Monkton Quartzite Stratigraphic range: Cambrian | |
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Type | Formation |
Location | |
Region | Vermont |
Country | United States |
The Monkton Quartzite is a geologic formation in Vermont. It preserves fossils dating back to the middle of the Cambrian period.
The Monkton Quartzite consists of red ferruginous quartzite interbedded with lesser buff and white quartzites. [1] Additionally, there are thick sections of dolomite (dolostone) containing algal laminations similar to the Winooski Dolostone. [1] The Monkton Quartzite preserves many primary sedimentary features, including wave-action ripples, rain-drop imprints, trilobite tracks, and burrows. [2] The unit contains shallowing upward cycles of subtidal sand shoals overlain by intertidal beds of sand and silt. This shows a prograding tidal flat during a time of clastic deposition on the passive margin of Laurentia. [3] [4] Below the erosionally-resistant rocks of the Monkton lies the Dunham Dolostone, and above lies the Winooski Dolostone. [1] The Monkton Quartzite is well exposed at the Redstone Quarry in South Burlington Vermont. Here, the Monkton Quartzites have been thrust to the west by the Champlain Thrust. [3]
Vergennes is a city located in the northwest quadrant of Addison County, Vermont. The municipality is bordered by the towns of Ferrisburgh, Panton and Waltham. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,553. It is the smallest of Vermont's nine cities in terms of population, though the city of Winooski covers a smaller area. It was the first city chartered in the state of Vermont.
Colchester is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Colchester was 17,524. It is the fourth-most populous municipality and second-most populous town in the state of Vermont. Colchester borders Burlington, Vermont's most populous municipality. The town is directly to Burlington's north on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, to the west of the Green Mountains. The Vermont National Guard is based in the town, and it is also home to Saint Michael's College and the Vermont campus of Southern New Hampshire University.
South Burlington is a city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of the city was 20,292. It is home to the headquarters of Ben & Jerry's and Vermont's largest mall, the University Mall.
The Llano Uplift is a geologically ancient, low geologic dome that is about 90 miles (140 km) in diameter and located mostly in Llano, Mason, San Saba, Gillespie, and Blanco counties, Texas. It consists of an island-like exposure of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks surrounded by outcrops of Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary strata. At their widest, the exposed Precambrian rocks extend about 65 miles (105 km) westward from the valley of the Colorado River and beneath a broad, gentle topographic basin drained by the Llano River. The subdued topographic basin is underlain by Precambrian rocks and bordered by a discontinuous rim of flat-topped hills. These hills are the dissected edge of the Edwards Plateau, which consist of overlying Cretaceous sedimentary strata. Within this basin and along its margin are down-faulted blocks and erosional remnants of Paleozoic strata which form prominent hills.
The Moine Thrust Belt or Moine Thrust Zone is a linear tectonic feature in the Scottish Highlands which runs from Loch Eriboll on the north coast 190 kilometres (120 mi) south-west to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The thrust belt consists of a series of thrust faults that branch off the Moine Thrust itself. Topographically, the belt marks a change from rugged, terraced mountains with steep sides sculptured from weathered igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in the west to an extensive landscape of rolling hills over a metamorphic rock base to the east. Mountains within the belt display complexly folded and faulted layers and the width of the main part of the zone varies up to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), although it is significantly wider on Skye.
Herkimer diamonds are double-terminated quartz crystals discovered within exposed outcrops of dolomite in and around Herkimer County, New York and the Mohawk River Valley. Not actually diamonds, the "diamond" in their name is due to both their clarity and natural faceting - crystals possess double termination points and 18 total faces. Because the first discovery sites were in the village of Middleville and in the city of Little Falls, respectively, the crystal is also known as a Middleville diamond or a Little Falls diamond.
Mount Philo State Park is a state park located in Charlotte, Vermont. The 237-acre (0.96 km2) park protects the area around Mount Philo and provides views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains to the west. The Green Mountains can be seen to the east and south. It is accessed by trail or steep narrow road (seasonal).
The Champlain Thrust is a 200-mile long fault extending from southern Quebec, down through western Vermont in the Champlain Valley, and into eastern New York in the Catskills/Hudson Valley. This east dipping thrust fault transports Cambrian-Ordovician passive margin shelf rocks westward by about 30–50 miles (48–80 km) and places them on top of Middle Ordovician rocks. The Middle Ordovician accretion of the one or more island arcs terranes drove the initial thrusting during the Taconic Orogeny, though reactivation of the fault may have occurred during the middle Devonian Acadian Orogeny. The Champlain Thrust marks the most westerly thrust of the Taconic Orogeny.
