Pre-Acadian tectonics of the eastern Orange-Milford Belt, south-central Connecticut

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Abstract

This excursion presents a reinterpretation of mapping and new analytical data from the eastern Orange-Milford belt (OMB) in south-central Connecticut. The OMB is a fault-bound terrane of argillites and mafic rocks of anomalously low metamorphic grade—and of poorly constrained ages and tectonic affinity—wedged between kyanite/sillimanite-grade peri- Laurentian rocks to the west and anatectic peri-Gondwanan rocks to the east (Fig. 1A). Our data demonstrate that Ordovician(?) igneous and sedimentary rocks of the OMB were variably metamorphosed in the Ordovician and Silurian but escaped regionally pervasive, high-grade Devonian and later metamorphism. Previous interpretations (Fritts 1963a, 1965a, 1965b; Burger, 1967; Burger and others, 1968; Rodgers, 1985) described these rocks as a conformable sequence of low-grade, Ordovician to Devonian metasediments and metavolcanics. Our results reveal that the “metavolcanics” are not extrusive rocks but rather slivers of lower oceanic crust with complicated high- and low-grade metamorphic fabrics, intruded by a swarm of Silurian sheeted basalt dikes, and in fault contact with the surrounding metasediments. The purpose of this trip is to show evidence of early Paleozoic (Taconic) deformation and metamorphism preserved in rocks of the eastern OMB. These rocks remained shallow, cool, and sufficiently dry during the regionally dominant Acadian and Alleghanian orogenies to have avoided significant overprinting. As such, these rocks serve as windows into a geologic history otherwise unavailable between anatectic rocks of the peri-Gondwanan Bronson Hill, Avalon, and Gander terranes east of the Hartford basin and sillimanite-grade rocks of the peri-Laurentian Hartland and gneiss dome belts west of the OMB. We present major and trace element geochemistry including rare-earth element patterns for all mafic units in the eastern OMB as well as 40Ar/39Ar age spectra of amphibole, muscovite, and K-feldspar from rocks of the Maltby Lakes complex (of Deasy and others, 2017), Savin Schist, and Wepawaug Schist. Our evidence demonstrates that the units of the OMB have been assembled by faulting or intrusion, and that no stratigraphic relationships exist between the argillaceous schists and the metaigneous rocks. 

Suggested Citation

Deasy, R.T., Wintsch, R.P., Wathen, B., McAleer, R.J., Meyer, R., and Kunk, M.J., 2025, Pre-Acadian tectonics of the eastern Orange-Milford Belt, south-central Connecticut, The 116th Annual Meeting of the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, New Haven, CT, October 3-5, 2025, 28 p.

Study Area

Publication type Conference Paper
Publication Subtype Conference Paper
Title Pre-Acadian tectonics of the eastern Orange-Milford Belt, south-central Connecticut
Publication Date October 03, 2025
Year Published 2025
Language English
Publisher New England Intercollegiate Geologic Conference
Contributing office(s) Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Description 28 p.
Conference Title The 116th Annual Meeting of the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference
Conference Location New Haven, CT
Conference Date October 3-5, 2025
Country United States
State Connecticut
Other Geospatial Orange-Milford Belt
Additional publication details