Highway 1 from Bloomfield to Sussex cuts through beautiful exposures of a Lower Carboniferous rock unit that represents lake, swamp and river deposits. Highway outcrops display nice examples of shallow water ripples. Large scale ripples created along river bottoms are more difficult to see. Ripple crests can be metres apart and sometimes fossil tree logs are trapped in the ancient ripple troughs.
Stopping on the highway is not permitted!
Outcrops near Norton record the remains of ancient rivers that drained highlands built during the creation of the supercontinent Pangea. Rivers meandered along valleys, shallow lakes and wetlands dotted the landscape. Along the margins of the rivers dense forests of lycopod trees grew on the floodplains. The trees, known as Lepidodendropsis, grew to about 10 metres tall and up to 20 centimetres in diameter. A recent study of the rocks near Norton showed that trees grew in dense thickets on thin soil horizons. Floods regularly drowned the forests. Trace fossils of small arthropods have been found and rare remains of fish are known from this site.
Moosehorn Creek is a small stream that flows into the Kennebecasis River from the south.
