Bedrock geologic map of the Hartland and North Hartland quadrangles, Windsor County, Vermont, and Sullivan and Grafton Counties, New Hampshire

Scientific Investigations Map 3361
Prepared in cooperation with the State of Vermont, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont Geological Survey; State of New Hampshire, Department of Environmental Services, New Hampshire Geological Survey; and the National Park Service
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Abstract

The bedrock geology of the 7.5-minute Hartland and North Hartland quadrangles, Vermont-New Hampshire, consists of highly deformed and metamorphosed lower Paleozoic metasedimentary, metavolcanic, and metaplutonic rocks of the Bronson Hill anticlinorium (BHA) and the Connecticut Valley trough (CVT). Rocks of the Orfordville anticlinorium on this map occupy the western part of the broader BHA. In the BHA, the Ordovician Ammonoosuc Volcanics and graphitic, sulfidic metapelite of the Partridge Formation are intruded by Ordovician plutonic rocks of the Oliverian Plutonic Suite. The Ordovician rocks are collectively referred to as the Bronson Hill arc. The Ordovician rocks are overlain by the Silurian to Devonian Clough, Fitch, and Littleton Formations. On this map, rocks of the CVT occupy the eastern part of the broader CVT. In the CVT in Vermont, the Silurian to Devonian Shaw Mountain, Waits River, and Gile Mountain Formations form an unconformable autochthonous to parautochthonous cover sequence on the pre-Silurian rocks of the Rowe-Hawley zone above Precambrian basement rocks of the Mount Holly Complex. On this map, however, only the Waits River and Gile Mountain Formations are exposed. Syn- to postmetamorphic rocks include quartz veins and Cretaceous dikes of the White Mountain Igneous Suite.

Rocks of the BHA occur in a thrust sheet floored by the Monroe fault, which carried a deformed section of plutonic rocks, Ammonoosuc Volcanics, Partridge Formation, Clough Quartzite, and the Fitch and Littleton Formations. The Monroe thrust sheet placed the BHA rocks over the CVT during an early Acadian F1 nappe-stage event prior to peak metamorphism at lower amphibolite facies conditions. Upper and lower plate truncations, mylonite, and local mélange characterize the Monroe fault. F2 doming deformed the Monroe thrust sheet, folded earlier isograds, and created the Meriden antiform and Lebanon dome. Lower greenschist facies (Acadian to Alleghanian) faults such as the Sumner Falls shear zone truncated peak-metamorphic assemblages, isograds, and older F1 folds and faults. Late-stage F3 folds show preferred left-lateral rotation sense and are probably related to late dome-stage Alleghanian deformation or motion along lower greenschist facies faults. The youngest deformation is characterized by Mesozoic brittle faulting and spatially associated kink bands along the Ammonoosuc fault zone, followed by subsequent jointing.

Currently major economic natural resource activities are related to aggregate quarrying in the Ammonoosuc Volcanics at Twin State Sand and Gravel in Hartford, Vt., and Lebanon Crushed Stone in Lebanon, N.H.

This report consists of sheets 1 and 2 as well as an online geographic information systems database that includes contacts of bedrock geologic units, faults, outcrops, structural geologic information, and photographs. Sheet 2 of this report shows three cross sections, a tectonic map, and two brittle features maps that show measured outcrop-scale strike and dip results with summary stereonets and rose diagrams.

Suggested Citation

Walsh, G.J., 2016, Bedrock geologic map of the Hartland and North Hartland quadrangles, Windsor County, Vermont, and Sullivan and Grafton Counties, New Hampshire: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3361, 2 sheets, scale 1:24,000, https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3361.

ISSN: 2329-132X (online)

Study Area

Table of Contents

  • Description of Map Units
  • Correlation of Map Units
  • Explanation of Map Symbols
  • Discussion
  • References Cited
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Bedrock geologic map of the Hartland and North Hartland quadrangles, Windsor County, Vermont, and Sullivan and Grafton Counties, New Hampshire
Series title Scientific Investigations Map
Series number 3361
DOI 10.3133/sim3361
Year Published 2016
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Eastern Geology and Paleoclimate Science Center
Description 2 Sheets: 51.99 x 37.96 inches and 41.85 x 30.82 inches; Database; Metadata; Read Me; Spatial Data
Country United States
State New Hampshire, Vermont
County Grafton County, Sullivan County, Windsor County
Other Geospatial Hartland and North Hartland quadrangles
Scale 24000
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) Y
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details