Wesleyan  Maps  and  Directions  -‐  http://www.wesleyan.edu/about/directions/index.html  

107th  New  England  Intercollegiate  Geological  Conference  October  9,  10  &  11  at  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  CT  

 RECEPTION  &  BANQUET  INFORMATION  

 Welcome  Reception  

When:       Friday  October  9th  at  5:00pm  

Where:     Exley  Science  Center  lobby,  265  Church  Street  

What:           Hors  d'oeuvres,  cash  bar,  conversation  

   

NEIGC  Banquet*  When:       Saturday  October  10th    

Where:     Fayerweather,  Beckham  Hall  (see  map  below)  

What:     Cash  bar  and  hors  d'oeuvres  beginning  at  5:30pm    

  Buffet  dinner  begins  around  6:30pm  

*poster-‐session-‐style  spaces  will  be  available  for  displaying  map    \  

Exley  Science  Center  E&ES  Dept  

Friday  Reception  Trip  C2a  

Beckham  Hall  Saturday  Banquet  

V  Lot  -‐  Starting  Point  for  A4,  A5,  B6,  C2b  and  visitor  parking  during  the  day  Friday.    All  lots  available  nights  and  weekends.  

D  Lot  -‐  Starting  Point  for  A3,  B2  

107th NEIGC • Wesleyan University

LIST OF FIELD TRIPS

Friday October 9 Trip A1. Tectonic Slivers of Oceanic (MORB) Terrane(s): Sheeted Dikes and Sheared Gabbros Hiding in the Hills just West of New Haven, Connecticut Leaders: Ryan T. Deasy, Robert P. Wintsch, Bryan Wathen, Ryan McAleer Description: This trip reexamines the eastern part of the Orange Milford Belt of “low grade” rocks. Existing interpretations hold that these rocks are low-grade, Ordovician to Devonian metasediments and metavolcanics. But hidden among the suburban lawns and golf courses of New Haven, West Haven and Woodbridge are fault slivers of oceanic amphibolites with complicated high- and low-grade metamorphic fabrics, cut by a swarm of sheeted porphyritic basalt dikes, all weakly re-metamorphosed. The excursion will feature a long walk around the Maltby Lakes Recreation Area, where outcrops include high-grade mylonites and low-grade foliated breccias. Other stops include a chlorite mylonite that marks the southernmost exposure of the Monroe thrust, a swarm of sheeted dikes believed to correlate with the Silurian Comerford dikes in Vermont, and the nonconformity where the basal conglomerate of the Triassic New Haven arkose overlies Ordovician greenstones. For the history buffs we will include a visit to B. Silliman’s 1810’s verd antique quarry in a lens of obducted Paleozoic oceanic crust. Discussions at each stop will be supported by major and trace element geochemistry, photomicrographs, X-ray diffraction patterns, microprobe data on mineral compositions, 40Ar/39Ar age spectra, and structural analysis based on detailed mapping at the scale of 1:12,000. Starting point and other logistics: Meet at 8:30 am in the parking lot of the Amity Stop N' Shop, Exit 59 off CT-15. Trip A2. Distal Glaciodeltaic Controls on Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Migration Leaders: Richard J. Desrosiers, Byron D. Stone, Lawrence Feldman ‘69 Description: Historic releases of both metals and volatile organic compounds at an industrial facility in central Connecticut have resulted in the migration of site-related compounds through distal glaciodeltaic deposits of glacial Lake Hitchcock, subject to drumlin hydraulic controls. High Resolution Site Characterization (HRSC) methods enabled the development of a three-dimensional conceptual site model of the hydrologic and stratigraphic factors that controlled the distribution of contaminants in the environment. Although complex, groundwater flow patterns and plume dimensions are related to the regional glacial geology. This field trip will illustrate the import relationships between groundwater flow and geologic deposits, and the usefulness of detailed geologic mapping in establishing a context for understanding site-specific conditions. We will see pit exposures and cores of various deltaic sediments, a drumlin acting as a hydraulic barrier, groundwater seeps resulting from stratigraphic controls, and how the collection and interpretation of hydrogeologic data were used to design site mitigation measures.

