Gile Mountain Formation, undivided - Gray to tan metawacke and schist or phyllite; gradational into Meetinghouse Slate Member but more thickly bedded and less pelitic than the member. Includes minor metavolcanic lentils.
Upper part of Rangeley Formation - Rusty-weathering, pelitic schist, metasandstone, and local coarse-grained metasandstone lentils; calc-silicate pods common; minor coticule. Probably equivalent to member C of Rangeley Formation of Maine.
Ammonoosuc Volcanics - Fine-grained chloritic and biotitic gneiss and greenstone in areas north of Bellows Falls; biotite gneiss and amphibolite south of Bellows Falls. (Southeastern Vermont).
Exeter Diorite(Early Devonian)at surface, covers 0.6 % of this area
Exeter Diorite - Includes associated intrusive rocks of southeastern New Hampshire; pyroxene and pyroxene-hornblende diorite and gabbro, along with minor granodiorite and granite.
Granite porphyry (Early Jurassic)at surface, covers 0.5 % of this area
Granite porphyry - Granite containing phenocrysts of smoky quartz and microperthite; alkalic amphibole, hornblende, and hedenbergite or fayalite may be present. "Mount Lafayette" type granite porphyry of Billings (1955).
Littleton Formation - Gray slate and phyllite containing interbeds of gray schistose quartzite 1/4 inch to 6 inches thick. West of Guildhall are lustrous, light to dark gray biotite-garnet phyllite and schist, some slate, and subordinate quartzite and impure quartzite. South of Bellows Falls gray phyllite passes eastward into gray mica schist containing porphyroblasts of biotite, garnet, and staurolite.
Madrid Formation (Upper Silurian? )at surface, covers 0.6 % of this area
Madrid Formation - Massive to weakly foliated, purple biotite-feldspar granofels, layered calc-silicate, and dark pelitic-sulfidic schist containing calc-silicate pods in upper member; an eastern facies equivalent to the upper part of the Fitch Formation. Locally mapped as the Warner Formation of Nielson (1981) in southern New Hampshire.
Merrimack Group, Berwick Formation - Purple biotite-quartz-feldspar granofels or schist and interbeds of calc-silicate granofels and minor metapelites. Stratigraphic sequence with respect to Eliot Formation uncertain
Lower part of Rangeley Formation - Gray, thinly laminated (5-25 mm) metapelite with local lentils of turbidites and thin quartz conglomerates in western New Hampshire. Sparse calc-silicate pods and coticule. Probably equivalent to member B of Rangeley Formation of Maine.
Breakfast Hill Granite of Novotny (1964) - Blastomylonitic quartz-feldspar granitic gneiss and pegmatite intruded the Rye Complex and formed a migmatite.
Winnipesaukee Tonalite (Winnipesaukee Quartz Diorite of Billings, 1955) - Gray, massive to foliated tonalite and minor quartz diorite, granodiorite, and granite. Probably coeval with Spaulding Tonalite.
Fitch Formation - Metamorphosed limestone, calcareous sandstone, siltstone, and dark pelitic schist; lower contact is disconformable on the Clough Quartzite. Fossiliferous.
Oakdale Formation - Metamorphosed thin-bedded, pelitic and calcareous siltstone and muscovite schist, probably low-grade equivalent of Paxton Formation. The Oakdale Formation is here revised to include strata previously mapped in CT and adjacent MA as the Hebron Formation and the Scotland Schist. The Scotland Member (Pease, 1980) is renamed the Scotland Schist Member of the Oakdale. The Oakdale is a homogeneous, calcareous metasiltstone at the base of a thick stratigraphic sequence in a geosyncline terrane and extends from NH to the Honey Hill fault in eastern CT. In central eastern CT it underlies the Hebron Formation; in northeast CT and adjacent MA it underlies conformably the Dudley Formation of the Paxton Group; in central MA it underlies the Paxton Group undivided. The lower part of the Oakdale is cut out along the Clinton-Newbury fault zone. Thickness in type area is about 1500 m. Correlative with the Gove Member of the Berwick Formation in NH and the Gonic Formation in ME. Age is Late Proterozoic(?) based on intrusion of 440 Ma Hedgehog Hill gneiss in the upper part of the Brimfield Group at the top of the stratigraphic sequence, and an age of 1188 Ma for detrital zircons from the Paxton in north-central MA (Pease, 1989).
