[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The Ridgeley is fine-grained, siliceous, calcareous in its lower strata, sometimes fossiliferous, and sometimes locally pebbly or conglomeritic.
[6][9] Varying in thickness from 12 to 500 feet (4–150 m),[7][8] this rock slowly erodes into white quartz sand that often washes or blows away, but sometimes accumulates at large outcrops.
[9] When freshly broken, the rock is white, but outcrop surfaces are often stained yellowish by iron oxides.
The type locality was designated at the town of Ridgely (spelling later changed to Ridgeley) in Mineral County, West Virginia.
[12] Outcrops of the erosion-resistant, ridge-forming Ridgeley ("Oriskany") sandstone are conspicuous landscape features in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province from south-central Pennsylvania through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia to Craig County in western Virginia.