Starting point and other logistics: Meet at 9 AM, near or at the intersection of Old Windsor Road and East Newberry Road in Bloomfield. Trip A3. Observing Channel Readjustment Post Dam Removal 15 Years Later Leader: Laura Wildman Description: The Anaconda and Union City Dams on the Naugatuck River in Connecticut were removed in 1999 following a detailed study of the sites that included sediment quantification, testing and predictions of upstream channel formation post dam removal. The impounded sediment upstream of the 3.35-meter high timber crib/rock fill spillway of the Anaconda Dam was allowed to naturally transport down through the river system post removal. In contrast, a portion of the impounded sediment was removed by mechanical means behind the Union City Dam, a 2.44-meter high timber crib/rock fill dam capped with concrete and stone, prior to the dam’s removal. The impounded sediment at the Anaconda Dam was transported through both translation, as the sediment bars gradually moved downstream, and dispersion, as the depths of these sediment bars steadily became smaller as they moved downstream. The impounded sediment from the Union City Dam did not redeposit immediately downstream, and showed no significant changes in bed topography or bars just downstream. The trend at both run-of-the-river dam removals upstream was for the coarse substrate channels to revert back to their original, slightly sinuous alignments with a slow return to the estimated pre-dam widths and slopes. Both sites demonstrated a headcutting process that initially followed Schumm's and Simon's channel evolution models time-dependent sequence of initial degradation, followed by channel widening, and concluding with minor sediment aggradation to form a more properly proportioned channel cross-section. The initial geomorphic predictions of channel width, bankfull depth, and slope turned out to be quite reasonable compared to the final conditions after fifteen years. In general these relatively steep gravel bed channels evolved in a predictable manner, except where anthropogenic barriers (sanitary sewer, rock weir) interrupted the channel evolution processes. This field trip will describe the initial engineering analysis and design, the subsequent removal process for the two dams, and discuss observations on the transition of the upstream channels following dam removal compared to the initial engineering predictions and other channel evolution models. We will discuss, based on experience with over 100 dam removals nationwide, how observations at these two dam removal sites compare to other dam removal projects nationally. If tour members wish to gain more project background prior to the tour we would suggest reading “Gravel bed channel evolution post dam removal: case study of the Anaconda and Union City dam removals” by Wildman & MacBroom 2003, Geomorphology; “A Broad Level Classification System For Dam Removals” by Wildman & MacBroom 2010 FISC Proceedings; and “10 Dam Removal 10 Years Later” by Wildman 2008, ASDSO Proceedings, available upon request by emailing Laura Wildman at lwildman@princetonhydro.com. Starting point and other logistics: The trip will begin at 9:30 AM at Wesleyan University Parking Lot D, south of science tower. Carpooling will be encouraged. Participants are also encouraged to bring waders or wear cloths/shoes that they can wade into the river in; Wesleyan also has waders you can borrow, just let the field trip leader know your size. Our first site will be the former Anaconda Dam site at ~503 Thomaston Ave, Waterbury, CT. Participants can bring their

own lunch although there is a great deli right next to the Union City Dam that we will go to for those without bag lunches. Trip A4. Early Jurassic Trace Fossil Localities from Fluvial and Lacustrine Facies of the Hartford Basin in Massachusetts. Leaders: Patrick Getty, Andrew Bush and Daniel Vellone Description: The terrestrial fauna of the Hartford Basin is known primarily from trace fossils. The invertebrate traces, in particular, form discrete assemblages (ichnofacies) that reflect local depositional conditions. On this field trip, we will visit five separate localities representing different sedimentary facies within the Lower Jurassic portion of the Hartford Basin, including the playa lake facies of the East Berlin Formation, the lower, lacustrine portion of the Portland Formation, and the upper, fluvial portion of the Portland. We will examine the traces present at each site and discuss their relationships with paleoenvironmental conditions. Highlights of the trip include a stop at a brownstone quarry in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, near the location from which the type specimen of Stegomosuchus longipes (a small, terrestrial crocodilian) was collected, as well as a site that has yielded thousands of burrows, probably made by larval flies, assigned to the ichnospecies Treptichnus bifurcus. We will also examine vertebrate trace fossils at these sites and discuss inferred behaviors of the trace makers, such as evidence for and against gregariousness in large theropod dinosaurs. Starting point and logistics: Please assemble in the V parking lot on the Wesleyan campus at 9:15 am. Trip A5. The Eastford Fault of Eastern Connecticut: A Regional Structure Responsible for the 1987 Moodus Earthquake Swarm Leaders: Robert J. Altamura, MA ‘84, (Ronald T. Marple, tentative)

