Location Rocks of Ordovician through Mississippian age are exposedalong roads and railroads paralleling the Lehigh River between Palmerton and Jim Thorpe in Carbon County, Pennsylvania (Fig. 1). Rocks of the Ordovician Martinsburg Formation and the Silurian Shawangunk Formation are well exposed on the eastside of Lehigh Gap along an abandoned railroad bed (Fig. 2). Anunmaintained access road along the railroad bed is reached from Pennsylvania 248 just east of the former railroad overpass or byclimbing the slope near the east end of the bridge across the Lehigh River (Fig. 2). Part of the Silurian Bloomsburg Formationis exposed along a small side road paralleling Pennsylvania 248 (Fig. 2). This road is accessed from Delaware Avenue in Palmertonor Pennsylvania 248 just south of Aquashicola Creek. Several Lower, Middle, and Upper Devonian rock units arebeautifully exposed at Bowmanstown (Fig. 2). These exposuresare reached by exiting from Pennsylvania 248 to Bowmanstown. The Devonian Ridgeley (Oriskany), Schoharie-Esopus, Palmerton, Buttermilk Falls, and Marcellus Formations (Fig. 3) areexposed in a deep roadcut along the Northeast Extension Pennsylvania Turnpike at West Bowmans. Proceed west on Pennsylvania 895 from Pennsylvania 248 and park in a pull-off areaon the north side of the road at the east end of the bridge over theturnpike. It is possible to go over the southeast side of the bridge

Abstract Many of the parks within the National Park System owe their uniqueness to their geologic framework. Their scenery is the result of diverse natural processes acting upon a variety of rocks that were deposited in varied environments in the geologic past. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) contains a rich geologic and cultural history within its 68,714 acre boundary. Following the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Delaware River has cut a magnificent gorge through Kit-tantinny Mountain, the Delaware Water Gap, to which all other gaps in the Appalachian Mountains have been compared. Proximity to many institutions of learning in this densely populated area of the northeastern United States (Fig. 1 ) makes DEWA an ideal locality to study the geology of this part of the Appalachian Mountains. This one-day field trip comprises two stops within the gap itself and will include discussion on stratigraphy, structure, geomorphology, and glacial geology. The first stop will be at the bottom of the gap in Pennsylvania to look at the magnificent exposures in the cleft on the New Jersey side. This will be followed by a traverse to the top of Mount Tammany along a popular trail, where we will compare the geology across the river in Pennsylvania. Much of the information presented in this guidebook is summarized from Epstein (2001a , 2001b , 2001c ) and Epstein and Lyttle (2001) .

Abstract The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) contains a rich geologic and cultural history within its 68,714 acre boundary. Following the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Delaware River has cut a magnificent gorge through Kittatinny Mountain, the Delaware Water Gap, to which all other gaps in the Appalachian Mountains have been compared. Proximity to many institutions of learning in this densely populated area of the northeastern United States (Fig. 1 ) makes DEWA an ideal locality to study the geology of this part of the Appalachian Mountains. This one-day field trip comprises an overview discussion of structure, stratigraphy, geomorphology, and glacial geology within the gap. It will be highlighted by hiking a choice of several trails with geologic guides, ranging from gentle to difficult. It is hoped that the “professional” discussions at the stops, loaded with typical geologic jargon, can be translated into simple language that can be understood and assimilated by earth science students along the trails. This trip is mainly targeted for earth science educators and for Pennsylvania geologists needing to meet state-mandated education requirements for licensing professional geologists. The National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the New Jersey Geological Survey, and local schoolteachers had prepared “The Many Faces of Delaware Water Gap: A Curriculum Guide for Grades 3–6” ( Ferrence et al., 2003 ). Copies of this guide will be given to trip participants and can be downloaded from the GSA Data Repository 1 . The trip will also be useful for instruction at the graduate level. Much of the information presented in this guidebook is modified from Epstein (2006) .

Abstract Welcome to the Appalachian landscape! Our field trip begins with a journey across Fall Zone (Fig. 1 ), named for the falls and rapids on streams flowing from the consolidated rocks of the Appalachians onto the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal Plain. The eastern U.S. urban centers are aligned along the Fall Zone, the upstream limit of navigation. Typically, the rocks west of the Fall Zone are part of the Piedmont province. This province exposes the metamorphic core of the Appalachian Mountains exhumed by both tectonics and erosion. At least four major phases of deformation are preserved in Piedmont rocks, three Paleozoic convergent events that closed Iapetus, followed by Mesozoic extension that opened the Atlantic Ocean. A record of Cretaceous to Quaternary exhumation of the Appalachians is preserved as Coastal Plain sediments. Late Triassic and Jurassic erosion is preserved in the syn-extensional fault basins, such as the Newark basin, or is buried beneath Coastal Plain sediments (Fig. 1 ). The trip proceeds northwest across the Fall Zone and Piedmont and into the Newark basin. Late Triassic and Jurassic fluvial red sandstone, lacustrine gray shale, and black basalt were deposited in this basin. The Newark basin is separated from the Blue Ridge by a down to the east normal fault that locally has contemporary microseismicity. The Blue Ridge represents a great thrust sheet that was emplaced from the southeast during the Alleghenian orogeny (Permian). The summits of the Blue Ridge are commonly broad and accordant. Davis (1889) projected that accordance westward to the summits of the Ridge and Valley to define his highest and oldest peneplain—the Schooley peneplain. North and west of the Blue Ridge is the Great Valley Section of the Ridge and Valley Province (Fig. 1 ). Where we cross the Great Valley at Harrisburg, it is called the Cumberland and Lebanon valleys. This section is underlain by lower Paleozoic carbonate, shale, and slate folded and faulted during the lower Paleozoic Taconic orogeny. The prominent ridge on the west flank of the Great Valley is Blue or Kittatinny Ridge. It is the first ridge of the Ridge and Valley Province; the folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of the Appalachian foreland basin, deformed during the Alleghenian orogeny. Drainage during most of the Paleozoic was to the northwest, bringing detritus into the Appalachian foreland basin. The drainage reversed with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and southeast-flowing streams established courses transverse to the strike of resistant rocks, like the Silurian Tuscarora Sandstone holding up Blue Mountain. West and north of the Ridge and Valley is the Allegheny Plateau, that part of the Appalachian foreland that was only gently deformed during Alleghenian shortening. Our trip will traverse that part of the plateau called the Pocono Plateau which is underlain by Devonian to Penn-sylvanian sandstone. At the conclusion of our trip, we will reverse our transverse of the Appalachians by traveling from the Pocono Plateau to the Ridge and Valley, to the Great Valley, to the Newark Basin, to the Piedmont, and then to one of the great Fall Zone cities—Philadelphia—via the Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers.