Jacobsville Sandstone

Jacobsville Sandstone
Stratigraphic range: Mesoproterozoic-Mid Cambrian
Sample of Jacobsville Sandstone from Jacobsville, Michigan, in the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum collection
TypeFormation
UnderliesMunising Formation
OverliesFreda Sandstone
Lithology
PrimarySandstone
OtherConglomerate, siltstone
Location
Region Michigan
 Ontario
Country United States
 Canada
Type section
Named forJacobsville, Michigan

Jacobsville Sandstone is a red sandstone formation, marked with light-colored streaks and spots, primarily found in northern Upper Michigan, portions of Ontario, and under much of Lake Superior. Desired for its durability and aesthetics, the sandstone was used as an architectural building stone in both Canada and the United States. The stone was extracted by thirty-two quarries throughout the Upper Peninsula of Michigan approximately between 1870 and 1915.

The sandstone has been variously called redstone, brownstone, Lake Superior Sandstone, and Eastern Sandstone. In 1907, the Jacobsville Formation was given its current classification and the name Jacobsville, in honor of Jacobsville, Michigan, a town known for its production of the sandstone. The sandstone was deposited within terrestrial fluvial environments early in the Neoproterozoic Era.[1]

  1. ^ Hodgin, E. B., Swanson-Hysell, N. L., DeGraff, J. M., Kylander-Clark, A. R. C., Schmitz, M. D., Turner, A. C., Zhang, Y., Stolper, D. A. (2022), "Final inversion of the Midcontinent Rift during the Rigolet Phase of the Grenvillian Orogeny", Geology, 50 (5), Geological Society of America: 547–551, Bibcode:2022Geo....50..547H, doi:10.1130/G49439.1