Description: The recent availability of high-resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data for Connecticut has led to the

discovery of the 125-km-long, northeast-trending Eastford lineament in eastern Connecticut and south-central

Massachusetts (Altamura et al., 2012; Marple et al., 2013). It appears to represent the surface expression of the 50-km-long Eastford fault (Pease, 1989) and extensions that continue to the

Eastford fault and epicenters for selected earthquakes that originated in CT since 1678. Note the concentration of epicenters that forms the Moodus seismic area. BHF indicates the Bunker Hill fault; Sh indicates orientation of modern-day subhorizontal compressive stress field inferred from borehole breakouts (Statton, 1988). (Modified courtesy of Dina Smith, Weston Observatory of Boston College).

northeast and southwest. Geomorphically it is expressed in many places as linear stream valleys. The proposed regional fault zone appears to be post-Triassic in age since the southwest continuation of the Eastford fault offsets the ~201-million-year-old Higganum dike in southcentral Connecticut. An integration of televiewer and geophysical borehole data from the 1987 Moodus Deep Well, the 1987 cluster of earthquake epicenters, and faults identified from our recently acquired seismic surveys north of Moodus suggest that displacements on the proposed Eastford fault north of Moodus was the source of the 1987 Moodus earthquake swarm (Alexander et al. 2012; Marple et al., 2013). We believe that this is the first definitive correlation of Moodus earthquakes to a mapped fault. In south-central Connecticut, the Eastford lineament is traceable southwestward to the 14-km long, northwest-trending Bunker Hill fault zone (BHFZ) (Marple et al., 2012). It is uncertain where the EL continues southwest of the BHFZ.

The purpose of this field trip will be to highlight key stops that help define the presence and nature of the Eastford lineament and fault in the highlands of eastern Connecticut. Starting point and other logistics: Please assemble at 8:30 am in the V parking lot on the Wesleyan campus. Please bring bag lunch. Trip is limited to 24 registrants. Due to limited parking at field stops we will try to limit the caravan to 4 vehicles.

Saturday October 10

Trip B1. Faulting in the Hartford Basin and its Relation to Magmatic Activity, Intrabasinal Fluid Flow, and Mineralization Leaders: Jean Crespi, James Farrell, Mark Evans, Mark Smith, Nathan Pirovane Description: Nearly thirty years have passed since the rifting–shifting–drifting paradigm of stress field evolution was proposed for the Hartford basin. On this field trip, we will present new analyses of fault-slip data from the basin that capitalize on recent advances in paleostress inversion, and we will discuss the results in the context of the structural development of volcanic passive margins. On selected stops, we will also discuss the role of the faults in paleofluid (brine and hydrocarbon) migration and mineralization. We will travel from north to south, beginning at an exposure of the New Haven Formation in Simsbury, CT, and ending at a well-known exposure of the Higganum dike in Higganum, CT, just south of Middletown. Although our focus will be on mesoscale faults and associated mineralization, many of the exposures have excellent examples of primary structures, including raindrop imprints, ripple marks, mud cracks, pillows, and columnar joints. Starting point and logistics: Field trip departs at 8:30 a.m. from Curtiss Park, Simsbury, CT. There are two parking lots in Curtiss Park on the southeastern side of Tariffville Rd. Assemble in the southwestern lot. Please bring lunch. https://www.google.com/maps/place/41%C2%B053'43.9%22N+72%C2%B046'43.5%22W/@41.895528,-72.77875,2511m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0!6m1!1e1

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Trip B2. Fossils and Facies: Depositional Environments and Ecosystem Dynamics Along the Footwall Margin of an Active RIft Leaders: Peter M. LeTourneau MA’85, Nicholas G. McDonald MA‘75, Tim Ku, Paul E. Olsen, (Dennis P. McInerney tentative.) Description: The footwall margin of the Hartford basin presents an exquisite record of the depositional environments and ecological relationships along an actively subsiding rift margin. Due to relatively high sedimentation rates in the fault-adjacent depocenter, all the major fossil finds are found near the footwall margin. Fossil fish, invertebrates, dinosaur tracks, and plant fossils illustrate the ecosystem dynamics of a tropical zone during the Early Jurassic breakup of Pangea. The intercalation of variable facies, including alluvial fans, eolian dune fields, and deep, stratified lakes, reveal important data used to reconstruct the paleogeography of the Early Jurassic rift. Changes in faunal composition from the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic show a loss of diversity in the reptiles and the rise of dinosaurs as the dominant terrestrial organisms. The taxonomic relationships of the spectacular dinosaur tracks of the Hartford basin will be demonstrated. The physical and geochemical processes of fish fossil preservation (taphonomy) in relation to sedimentation rates and phosphorus cycling in permanently stratified tropical lakes will be explored. The long term evolution of the stratigraphic record, influence of climate and tectonics, and implications for earth resources is discussed. Field stops will include the world class trackways at Dinosaur State Park. Starting point and other logistics: Meet at 8 am at Wesleyan University Parking Lot D, south of science tower off Lawn Ave. Attendees will need to pay $6 entrance fee to Dinosaur State Park. Trip C2a. NE-NAGT K-12 Teachers Workshop: Exploring New England Geologic History Leaders: Lori Weeden, Tarin Weiss and Steve Winters Description: This is a Professional Development Points -earning workshop for K-12 teachers from southern New England. The workshop reviews basic geologic principles as well as the geologic history of New England. We will also discuss ways to bring geology into the classroom with the goal of inspiring the K-12 student to investigate his or her surroundings from a new perspective. The workshop will be followed on Sunday by field trip C2b, (see below). Starting point and other logistics: The workshop will be held from 9 am to 3:30 pm in Exley Science Center Room 405 on the Wesleyan Campus. It will be followed by the annual NAGT New England Section meeting from 4-6 pm. Trip B3. 200 Million Years of Deformation along the Peri-Laurentian (Pumpkin Ground Orthogneiss) Buttress and the East Derby Shear Zone, South-Central Connecticut Leaders: Bryan Wathen, Chris Helou, Bob Wintsch, Ryan Deasy, Keewook Yi, Ryan McAleer, and Jessica Matthews Description: New field and analytical evidence show that the Ordovician Beardsley and Pumpkin Ground Orthogneisses acted as a backstop for Paleozoic deformation. A sequence of outcrops

