Puddingstone (rock)
Encyclopedia
Puddingstone, also known as either Pudding stone or Plum-pudding stone, is a popular name applied to a conglomerate
Conglomerate (geology)
A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

 that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colors contrast sharply with the color of the finer-grained, often sandy, matrix or cement surrounding them. The rounded pebbles and the sharp constrast in color gives this type of conglomerate the appearance of a raisin or Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is a pudding traditionally served on Christmas Day . It has its origins in medieval England, and is sometimes known as plum pudding or plum duff, though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding involving dried fruit.-Basics:Many households have their own recipe for...

.

There are different types of puddingstone, with different makeup and geographical distribution. These include:
  • Hertfordshire puddingstone
    Hertfordshire puddingstone
    Hertfordshire puddingstone is a conglomerate sedimentary rock composed of rounded flint pebbles cemented together by a younger matrix of silica quartz. The distinctive rock is largely confined to the English county of Hertfordshire but small amounts occur throughout the London Basin. Despite a...

    , principally found in Hertfordshire
    Hertfordshire
    Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

    , England
    England
    England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

  • Bearfort Mountain
    Wawayanda State Park
    Wawayanda State Park is a 34,350 acre state park in Sussex County and Passaic County in northern New Jersey. The park is in Vernon Township on the Sussex side, and West Milford on the Passaic side. There are 60 miles of hiking trails in the park, including a 20-mile stretch of the Appalachian...

    . Boonton, Rockaway Township puddingstone, is a purple puddingstone found in northern New Jersey
    New Jersey
    New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

    . Geologically, it is formed of Paleozoic
    Paleozoic
    The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

     sandstone and quartz conglomerate. The puddingstone Schunemunk conglomerate is studded with pebbles of pink sandstone and white quartz.
  • Roxbury puddingstone, principally found in and around Boston, Massachusetts
    Massachusetts
    The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

  • Plumstead Common
    Plumstead Common
    Plumstead Common is a common in Plumstead, in the London Borough of Greenwich, south-east London. It is bound to the north by Old Mill Road and to the south by Plumstead Common Road. To the east lies Winn or Winn's Common...

     has a fine example of puddingstone, probably left behind after the last Ice Age
    Ice age
    An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

  • St. Joseph Island
    St. Joseph Island
    St. Joseph Island is a Canadian island in Lake Huron, near the mouth of the St. Marys River which connects Lake Huron with Lake Superior. It is the second largest island in Lake Huron and the third largest in the Great Lakes overall, trailing Manitoulin and Lake Superior's Isle Royale.St...

     puddingstone, found in the St. Mary's River area of Northern Ontario
    Ontario
    Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

     contains red and brown pieces of jasper
    Jasper
    Jasper, a form of chalcedony, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. This mineral breaks with a smooth surface, and is used for ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished and is used for vases, seals, and at one time for...

    , a kind of quartz.
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