Newburyport Complex - Gray, medium-grained porphyritic granite with microcline phenocrysts; intrudes SOk. Newburyport Complex was divided into two facies, tonalitic granodiorite and granite, by Shride (1971). Tonalitic facies was originally termed Newburyport Quartz Diorite and included dioritic rocks north of Clinton-Newbury fault zone that are now called Sharpners Pond Diorite in Nashoba zone, and Topsfield Granodiorite in Milford-Dedham zone. These correlations are no longer tenable due to differences in age and composition. Therefore, Newburyport Complex is restricted to the two facies present in Newburyport area. Rocks formerly mapped as Newburyport Quartz Diorite and Salem Gabbro-Diorite, except for gabbros at Salem Neck, MA, are included in undifferentiated diorite and gabbro unit (Zdigb) on MA State Geologic Map (Zen and others, 1983), largely because they could not be mapped separately at 1:250,000 scale. Unit Zdigb also includes mafic dikes and sills that are probably younger or contemporaneous. Most of the dioritic rocks northeast of Boston previously assigned to Newburyport Quartz Diorite are now assigned to an undifferentiated diorite unit (Zdi) on MA State Geologic Map. Newburyport Complex forms a large mass near Newburyport and a small one to its west, both truncated by Clinton-Newbury fault. Tonalite and granodiorite facies occupies core of Newburyport Complex at Newburyport and is intruded to the north by granite facies; described as medium to dark gray in fresh rock, weathering to both green and red, fine to medium grained, and highly variable in mineralogy. A U-Pb zircon age of 455 +/-15 Ma was determined by Zartman and Naylor (1984) for the tonalite. Granite facies intrudes both the Kittery Formation and the tonalite and granodiorite facies and covers an area of about 45 sq km. Described as light gray to dark gray, buff weathering, and porphyritic. No radiometric ages available for granite facies, but it is conceivable that the two facies are different in age. [Papers presented as chapters in U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1366 are intended as explanations and (or) revisions to MA State bedrock geologic map of Zen and others (1983) at scale of 1:250,000.] (Wones and Goldsmith, 1991).
Rhyolite and fine-grained granite - Includes some ignimbritic caldera-fill and minor intrusive rocks (part of Ossipee Mountain Complex of Kingsley, 1931); also some aphanitic gray, black, or tan quartz-feldspar porphyry.
Rangeley Formation, Ribbon-banded calc-silicate of eastern New Hampshire - Probably equivalent to Patch Mountain Member of the Sangerville Formation (Llandoverian and Wenlockian) of central Maine.
Hurricane Mountain Formation - Rusty-weathered, dark siliceous scaly slate or schist of flaser structure, polymictic fragments from a few mm to (in Maine) several hundred meters. A melange consisting of metasedimentary, felsic/mafic metavolcanics, and ultramafic rocks..
Pink equigranular biotite granite - Found in Woodsville and Whitefield quadrangles and in small intrusive units in northern and southeastern New Hampshire.
Gile Mountain Formation - Gray quartz-muscovite phyllite or schist, interbedded and intergradational with gray micaceous quartzite (graywacke northeast of Nulhegan River), calcareous mica schist, and, locally, quartzose and micaceous crystalline limestone like that of the Waits River formation. The phyllite and schist commonly contain porphyroblasts of biotite, garnet, or staurolite, and locally kyanite, andalusite, or sillimanite. Used as Early Devonian Gile Mountain Formation. Generally consists of gray to tan metawacke and schist or phyllite, gradational into its Meetinghouse Slate Member, but much more thickly bedded and less pelitic. Contains minor metavolcanic lentils. Unnamed metavolcanic member is possibly equivalent to Putney Volcanics of southeastern VT. Separately mapped interbedded gray slate or phyllite and brown-weathering calcite-ankerite metasiltstone, and minor marble and quartzite, resembles Waits River Formation of VT. Meetinghouse Slate Member consists of gray to black phyllite and silty metasandstone turbidite. Report includes geologic map, cross sections, correlation chart, and four 1:500,000-scale derivative maps (Lyons and others, 1997).
Spaulding Tonalite (Spaulding Quartz Diorite of Fowler-Billings, 1949) - Weakly foliated to nonfoliated, spotted biotite quartz diorite, tonalite, granodiorite, and granite; garnet and muscovite may or may not be present.
Gile Mountain Formation, Hall Stream Member - Highly feldspathic grit, probably volcanic; feldspathic chlorite-ankerite schist and amphibolite; all northeast of Nulhegan River.
Bethlehem Gneiss(Devonian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Bethlehem Gneiss - Two-mica granodiorite gneiss. Revised as the Bethlehem Granodiorite to emphasize its average granodiorite composition. Mapped as the Haverhill, Mount Clough, Indian Pond, and Fairlee plutons. Consists of strongly metamorphosed, foliated, gray, medium-grained biotite granodiorite and local tonalite and granite. Age is Devonian based on isotopic age of 410+/-5 Ma (J.N. Aleinikoff, this report, from Fairlee pluton), which is also consistent with age of 409+/-5 Ma reported by Kohn and others (1992) from Indian Pond pluton and Bellows Falls pluton (the latter is outside of map area in southwestern NH) (Moench and others, 1995).
Littleton Formation undivided - Gray metapelite and metawacke and subordinate metavolcanic rocks; generally, but not everywhere, conformable with underlying Fitch or Madrid Formations. Fossiliferous in western New Hampshire.
Massabesic Gneiss Complex - Migmatite consisting of pink, foliated biotite granite intruding gneissic and granulose metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks in southeastern New Hampshire.
Albee Formation(Ordovician)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Albee Formation - Massive, gray, white-weathered quartzite and feldspathic quartzite interbedded with greenish-gray slate, phyllite, feldspthic phyllite and quartzose argillaceous phyllite. Micaceous quartzite, quartz-mica schist, mica schist and hornfels contining porphyroblasts of biotite, garnet, staurolite and sillimanite in the vicinity of granitic plutons. Soda-rhyolite tuff occurs locally. Micaceous quartzite characterized by thin, schistose "pinstripe" partings is common in many areas.
Smalls Falls Formation, undivided -Very rusty weathering, thinly bedded sulfidic-graphitic schist and pyrrhotitic calc-silicate granofels. Eastern facies equivalent to lower part of the Fitch Formation. Locally mapped as Francestown Formation of Nielson (1981) in southern New Hampshire.
Rangeley Formation, Pink to green calc-silicate and purple biotite granofels - Thinly bedded. Close to transition from lower to upper parts of the Rangeley Formation. Probably equivalent to part of Paxton Formation of Zen and others (1983) in Massachusetts.
Berwick Formation - Thin- to thick-bedded metamorphosed calcareous sandstone, siltstone, and minor muscovite schist. In New Hampshire: Used as Berwick Formation of Merrimack Group. Consists of purple biotite-feldspar granofels or schist. Contains interbeds of calcsilicate granofels and minor metapelites. Includes Gove Member, mapped separately. Stratigraphic sequence with respect to Eliot Formation is uncertain. Age of all formations in Merrimack Group changed to Ordovician(?) to Silurian(?) based on isotopic age determinations of approx 440 and 420 Ma from detrital zircons from Berwick by J.N. Aleinikoff (oral commun., 1994) (Lyons and others, 1997).
Migmatitic rocks(Devonian - Silurian)at surface, covers 0.5 % of this area
Migmatitic rocks - Formations unidentifiable owing to obliteration of original sedimentary or volcanic characteristics by anatexis or by numerous intrusions.
Rye Complex(Ordovician? - Late Proterozoic?)at surface, covers 0.3 % of this area
Rye Complex - Migmatite of gray, foliated, sheared or mylonitized two-mica granite and pegmatite, minor hornblende-biotite diorite, intruding metapelites and metavolcanic rocks in southeastern New Hampshire.
Member C (uppermost) of the Rangeley Formation in Maine and northeastern and southwestern New Hampshire - Quartz-pebble conglomerate overlain by rusty metapelite and feldspathic quartzite.
Jim Pond Formation - Pillow metabasalt member. Lenses within the Hurricane Mountain Formation of northern New Hampshire interpreted as tectonic rafts of Jim Pond Formation.
Littleton Formation, Upper unnamed member - Light-gray metaturbidite, lithologically identical to, and probably correlative with, the Seboomook Formation of Maine. Coticule layers common.
Ayer Granite(Lower Silurian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Ayer Granite - Granite to tonalite, partly porphyritic; locally gneissic, locally muscovitic; may include rocks older than Silurian; intrudes Sb and So. Ayer Granite is divided into the Clinton facies and the Devens-Long Pond facies (Gore, 1976). In addition, there are some masses not assigned to either facies that intrude Berwick Formation west and northwest of Lawrence, and that intrude Paxton and Oakdale Formations south of Worcester and west of probable southern continuation of Wekepeke fault. Radiometric ages obtained for facies of Ayer pose problems in assigning ages to unfossiliferous sedimentary rocks they intrude. Clinton facies has a well-defined U-Pb zircon age of 433 +/-5 Ma (Zartman and Naylor, 1984) that authors cite as Early Silurian; Devens-Long Pond facies has a similar age. This age greatly compresses the time available for deposition, burial, deformation, and metamorphism of Berwick and Paxton if these units are truly Silurian. Some of the Ayer not assigned to a facies may have been more properly correlated with Early Devonian Chelmsford Granite and muscovite-biotite granite at Millstone Hill. Bodies south of Worcester may be more properly correlated with Canterbury Gneiss of CT, which lies on strike with Ayer and has Early Devonian age of 329 +/-9 Ma (Zartman and Naylor, 1984). Zartman and Naylor (1984) believe Ayer Granite has same age range as Newburyport Complex. It is quite possible, based on textural and mineralogical differences that the two facies should be separate units, representing different magmatic events (Wones and Goldsmith, 1991).
Littleton Formation, Calc-silicate rock - Possibly equivalent in part to Hildreths Formation of Maine but not restricted to one horizon. Locally fossiliferous, as in Moosilauke quadrangle.
Partridge Formation, undivided - Black, rusty-weathering sulfidic-graphitic slate or schist and sparse to abundant metagraywacke. Lies stratigraphically between upper and lower parts of the Ammonoosuc Volcanics.
Basalt(Cretaceous )at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Basalt - Black, chiefly massive to porphyritic. Includes minor rhyolitic ignimbrite and andesitic tuff. Part of Ossipee Mountain Complex of Kingsley (1931)
Metadiorite(Devonian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Metadiorite - Dikes and sills of metagabbro, metadiabase and meta-andesite too small to show are chiefly in the Missisquoi, Albee, and Orfodville formations.
Clough Quartzite (Lower Silurian (upper Llandoverian))at surface, covers 0.3 % of this area
Clough Quartzite - Orthoquartzite, quartz metaconglomerate, muscovite schist, minor polymictic metaconglomerate. Disconformable below Fitch Formation and unconformable on Ordovician formations. Equivalent, in part, to member C of Rangeley Formation of Maine. Fossiliferous.
Newburyport Complex(Silurian or Ordovician)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Newburyport Complex - Gray, medium-grained tonalite and granodiorite. Newburyport Complex was divided into two facies, tonalitic granodiorite and granite, by Shride (1971). Tonalitic facies was originally termed Newburyport Quartz Diorite and included dioritic rocks north of Clinton-Newbury fault zone that are now called Sharpners Pond Diorite in Nashoba zone, and Topsfield Granodiorite in Milford-Dedham zone. These correlations are no longer tenable due to differences in age and composition. Therefore, Newburyport Complex is restricted to the two facies present in Newburyport area. Rocks formerly mapped as Newburyport Quartz Diorite and Salem Gabbro-Diorite, except for gabbros at Salem Neck, MA, are included in undifferentiated diorite and gabbro unit (Zdigb) on MA State Geologic Map (Zen and others, 1983), largely because they could not be mapped separately at 1:250,000 scale. Unit Zdigb also includes mafic dikes and sills that are probably younger or contemporaneous. Most of the dioritic rocks northeast of Boston previously assigned to Newburyport Quartz Diorite are now assigned to an undifferentiated diorite unit (Zdi) on MA State Geologic Map. Newburyport Complex forms a large mass near Newburyport and a small one to its west, both truncated by Clinton-Newbury fault. Tonalite and granodiorite facies occupies core of Newburyport Complex at Newburyport and is intruded to the north by granite facies; described as medium to dark gray in fresh rock, weathering to both green and red, fine to medium grained, and highly variable in mineralogy. A U-Pb zircon age of 455 +/-15 Ma was determined by Zartman and Naylor (1984) for the tonalite. Granite facies intrudes both the Kittery Formation and the tonalite and granodiorite facies and covers an area of about 45 sq km. Described as light gray to dark gray, buff weathering, and porphyritic. No radiometric ages available for granite facies, but it is conceivable that the two facies are different in age. [Papers presented as chapters in U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1366 are intended as explanations and (or) revisions to MA State bedrock geologic map of Zen and others (1983) at scale of 1:250,000.] (Wones and Goldsmith, 1991).
Paxton Formation(Silurian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Paxton Formation - Undifferentiated biotite granofels, calc-silicate granofels, and sulfidic schist. The Paxton, here of group rank, includes strata formerly mapped in CT as the Hebron Formation and in MA as the Paxton Formation. It conformably overlies the Oakdale Formation and structurally and conformably underlies the Brimfield Group. It is undivided in central MA; in northeast CT and adjacent MA it is divided into the Dudley and Southbridge Formations. Age is Late Proterozoic(?) based on the intrusion of 440 m.y. Hedgehog Hill gneiss into the overlying Brimfield Group and an age of 1188 m.y. for detrital zircons from the Paxton (Pease, 1989).
Berwick Formation - Mica schist. In New Hampshire: Used as Berwick Formation of Merrimack Group. Consists of purple biotite-feldspar granofels or schist. Contains interbeds of calcsilicate granofels and minor metapelites. Includes Gove Member, mapped separately. Stratigraphic sequence with respect to Eliot Formation is uncertain. Age of all formations in Merrimack Group changed to Ordovician(?) to Silurian(?) based on isotopic age determinations of approx 440 and 420 Ma from detrital zircons from Berwick by J.N. Aleinikoff (oral commun., 1994) (Lyons and others, 1997).
Eliot Formation(Silurian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Eliot Formation - Phyllite and calcareous phyllite. In New Hampshire: Used as Eliot Formation of Merrimack Group. Consists of gray to green phyllite, calcareous quartzite, quartz-mica schist, and well-bedded calc-silicate. Includes Calef Member, mapped separately. Age of all formations in Merrimack Group changed to Ordovician(?) to Silurian(?) based on isotopic age determinations of approx 440 and 420 Ma from detrital zircons from Berwick Formation (of Merrimack Group) by J.N. Aleinikoff (oral commun., 1994) (Lyons and others, 1997).