along a west-to-east transect will show increasingly higher strain and progressively lower grade conditions overprinting Acadian anatectic metamorphic fabrics in the west, and kyanite grade rocks in the east. Stops in the Beardsley and Pumpkin Ground Orthogneisses, with new U-Pb zircon ages, will demonstrate their relative and absolute age relationships in the Late Ordovician, and major and trace element analyses will demonstrate the much wider distribution of these rocks (in the Collinsville Fm) than indicated on Rodgers (1985) bedrock map of Connecticut. The eastern limit of these buttressing orthogneisses is marked by the ductile East Derby Shear Zone (EDSZ), derived primarily from the argillaceous Wepawaug schist on the east. Transects through the EDSZ will show the localization of deformation along this boundary, producing both mylonites and phyllonites. The late Paleozoic evolution of the EDSZ will be discussed in the context of new 40Ar/39Ar data on syntectonic muscovites. Photomicrographs of textures and fabrics from each stop will supplement the discussion of the roles of geochronology, as well as reaction and textural softening throughout the trip. Over the trip as a whole, we will document a long, tortuous history along the Laurentian margin as it acted as a buttress over 200 million years of deformation. Starting Point and Other Logistics: The field trip will begin at 9:00 am in the Walgreens parking lot located at 144 Bank Street Seymour, CT 06483 41o 23’ 52.9”N, 73o 04’41.2”W. Participants should bring a bag lunch or purchase food items at the Walgreens prior to the start of the trip. Trip B4. “Wildly Refolded Refolded Folds” and Cameron’s Line in the Bethel Area, Southwestern Connecticut Leader: Thomas R. Spinek Description: This trip will focus on the detailed stratigraphy, structural geology, and intrusive history of a multiply deformed and multiply metamorphosed area spanning the boundary between the Laurentian margin of North America and allochthonous rocks thought to have been deposited on oceanic crust of Iapetus. Proterozoic Y basement (Fordham Gneiss), unconformably overlying Cambrian-Ordovician shelf sequence (Lowerre Quartzite and Inwood Marble), unconformably overlying Middle Ordovician carbonates and clastics (Walloomsac Formation), and allochthonous Proterozoic Z-Cambrian? clastics and volcanics (Manhattan Schist) will be examined. Allochthonous Cambrian-Ordovician clastics and volcanics (“Hartland Formation”), that recently have been linked to the margin of Ganderia, will also be visited. Evidence bearing on the nature and timing of deformation and metamorphism of basement, autochthonous and allochthonous cover rocks and the intrusive timing of metamorphosed ultramafic, mafic, and intermediate igneous rocks (Brookfield Gneiss) and Ordovician granitic gneisses will be examined. The trip will consider whether Cameron’s line, the present eastern limit of exposures of rocks of Laurentian affinity, is an early Taconian thrust fault which has undergone subsequent multiple deformation, or whether it is a relatively late feature that postdates the original development of the Taconian suture, or some combination of both of these hypotheses. Starting Point and Other Logistics: Start Time 8:30 AM. Park at entrance to Martin Park, Ridgefield, CT, 0.2 miles east of intersection of US-7 and Great Pond Road. (41◦18’47.11”N,

73◦28’10.09”W; UTM 18T 628111E 4574643N); Assembly point is 200 m, N13E at beach on south shore of Great Pond. (41◦18’53”N, 73◦28’08”W; UTM 18T 628151E 4574828N). Please bring lunch. Trip B5. Geologic Evolution of the Lower Connecticut River Valley: Character and Age of the Bedrock Valley, Glacial and Glaciodeltaic Deposition, Postglacial Erosion, and Relative Sea-level Fluctuations Leaders: Janet Radway Stone and Ralph S. Lewis

Description: At Middletown, the long tidal Connecticut River leaves the broad Mesozoic lowland in central Connecticut and flows easterly through The Straits gorge into a much narrower bedrock valley that cuts across Paleozoic and Proterozoic metamorphic rocks in the eastern highlands. During Late-Wisconsinan deglaciation, the upper Connecticut River valley contained the extensive glacial Lake Hitchcock, but the lower valley also contained a series of smaller glacial lakes. As a result of meltwater deposition in these lakes, the narrow valley was clogged with meltwater sediment that filled the valley from side-to-side at altitudes as high as 165 ft (50 m) above today’s sea level. This sediment provided an initial barrier that had to be deeply incised before Lake Hitchcock could come into existence. Sediment eroded from the lower river valley was carried along a channel system that cuts drained lakebeds in Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound, through a notch in the terminal moraine at Block Channel, and continues about 100 km south to Block Delta. Here deltaic sediment prograded into the LGM sea which stood 125 m below today’s level. By 20 cal ka, eustatic sea level had begun to rise and because the land remained glacio-isostatically depressed, sea level progressed up the paleo-channel system and occupied Long Island Sound by 17 cal ka. At 16 cal ka, eustatic sea level stood at -102 m, and associated relative positions rise up the River valley from -20 m altitude at the mouth to about +20 m at Middletown due to the higher amounts of depression to the north. So marine waters occupied the lower Connecticut River estuary through Middletown and up the Mattabesset River valley at relative levels higher than today. When glacio-isostatic rebound began at ~15.7 cal ka, sea level fell again and remained at a -40-m relative level in Long Island Sound for several thousand years as the rate of eustatic sea-level rise was nearly matched to the rate of glacio-isostatic uplift. During this time of lower sea level, the Connecticut River was able to incise deeper into the glacial lake deposits due to the differentially northward increase in the amount of uplift of the land. Sea level rose again during the last 10 ka as the rate of eustatic rise overtook the rate of land uplift. Deeper channels beneath today’s river are filled with estuarine sediment, and salt-marsh and freshwater tidal-marsh deposits bury former floodplains along the lower valley. These marsh deposits have accumulated during the last 4-5 ka.

