Bedrock Geologic Map of the Eagle Lake Quadrangle, Essex County, New York

Scientific Investigations Map 3542
Prepared in cooperation with the State of New York, Department of Education, New York Geological Survey
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

The bedrock geology of the 7.5-minute Eagle Lake quadrangle, Essex County, New York, consists of deformed and metamorphosed Mesoproterozoic gneisses of the Adirondack Highlands unconformably overlain by weakly deformed lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the Champlain Valley. The Mesoproterozoic rocks occur on the eastern edge of the Adirondack Highlands and represent an extension of the Grenville Province of Laurentia. Granulite facies Mesoproterozoic paragneiss, marble, and amphibolite hosted the emplacement of an anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite (AMCG) suite, now exposed mostly as orthogneiss, at approximately 1.18–1.15 giga-annum (Ga, billion years before present). The earliest of four phases of deformation (D1) predated AMCG magmatism and is characterized by gneissosity, rarely preserved F1 isoclinal folds, and migmatite in the paragneiss host rocks. A sample of hornblende quartz syenite from the AMCG suite, collected from an abandoned railroad cut on Old Furnace Road, yielded a U-Pb zircon age of 1,149±10 million years before present. D2 deformation produced a composite penetrative gneissosity, migmatite, and isoclinal F2 folds. Towards the end of D2, felsic magmatism (including the regionally extensive Lyon Mountain Granite Gneiss, abbreviated “LMG”) spread by penetrative migration as semiconcordant alkali feldspar granite sheets subparallel to S2 into the previously deformed lithologies. The LMG crystallized at approximately 1.15 to 1.14 Ga and displays synkinematic F2 folds thus constraining the time of D2 deformation. Exhumation of the Marcy anorthosite began during D3 along a mylonitic extensional detachment, as a type of core complex. Protracted D3 produced F3 folds exhibited in regional domes and basins, such as the Hammondville antiform, reactivation of the S2 foliation, partial melting, metamorphism, metasomatism, iron ore remobilization, and intrusion of magnetite-bearing pegmatite both as layer-parallel sills and crosscutting dikes. D4 created NE- and NW-trending boudinage, local high-grade ductile shear zones, and crosscutting granitic pegmatite dikes. Kilometer (km)-scale lineaments readily observed in lidar data are Ediacaran mafic dikes and Phanerozoic brittle faults. Lower Paleozoic rocks are part of the Early Cambrian to Late Ordovician great American carbonate bank on the ancient margin of Laurentia. The Potsdam Sandstone preserves the Cambrian stratigraphy in outliers above the Great Unconformity. The Paleozoic rocks are weakly folded and block faulted. Parts of the quadrangle are covered by undifferentiated glacial deposits, but much of the quadrangle contains only a variably thick, veneer of unmapped glacial till over significant areas of exposed bedrock. The map also shows waste rock piles and locations of historical mining operations. This study was undertaken to improve our understanding of the bedrock geology in the Adirondack Highlands, establish a modern framework for 1:24,000-scale bedrock geologic mapping in the Adirondack Mountains, and provide a modern context for historical mines. This Scientific Investigations Map of the Eagle Lake 7.5-minute quadrangle consists of a map sheet, an explanatory pamphlet, and a geographic information system database that includes bedrock geologic units, faults, outcrops, and structural geologic information. The map sheet includes a bedrock geologic map, a correlation of map units, a description of map units, an explanation of map symbols, and two cross sections. The explanatory pamphlet includes a discussion of the geology.

Plain Language Summary

The U.S. Geological Survey mapped the bedrock geology of the 7.5-minute Eagle Lake quadrangle, Essex County, New York, to establish a framework for 1:24,000-scale detailed bedrock geologic mapping in the Adirondack Mountains, and provide a modern context for historical iron, graphite, and feldspar mines that operated in the 1800s. The report includes the most detailed 1:24,000-scale bedrock geologic map ever published in the Adirondack Mountains. The region is underlain by highly complex Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks that range in age from about 1.2 to 1.0 billion years old. The high quality of the naturally occurring mineral magnetite extracted from local iron mines led to the first use of an electric motor in Ironville, proclaimed to be the birthplace of the electric age. Abandoned iron and pegmatite mines locally contain elevated abundances of rare earth elements; some of the deposits have elevated natural radioactivity above background concentrations.

Suggested Citation

Walsh, G.J., Regan, S.P., Geer, P.S., Merschat, A.J., Suarez, K.A., McAleer, R.J., Walton, M.S., Jr., and Crider, E.A., Jr., 2026, Bedrock geologic map of the Eagle Lake quadrangle, Essex County, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3542, 1 sheet, scale 1:24,000, 57-p. pamphlet, https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3542.

ISSN: 2329-132X (online)

Study Area

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgments
  • Abstract
  • Plain Language Summary
  • Introduction
  • Lithostratigraphy
  • Gamma Radiation Measurements
  • Structural Geology
  • Tectonics and Metamorphism
  • U-Th-Pb Geochronology
  • Geochemistry
  • Economic Geology
  • References Cited
  • Appendix 1. Representative Photographs of Map Units From the Eagle Lake Quadrangle
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Bedrock geologic map of the Eagle Lake quadrangle, Essex County, New York
Series title Scientific Investigations Map
Series number 3542
DOI 10.3133/sim3542
Publication Date January 21, 2026
Year Published 2026
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Description Pamphlet: ix, 57 p.; 1 Sheet: 63.43 x 35.22 inches; Data Release
Country United States
State New York
Other Geospatial Eagle Lake quadrangle
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) Y
Additional publication details