2008 New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference October 10-12, 2008 Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts Preliminary list of trip descriptions updated 07/27/2008 Note: this list is incomplete and will be updated as more information becomes available. Conference registration materials will be available shortly. Friday, October 10 A1 Marble Karst of the Stockbridge Formation, Berkshire Region, Western Massachusetts. Trip leader Ernst H. Kastning, New Hampshire Geological Survey
[email protected] Berkshire County, the far-western county of Massachusetts that extends from the Connecticut state line to the south to the Vermont state line to the north, contains nearly all of the major karst features in the Commonwealth. The county is nearly coincidental with the Berkshire Mountains that also have a physiographic extension into neighboring states. The karst of western New England is largely confined to the metamorphic Stockbridge Formation and its stratigraphic equivalents in Connecticut and Vermont. In places, the formation also extends into estern New York. The Stockbridge (Lower Cambrian to Lower Ordovician) consists of at least seven mapped members that are calcareous in whole or part. Collectively this formation is regarded as a marble that is largely calcitic in the upper part and dolomitic in the lower part. Some units contain interbedded quartzitic lamina and nodules. This fieldtrip is dedicated to the late Alan R. (“Sundance”) Plante who passed away last year. Most of the trip will visit localities of karst and caves in the Berkshires that Alan studied and mapped in considerable detail from the late 1960’s until his death. The trip includes some of the most noteworthy localities of karst in western Massachusetts.