The fieldtrip will illustrate the character of the lower Connecticut River bedrock valley, the lithology and structure of bedrock units it cross-cuts, and present evidence that the River valley is at least pre-Late Cretaceous in age. We will examine the character and distribution of the glaciodeltaic terraces that partially fill the valley and discuss the depth of postglacial incision into them. We will see exposures in old red till, ice-marginal deltaic deposits, examine GPR records on the CT River floodplain at Haddam Meadows, and review high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles from Long Island Sound at the mouth of the River.

Starting point and other logistics: Harbor Park (on the River), 80 Harbor Drive, Middletown. 8:00 AM. Bring your lunch. Trip B6. Coastal Marshes of Long Island Sound Leaders: Johan C. Varekamp, Ellen Thomas, (Shimon Anisfeld, tentative) Description: Coastal marshes are an important coastal resource: nursery for many species, buffer for storms as well as a storage area for buried carbon (“blue carbon”). The dynamics of coastal marshes depend on the rates of sea level rise and the ability for a marsh to ‘move land inwards’. Many coastal marshes are zoned with respect to flora and fauna, dependent on factors such as the fractional atmospheric exposure time and presence of fresh, brackish and salt water. We distinguish low marsh, middle marsh and high marsh, each with their own characteristics, which may then be fringed by freshwater marshes. During the fieldtrip we will visit the Hoadley Creek and Jarvis Creek marshes near Guilford/Branford, CT. The Hoadley marshes are relatively undisturbed and show the typical zonation from the coast land-inward and from creeks land-inward. Jarvis Creek had a tide-gate installed in the early 20th century, which was destroyed in a storm in 1978. The Jarvis Creek marsh became a zone with restricted circulation and changed from high marsh to Phragmites. The accumulation of sediment lagged with respect to sea level rise and accretion outside the tide gate area, and once the gate was removed, the marsh drowned and became a low marsh environment. The faster rate of accretion in the low marsh environment creates a trend back towards equilibrium with the rate of sea level rise. We will visit several sites in these marshes and illustrate the history with peat and mud cores taken on site during the fieldtrip. Starting Point and other logistics: Please assemble in the V parking lot on the Wesleyan campus at 1 pm.

Sunday October 11 Trip C1. Western Connecticut’s Varied Mineral Forming Geoenvironments Leaders: Harold Moritz, Charles Merguerian Description: As a result of a complex geologic history, western Connecticut boasts a broad range of mineral forming geoenvironments and thus a long list of mineral species that have long attracted researchers and collectors. Despite two centuries of study at local to regional scales, many of these specific geoenvironments have not been studied in detail beyond the properties of the minerals present and their field relationships. Besides showcasing the minerals and their field relationships where still visible, the focus of this trip is to discuss the known and unknown aspects of their timing and genesis and to spur interest in modern research before they are lost. Our field trip will visit 4 localities in the Western Connecticut Highlands that provide representative examples of some of the various geoenvironments. These include: 1) shallow-

