The park's Geologic Resources Inventory report. Image from the NPS Geodiversity Atlas
Saratoga National Historical Park (SARA) lies in the Hudson River Valley, about 60 km (40 mi) north of Albany, in Saratoga County in eastern New York.
| Authorized | June 1, 1938 |
| Size | about 1,380 hectares (3,410 acres) |
| Commemorates | the First and Second Battles of Saratoga, September 19 and October 7, 1777 — a decisive American victory over the British and a turning point in the American Revolution |
| Four units | the main battlefield, the Saratoga Monument (47 m / 155 ft tall), Victory Woods, and the Schuyler House, country home of American Major General Philip Schuyler — plus historic buildings and farms (National Park Service 2016a) |
This page is part of the National Park Service's Geodiversity Atlas, a product of the Geologic Resources Inventory. Geodiversity means the whole range of a park's geologic and soil resources and processes — rocks, minerals, sediments, fossils, landforms and the processes that shape them — and the atlas supports education, geoconservation, and management that treats the living and non-living parts of an ecosystem together.
Rolling terrain on a ranger-led bike tour. Image from the NPS Geodiversity Atlas
The rocks
The park sits in the northern Valley and Ridge physiographic province of New York, in a region mostly underlain by Paleozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Its bedrock is Ordovician, cut by the meandering Hudson into a broad, flat floodplain edged by steep cutbanks and bluffs.
| Bedrock zone | Rock | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Mohawk River Zone | a mélange — a jumbled mix of rock types — of shale (mudstone) and greywacke | under much of the park, including the main battlefield and the low hills that rise above the land around |
| Stillwater Shale Zone | shale-rich flysch (sedimentary rock laid down in deep sea), with some greywacke | the park's easternmost part |
| Rocky Tucks Zone | greywacke-rich flysch of similar age | a small area of the northwestern battlefield |
On top lie Quaternary deposits: Pleistocene glacial till and lake-bed clay, silt and sand, and Holocene river terraces and alluvium (DeSimone 2015).
Saratoga belongs to the Valley and Ridge Province and shares its geologic history and some of its formations with a region much larger than the park.
Maps, reports and data
Part of the park's Geologic Resources Inventory map. Image from the NPS Geodiversity Atlas
The Geologic Resources Inventory produces digital geologic maps and reports for more than 270 natural resource parks, and many products are still in progress:
| Product | What it is |
|---|---|
| Scoping summaries | records of meetings where park staff and local geologists set the mapping plan and the report's contents |
| Digital geologic maps | GIS files, a user guide and supporting map information; newer ones add Google Earth data and online map services |
| Reports | the park's setting and significance, notable features and processes, management issues, and geologic history, built on the maps |
| Posters | a PDF view of the GIS data; newer ones add aerial imagery or shaded relief. Included with the reports |
| Projects | the basics of the program and every product for a park |
- The park's products are listed in the NPS DataStore.
- A Soil Resources Inventory for the park is complete and also in the DataStore.
The Hudson River Valley from the battlefield. Image from the NPS Geodiversity Atlas
More: Saratoga park home · Geologic time · Explore regional geology · NPS geology · New York State Geological Survey
Sources
Based on "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Saratoga National Historical Park, New York," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
In these publicationsSaratoga National Historical Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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