The Burlington metropolitan area is a metropolitan area consisting of the three Vermont counties of Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle. The metro area is anchored by the principal cities of Burlington, South Burlington, St. Albans and Winooski; the towns of Colchester, Essex and Milton; and the village of Essex Junction. According to 2012 U.S. Census estimates, the metro area had an estimated population of 213,701, approximately one third of Vermont's total population.
The Ordovician Kittatinny Formation or Kittatinny Limestone is a dolomitic limestone formation in New Jersey. The Kittatinny Limestones are located primarily in the Kittatinny Valley where it lies above the Ordovician Martinsburg Formation within the long valley running from Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township, southwest toward Chester Township. It overlies the Cambrian Hardyston Quartzite.
The geology of Massachusetts includes numerous units of volcanic, intrusive igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks formed within the last 1.2 billion years. The oldest formations are gneiss rocks in the Berkshires, which were metamorphosed from older rocks during the Proterozoic Grenville orogeny as the proto-North American continent Laurentia collided against proto-South America. Throughout the Paleozoic, overlapping the rapid diversification of multi-cellular life, a series of six island arcs collided with the Laurentian continental margin. Also termed continental terranes, these sections of continental rock typically formed offshore or onshore of the proto-African continent Gondwana and in many cases had experienced volcanic events and faulting before joining the Laurentian continent. These sequential collisions metamorphosed new rocks from sediments, created uplands and faults and resulted in widespread volcanic activity. Simultaneously, the collisions raised the Appalachian Mountains to the height of the current day Himalayas.
The Tonto Group is a name for an assemblage of related sedimentary strata, collectively known by geologists as a Group, that comprises the basal sequence Paleozoic strata exposed in the sides of the Grand Canyon. As currently defined, the Tonto groups consists of the Sixtymile Formation, Tapeats Sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, Muav Limestone, and Frenchman Mountain Dolostone. Historically, it included only the Tapeats Sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, and Muav Limestone. Because these units are defined by lithology and three of them interfinger and intergrade laterally, they lack the simple layer cake geology as they are typically portrayed as having and geological mapping of them is complicated.
Paleontology in Vermont comprises paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Vermont. Fossils are generally uncommon in Vermont. Nevertheless, however, significant finds have been made in the state. Very few fossils are known in Vermont east of the Green Mountains due to the type of rock underlying that area. During the early part of the Paleozoic era, Vermont was covered by a warm, shallow sea that would end up being home to creatures like brachiopods, corals, crinoids, ostracoderms, and trilobites. There are no rocks in the state from the Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic periods. The few Cretaceous rocks present contain no fossils. The Paleogene and Neogene periods are also absent from the local rock record. During the Ice Age, glaciers scoured the state. At times the state was inundated by seawater, allowing marine mammals to venture in. After the seawater drained away the state was home to mastodons. Local fossils had already attracted scientific attention by the mid-19th century when mastodon remains were found in Rutland County. In 1950 a major Paleozoic invertebrate find occurred. The Pleistocene Beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas is the Vermont state fossil.
The Jordan Formation is a siliciclastic sedimentary rock unit identified in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Named for distinctive outcrops in the Minnesota River Valley near the town of Jordan, it extends throughout the Iowa Shelf and eastward over the Wisconsin Arch and Lincoln anticline into the Michigan Basin.
The Shady Dolomite is a geologic formation composed of marine sedimentary rocks of early Cambrian age. It outcrops along the eastern margin of the Blue Ridge province in the southeastern United States and can be found in outcrops in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. It is also can be found in the subsurface of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Shady is predominantly composed of dolostone and limestone with lesser amounts of mudrock. It contains fossils of trilobites, archaeocyathids, algae, brachiopods, and echinoderms, along with the enigmatic fossil Salterella. The Shady Dolomite was first described by Arthur Keith in 1903 and was named for exposures in the Shady Valley of Johnson County in the state of Tennessee. Near Austinville, Virginia, the Shady hosts ore deposits that have been mined extensively for lead and zinc ore.
The Little Falls Formation or Little Falls Dolostone is a geologic formation in New York. The unit is of Cambrian age and rests unconformably on Precambrian rock. The unit is noted as the host for the Herkimer diamonds of New York. The unit contains stromatolites and rare brachiopod fossils.
The Wood Canyon Formation is a geologic formation in the northern Mojave Desert of Inyo County, California and Nye County and Clark County, Nevada.
The Zabriskie Quartzite is a Cambrian Period geologic formation of the northern Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California and Nye County, Nevada.
The Skoki Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early to Middle Ordovician age that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia. It was named for Skoki Mountain near Lake Louise in Banff National Park by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1928. The Skoki Formation is fossiliferous and includes remains of brachiopods and other marine invertebrates, as well as conodonts and oncolites.
Lone Rock Point is a promontory north of Burlington, Vermont and on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. It is publicly accessible via a trail network and sits on land owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont.