
TECTONIC MAP EXPLANATION
Symbols
High-angle
normal fault, hachures on downthrown side.
Low-angle
thrust fault, barbs on overthrust block.
Boundary
along which a terrane was welded to North America.
Clarendon-Linden
monocline; draped over buried normal fault. Displacement is down to the
west.
-500- On land, depth to basement in meters below sea level (not shown below 5000 m due to complexity of basement contours); offshore, depth of water in meters. Circle shows location of drill hole to basement.
UNDEFORMED ROCKS Listed in General Order from Oldest to Youngest
Sedimentary
rocks of the North American platform, Late Proterozoic to Paleozoic in
age. Deposited in shallow seas on the stable North American craton.
Tectonically
passive. Rift basins of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic age, onshore and
offshore, filled with non-marine sedimentary rocks as well as basaltic
lava flows and their diabase feeders. Offshore basins are buried beneath
younger marine sediments. Records a period of crustal stretching and
rupture during opening of the Atlantic Ocean.
Mesozoic
plutons, mainly granitic, of Jurassic and Cretaceous age. Includes the
White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Monteregian Hills in southern
Quebec. Plutons were intruded late in the crustal stretching related to
opening of the Atlantic Ocean.
Marine
and continental sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Cretaceous to
Recent in age. Deposited near sea level as part of a passive continental
margin on the east coast of North America. Offshore, submarine sediments
and sedimentary rocks deposited since the North Atlantic Ocean began to
open about 200 million years ago in the Jurassic Period. Passive
continental margin.
DEFORMED ROCKS
Listed in Order of Deformation or Addition to North America
Archean
volcanic and granitic rocks of the Superior Province, metamorphosed at low
grade about 2.7 billion years ago. Lines show the trends of rock bodies.
Middle
Proterozoic basement of the North American craton, last deformed and
metamorphosed to high grade during the Grenville orogeny about 1 billion
years ago. Exposed in the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield and
the Adirondack Mountains, elsewhere buried beneath sedimentary rocks of
the platform.
Middle
Proterozoic basement deformed at high metamorphic grade during the
Grenville orogeny, and again, at medium grade, during the Taconian
orogeny. Some areas also deformed during the Acadian and Alleghanian
orogenies. Marine sedimentary rocks of an ancient continental shelf and
slope, but also includes rift volcanic and rift sediments.
Late
Proterozoic to Ordovician in age. Primarily deformed during the Taconian
orogeny, with some areas deformed by the Acadian orogeny in New England,
and the Alleghanian orogeny in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Low to high
metamorphic grade. Toothed areas are remnants of Taconian thrust sheets
that were transported westward onto the platform.
Early Paleozoic ultramafic rocks. Slivers of serpentinized oceanic crust
welded onto North America as the Iapetus Ocean closed during the Taconian
orogeny. Hachured areas show metamorphosed pre-Taconic mafic Baltimore
Complex in Maryland, and undeformed post-Taconic Cortlandt Complex in
southeastern New York.
Connecticut
Valley Synclinorium. Metamorphosed volcanic and marine sedimentary rocks
of Cambrian to Devonian age. Primarily deformed during the Acadian orogeny
at medium metamorphic grade.
Bronson Hill Anticlinorium in New England, and the Charlotte and Carolina
belts to the south. Metamorphosed volcanic island arc rocks, associated
marine rocks, and exotic Proterozoic basement. Low to high metamorphic
grade. This terrane was added to North America with the Taconian orogeny.
Later deformed by the Acadian and Alleghanian orogenies.
Merrimack Synclinorium. Metamorphosed volcanic and marine sedimentary
rocks of Cambrian to Devonian age. Deformed primarily during the Acadian
orogeny at medium to high metamorphic grade.
Avalon Terrane. Granite and associated volcanic rock of Late Proterozoic age, overlain by
metamorphosed marine and continental platform rocks of Late Proterozoic to
Ordovician age. Low to medium metamorphic grade.The Avalon microcontinent was added to North America with the Acadian
orogeny. Deformed by the Alleghanian orogeny. Small pieces of West Africa
(not shown) remained attached to the Avalon terrane.
Igneous and metamorphosed granitic rocks. Mostly Devonian through
Pennsylvanian in age and intruded during the Acadian and Alleghanian
orogenies. Includes both strongly deformed and undeformed rock.
Mississippian
and Pennsylvanian marine and terrestrial sedimentary rocks m deposited in
basins that formed after attachment of the Avalon terrane to North
America. The basins were created, filled, and deformed during a
sideways-slip phase of the Alleghanian orogeny.
Valley
and Ridge Fold Belt. (1) Anthracite grade rocks of Mississippian and
Pennsylvanian age. (2) Platform rocks of Middle to Late Paleozoic age. (3)
Platform rocks of Cambrian and Ordovician age. Deformed by compression
during the Alleghanian orogeny.
Paleozoic
sedimentary rocks of the North American Platform. Deformed into broad open
folds during the Alleghanian orogeny. These folds gradually diminish into
unfolded strata that glided northwestward on layers of salt. Compression
has shortened the unfolded strata parallel to layering by 10 percent.
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Overview of New York Geology Adapted From: EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET 33
By William B. Rogers, Yngvar W. Isachsen, Timothy D. Mock, and Richard E. Nyahay
http://gretchen.geo.rpi.edu/roecker/nys/nys_edu.pamphlet.html