 pp. 11 pls.

Bork, K.B. & R.J. Malcuit. 1981. Cuyahoga and Logan Formations of central and eastern Licking County, Ohio. Ohio Sedimentary Geology III. 21 pp.

Kammer, T.W. & D.L. Matchen. 2002. Biostratigraphic constraints on the timing of valley incisement and deposition of the Lower Mississippian Black Hand Sandstone of Ohio. Geological Society American Abstracts with Programs 34(6): 428.

Matchen, D.L. & T.W. Kammer. 2002. Reinterpretation of the Black Hand Sandstone (Lower Mississippian) of Ohio as incised valley fill. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 34(6): 277.