Kittatinny Valley

Geology and geography

The Kittatinny Valley is in northern New Jersey. The western side of the valley goes from the New York state line, east of High Point, and runs southwest along the base of the eastern slope of Kittatinny Mountains to the terminal moraine created by the Wisconsin Glacier just north of Columbia on the New Jersey border with Pennsylvania. This is slightly south of the Delaware Water Gap. The eastern side of the valley trends northeast along Highlands of the Jenny Jump Mountains, then along the base of Allamuchy Mountains to Andover where it follows the western edge of the Pimple Hills to the Hamburg Mountains. The eastern edge of the valley follows the western base of Hamburg Mountain to the New York State line.

North of the New York state line is the Hudson Valley. South of the terminal moraine of the Wisconsin Glacier is the Lehigh Valley. The Hudson, the Lehigh, and the Kittatinny Valleys are all locally named sections of the Great Appalachian Valley.

Sediment was deposited at the bottom of deep seas. The Kittatinny Valley was created during the late Ordovician period and the Cambrian period. This is when the volcanic island chain collided with proto North America, around four hundred fifty million BC. This is known as the Taconic Orogeny. The rock from the islands went over top of the North American plate. The sediment under the seas was compressed and formed shale and was uplifted. Thus the Kittatinny Valley was born. Then a small continent collided with proto North America around four hundred million BC. This created folding and faulting which created the Kittatinny Mountain and the southern Appalachians. The valley is situated between the Silurian Shawangunk quartz conglomerate and the lower Cambrian Hardyston quartzite.

The Silurian Shawangunk Conglomerate lies on top of the Martinsburg Formation. This is due to the quartz pebbles being transported on top of the Martinsburg shale, and then due to geologic pressure, folded and faulted. Thus the Kitatinny Mountain was born. About half of the valley is of the Martinsburg formation which is shale and slate. Some of the valley is of the Kittatinny and Jacksonburg limestones. The Kittatinny formation formed during the Cambrian period. Most of the formations are in belts traversing a northeast to southwest axis.

A volcanic breccia is located at Rutan Hill, which is along County Route 519 in Wantage Township, about five miles (8.0 km) northwest of Sussex, New Jersey.

During the Wisconsin Glacier which lasted from 21,000 BC to 13,000 BC, the valley was covered in three hundred meters of ice. The glacier melted and this created end moraines, eskers, lakes, and other post glacier formations. Lakes were also created, such as Culver's Lake, Lake Aeroflex, Cranberry Lake, and Lake Owassa. Lake Aeroflex is the deepest lake at one hundred and ten feet (34 m) deep.

The valley is drained by three small shallow rivers. The first is the Paulinskill River which flows from Newton north to Augusta, then southeast to empty into the Delaware River near Columbia. The second is the Wallkill River which starts at Lake Mohawk in Sparta. The river flows northwest. Papakating Creek and the West Branch of Papakating Creek flow into the Wallkill north of the town of Sussex. The Wallkill flows north over the New York State line and drains into the Hudson River. The third small river is the Pequest River which begins in Andover Township and flows south to Great Meadows and then flows east to Belvidere and drains into the Delaware River.

All three of these rivers are premier trout fishing streams, as they are stocked every year.