and deep hydrothermal systems and a scheelite-rich amphibolite (northern Trumbull area), 2) mineralization in basalt flow gas vesicles and along faults (Pomperaug Basin in Southbury), 3) granitic pegmatites (Thomaston area), and 4) kyanite and ilmenite mega-porphyroblasts in metamorphic rocks and associated bull quartz masses (northeastern Litchfield). Starting point and other logistics: The trip will begin at 8:00 AM at the commuter parking lot at the intersection of Route 25 and Route 111 in northern Trumbull. Carpooling will be mandatory as parking is limited at many sites. The first two sites present limited collecting opportunities so bring a few small hand tools. Hard hats, gloves, eye protection and sturdy boots are required at the active Southbury quarry. The last site features 2 small, old mine shafts that can be accessed and the owner will have selected ilmenite and kyanite specimens for sale. Please bring your own lunch as the trip will last most of the day, and is rain or shine, so bring clothing for any weather. Bathroom facilities are available at the last 2 stops. Trip is limited to 20 registrants. Trip C2b. NE-NAGT K-12 Teachers Field Trip: Exploring New England Geologic History Leaders: Lori Weeden, Tarin Weiss and Steve Winters Description: This field trip is designed to accompany a Professional Development Points -earning workshop for K-12 teachers from southern New England (see Trip C2a, above). The workshop reviews basic geologic principles as well as the geologic history of New England. We will also discuss ways to bring geology into the classroom with the goal of inspiring the K-12 student to investigate his or her surroundings from a new perspective. The geology of southern New England is complex. New England can also be an exciting, if not challenging, place to study geology—from the numerous exotic terranes, Paleozoic sediments, and Mesozoic sediments to the erosion and deposition of Cenozoic glaciation. The field trip closely follows the Mesozoic Hartford Basin field trip mapped out by Phil Resor, with additional stops indicating glacially-influenced topographic features. We will be looking at the geology from a point of view easily grasped by K-12 students. We will discuss age-appropriate examples of how to examine outcrops and ways to best reach the curious student. Starting point and other logistics: Please assemble at 9:00 am in the V parking lot on the Wesleyan campus. We will end the trip at the same location. Group size is limited to 20. Bring a packed lunch and all-weather clothing. Trip C3. The Role of Carboniferous Mid-Crustal Transpression and Lateral Escape in the Tectonic Development of South Central New England: Insights from Bedrock Mapping, Structural Analysis, and Geochronology Leaders: Matthew A. Massey, Timothy M. O’Brien, Lucas P. Rohrer, Thomas B. Walker, and David P. Moecher Description: Much of the focus of current research on collisional tectonics is directed to active orogens (e.g., the Alpine-Himalayan chain or Andes), largely due to the insight that can be gained from actively exhuming mountain belts. However, there remains much to be learned

about deeper crustal processes from the study of more deeply exhumed orogens, such as the Appalachian-Caledonide belt. Although the Appalachian orogen has a rich centuries-long history of study, new discoveries continue and remain to be made, while the application of modern ideas on orogens (e.g., the role of orogen parallel displacement, syn-convergent extension, slab roll back or break off) provide a basis for deepening our understanding of Appalachian evolution. Nearly a decade of research founded on bedrock mapping, structural analysis, documentation of kinematics and associated fabrics, and detailed zircon and monazite geochronology has provided the basis for a new tectonic model of south-central New England driven by progressive dextral transpression and lateral escape in the Carboniferous. This field trip is a south to north traverse across the Bronson Hill-Central Maine boundary zone throughout Massachusetts. We will examine the more accessible localities that highlight the lithologies, style of deformation, grade of metamorphism, and timing constraints that best illustrate progressive transpression and lateral escape tectonics. Much of the region examined on this trip was initially ascribed to the Lower to Middle Devonian Acadian orogeny associated with the convergence and accretion of Avalonia. We now know that observed structures, fabrics, and kinematics can be attributed to a much younger, poorly understood period of oblique convergence and lateral escape in the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian. Starting Point and Other Logistics: The trip will begin at 8:30 AM in Sturbridge, MA at the southwest corner of the Walmart parking lot in the Center at Hobbs Brook shopping center, located off of Highway 20, 0.20 miles southeast of the intersection between I-84 and I-90/MassPike (42.126708, -72.060906 - NAD83). Please bring your own lunch. Trip C4. Fluvial and Lacustrine Facies of the Jurassic Portland Formation, Hartford Basin, CT Leaders: Peter Drzewiecki and Steve Nathan Description: This trip will examine common continental facies that comprise the Jurassic Portland Formation in the Hartford Basin at three locations. The first stop will examine proximal braided river deposits in the town of Manchester, not far from the edge of the Hartford Basin. The second stop, also in Manchester, is characterized by sandy braided river deposits interbedded with floodplain paleosols, and is interpreted to represent a more distal environment. The final stop on the trip will be at the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Core Repository in Portland to examine cores from slightly older lacustrine and playa strata that represent deposits from the center of the basin. At each location, we will discuss the tectonic, climatic, and environmental controls on deposition, as well as temporal changes in deposition throughout basin history. In addition, we will discuss the potential of the deposits for both conventional and renewable energy. Starting point and other logistics: The trip will start at 9:00 AM at the back of the Home Depot parking lot located adjacent to the Buckland Mall (80 Buckland Hills Dr, Manchester, CT). Instructions to the next two stops will be provided on the trip. The trip will end at the core repository in Portland. The first two stops are outside. Dress appropriately for weather. Please