Interbedded gray slate or phyllite and brown-weathering calcite-ankerite metasiltstone - Contains minor marble and quartzite. Resembles Waits River Formation in Vermont.
Orfordville Formation, Post Pond Volcanics - Greenstone, green chloritic schist interbedded with schistose felsite, quartz-feldspar-sericite schist; fine-grained chloritic, biotitic gneiss, all west of Ammonoosuc fault; mainly amphibolite east of the Ammonoosuc fault.
Fitch Formation(Silurian)at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
Fitch Formation - Quartz-plagioclase-biotite granulite; actinolite-diopside granulite; impure limestone and dolomite; mica schist; the carbonate-rich beds are typically an inch or two thick and segmented so as to give the weathered outcrop a characteristic pitted appearance. (Southeastern Vermont).
Greenvale Cove Formation - Grayish-violet interlaminated metashale, feldspathic metasandstone, and calc-silicate rock of the Piermont allochthon in western New Hampshire.
Massive to weakly foliated, pink and gray, fine- to medium-grained biotite granite - In the Townsend area; commonly contains pink magnetite-bearing pegmatite identical to granite of Milford, New Hampshire; intrudes OZma and Sp.
Merrimack Group, Kittery Formation - Tan, graded-bedded, calcareous metasandstone and purple and green phyllite. Grades into the Eliot formation but facing direction is uncertain.
Gile Mountain Formation, Meetinghouse Slate Member - Chiefly gray slate or phyllite characterized by beds of gray schistose quartzite 1/8 inch to 3 inches thick. Gile Mountain Formation and its Meetinghouse Slate Member were previously considered to be Early Devonian based on Emsian plant fossils from Compton Formation of QUE (Hueber and others, 1990; Hatch, 1991). Age assignment here changed to Early Devonian(?) because recent mapping indicates that Gile Mountain and Compton are not coextensive across VT-QUE border as formerly believed by Doll and others (1961, State map) and St. Julien and Slivitsky (1987). Instead, the formations are separated by Ironbound Mountain Formation. Ironbound Mountain Formation is conformably overlain by Compton, but it is not yet known whether Ironbound Mountain is overlain or underlain by Gile Mountain; this is shown by queried Ironbound Mountain-Gile Mountain contact in area of Averill 7.5-min quad, VT. Correlation of Gile Mountain and Compton is justified only if Gile Mountain in this area conclusively is shown to be underlain by Ironbound Mountain; otherwise, Gile Mountain (with possible exception of its Meetinghouse Slate Member) would be coeval with Silurian Frontenac Formation. Hatch (1988) proposed that Meetinghouse represents upper part of Gile Mountain on basis of graded bedding seen south of map area. This relationship is not proven, however, because Gile Mountain-Meetinghouse contact is difficult to define and graded beds are not always easily interpreted. On this map, Meetinghouse is tentatively shown to occur below main body of Gile Mountain on basis of remarkable similarity between it and Ironbound Mountain Formation. This relationship easily explains highly pelitic character of the Meetinghouse with upward-coarsening character of Lower Devonian sequences elsewhere in map area. Meetinghouse Slate Member includes volcanic facies (Moench and others, 1995).
Large mesoperthitic phenocrysts in a pink to gray quartz syenite porphyry of "Albany type" - Alkalic amphibole or fayalite may be present. Part of Ossipee Mountain Complex of Kingsley (1931).
Ironbound Mountain Formation, Grits at Halls Stream in northern New Hampshire - Thickly bedded feldspathic volcaniclastic grit and interbedded gray slate. Equivalent to Grenier Ponds Member of the Ironbound Mountain Formation in western Maine.
Frontenac Formation, Massive tan- or brown-weathering calcite-ankerite-muscovite granofels and interbedded gray metapelite - Probably partly a facies equivalent to the Waits River Formation in Vermont.