Bedrock Geology of the Southbury Quadrangle
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Open Plate 1 Open Plate 1B Open Plate 2 STATE GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION The Bedrock Geology of the Southbury Quadrangle ROBERT B. SCOTT Texas A & M University 1974 QUADRANGLE REPORT NO. 30 ------------------------- STATE GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Honorable Thomas J. Meskill, Governor of Connecticut Douglas M. Costle, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection BOARD OF ADVISORS Dr. Richard H. Goodwin, Department of Botany, Connecticut College Dr. John Rodgers, Department of Geology, Yale University Dr. James A. Slater, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Connecticut DIRECTOR Joe Webb Peoples, Ph.D. Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut EDITOR Lou Williams Page, Ph.D. DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE AGENT Walter Brahm, State Librarian State Library, Hartford 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Financial support for mapping the Southbury quadrangle during the summers of 1967, 1968, and 1969 was provided by the Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey. I gratefully acknowledge this support and thank Joe Webb Peoples, director of the Survey, for his encouragement and advice. Lectures, seminars, and discussions with John Rodgers and Richard Armstrong at Yale University first stimulated my interest in this part of the Appalachian fold belt. Numerous field trips led by researchers active in western Connecticut, including John Rodgers, James Dieterich, William Crowley, Philip Orville, Leo Hall, Rosemary Yidale, David Hewitt, Rolfe Stanley, Robert Gates and George Heyl, among others, were extremely beneficial. The field assistance of William Raymond during the summer of 1968 contributed significantly to the mapping project. Steven Schamel, Donald Bachinski, Norman Hatch, Rolfe Stanley, and Bruce O'Connor made valuable suggestions and observations during the mapping of the Southbury quadrangle. Constructive criticism by John Rodgers of Yale University, Rolfe Stanley of the University of Vermont, and Norman Hatch of the U. S. Geological Survey added considerably to the clarity and substance of this report. Robert B. Scott College Station, Texas October 10, 1973 lll TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................. I Introduction .......................................................................................................... ............. 3 Location ......................................................................................................................... 3 Topography and drainage .............................................................................................. 3 Previous work ................................................................................................................ 4 Regional setting ..................................................... _...................................................... 4 Petrographic methods .................................................................................................... 5 Conventions and abbreviations ...................................................................................... 7 Metamorphic stratigraphy ................................................................................................. 8 Waterbury Formation .................................................................................................... 9 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 9 Lithology .................................................................................................................... 11 Origin and age ............................................................................................................ 12 Hartland Unit II ............................................................................................................ 14 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 14 Lithology .................................................................................................................... 15 Origin ......................................................................................................................... 16 Hartland Unit I .............................................................................................................. 17 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 17 Lithology .................................................................................................................... 17 Origin ......................................................................................................................... 19 Collinsville Formation ................................................................................................... 20 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 20 Lithology .................................................................................................................... 20 Origin ......................................................................................................................... 22 Unnamed amphibolites, quartzites, and marbles ............................................................ 22 Straits Schist .................................................................................................................. 23 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 23 Lithology .................................................................................................................... 24 Origin ......................................................................................................................... 25 Alternative stratigraphic scheme .................................................................................... 25 Pre-Triassic igneous rocks ................................................................................................. 26 Newtown Gneiss ............................................................................................................. 26 General discussion ...................................................................................................... 26 Granitic body ............................................................................................................. 26 Granodioritic body ..................................................................................................... 27 Nonporphyritic granites and granodiorites .................................................................... 27 Amphibolites .................................................................................................................. 28 Pegmatites ... ......... .... .. .......... .............. ............. ..... .......... ........... .......... .... ...... .. .... 29 Ultramafic body ............................................................................................................. 29 Post-orogenic Paleozoic igneous rocks .......................................................................... 29 Sequence of Paleozoic igneous events ............................................................................ 30 Triassic rocks ..................................................................................................................... · 30 Structural geology ........................................................ .... ... ...... ......................... ........... 35 General discussion .......................................................................................................... 35 Sequence of fold events.................................................................................................. 37 Styles of folds ................................................................................................................ 44 High-angle faults ............................................................................................................ 47 Joints ............. ...... ......... .......... ............... .......... ...... ... .. ... .... ........... .... .. ....... ............... 49 Correlation between aeromagnetic map and structural patterns .................................... 49 IV Metamorphism .................................................................................................................. 50 General discussion .......................................................................................................... 50 Coexistence of sillimanite and kyanite ........................................................................... 50 Staurolite stability .......................................................................................................... 51 Aluminous assemblages .................................................................................................. 51 Metasomatism .. ...... .... .. .......... .. ..... ... ... .... .. .. .. .......... ..... ... ......... .. .......... .... .. ... ......... ..... 55 Summary of metamorphism .... .. ...... .. .. ........ ........ .. ...... ............. ...... .. .. ......... ........ .. ... 55 Economic geology .. ........ ......... ........... .........