bring a packed lunch, as we will be eating at the core repository. Bathroom facilities will not be available at the first two stops, but are available at the core repository. Trip C5. Bedrock Geology Of The Core And Cover Rocks Of The Collinsville, Bristol, And Waterbury Domes, Western Connecticut Leader: Craig Dietsch Description: According to recent tectonic models of the New England Appalachians, the high-grade metasediments, amphibolites, and felsic orthogneisses exposed in western Connecticut between Cameron’s Line to the west and the Mesozoic Hartford Basin to the east belong to the Rowe-Hawley Zone; the orthogneisses and amphibolites exposed in the cores of domes along the eastern side of the Rowe-Hawley Zone belong to either a peri-Laurentian or peri-Gondwanan arc. Revisions to these models have been proposed based on detrital zircon data. On this fieldtrip, we will see dome core and cover rocks and explore the basis of, and challenges to, current tectonic models. In addition, major features of Acadian deformation and metamorphism will be seen as well as evidence that the deepest structural levels in the Waterbury dome record Taconic deformation. Starting Point and Other Logistics: Trip participants will convene at 8:30 am in Collinsville, CT, at the parking spaces along the west side of Canton Road (CT Route 179) 0.1 miles south of the intersection of Canton Road and Bridge Street (also CT Route 179) on the west side of the Farmington River. Google Earth coordinates: lat 41.8°, lon -72.9° Trip C6. Plymouth Bog Restoration in Progress Leader: Christine Hatch Description: For a variety of reasons both fictional and factual, Cranberry farming in Massachusetts is increasingly challenging economically, and some landowners are looking for something else to do with their valuable and very wet bog real estate. On this fieldtrip, we will use the “space for time” approach to explore the transition from active cranberry farm to restored freshwater marsh by visiting three locations: We’ll begin at the UMass Cranberry Station in East Wareham, MA. Next we’ll visit the Living Observatory at Tidmarsh Farms which was left fallow in 2003/2011, and will be breaking ground on active restoration work very near the time of our visit. Finally, we’ll end the day at Eel River Restoration Area in Plymouth, MA (yes, that Plymouth, MA), which was restored in 2010. Each location provides a snapshot of the restoration process at different moments in the evolution of these systems. We’ll discuss the impact of humans on the natural environment, as well as the philosophy and nuts and bolts of restoring former cranberry bogs to self-sustaining freshwater wetlands, upland grasslands and forests. Starting point and logistics: Field trip begins at 10:00 a.m. at the UMass Cranberry Station, East Wareham, MA 02538. Detailed directions here: http://www.umass.edu/cranberry/thestation/directions.html

http://www.umass.edu/cranberry/thestation/directions.htmlhttp://www.umass.edu/cranberry/thestation/directions.htmlhttp://www.umass.edu/cranberry/thestation/directions.html

At ~11:30 we’ll be at Living Observatory/ Tidmarsh Farms, 137 Bartlett Road, Manomet, MA 02345 (~30 mins away). At ~15:00 we’ll be at Eel River Reserve, the public parking lot is at ~181-185 Long Pond Rd, Plymouth, MA 02360 (Google Earth coordinates: 41.912594, -70.647425). Follow the nature trail over the hill to the restoration – we’ll start upstream and work our way down. Please bring lunch. Attendees are welcome to join us at any time throughout the day.

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