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Beardsley Member [of Harrison (Prospect) Gneiss]

Beardsley (hornblendic) Member [of Harrison (Prospect) Gneiss] - Medium- to dark-gray, medium-grained, well-layered and lineated gneiss, composed of plagioclase, quartz, microcline, hornblende, biotite, and epidote. Microcline may occur as megacrysts 1 to 3 cm across. Minor layers of garnetiferous schist and rarely of calc-silicate rock or marble. Pumpkin Ground and Beardsley Members of Harrison Gneiss, formerly considered conformable metavolcanic members, are here recognized as juxtaposed metaplutonic units and are renamed the Beardsley and Pumpkin Ground orthogneisses. Isotopic dating yields crystallization ages of 428+/-2 Ma (Early Silurian) for the Pumpkin Ground and 446+/-2 Ma (Late Ordovician) for the Beardsley. Age of the Beardsley based on analysis of seven zircon and two sphene fractions. The Harrison Gneiss as described by Rodgers (1985) has no stratigraphic significance and cannot be correlated regionally (Sevigny and Hanson, 1993).
StateConnecticut
NameBeardsley Member [of Harrison (Prospect) Gneiss]
Geologic ageMiddle? Ordovician
Original map labelOhb
CommentsPart of Central Lowlands; Iapetus (Oceanic) Terrane - Connecticut Valley Synclinorium; Hartland Belt Secondary unit description per CT007.
Primary rock typegneiss
Secondary rock typeschist
Other rock typescalc-silicate rock; marble
Lithologic constituents
Major
Metamorphic > GneissMedium- to dark-gray, medium-grained, well-layered and lineated gneiss, composed of plagioclase, quartz, microcline, hornblende, biotite, and epidote. Microcline may occur as megacrysts 1 to 3 cm across.
Minor
Metamorphic > SchistMinor layers of garnetiferous schist.
Incidental
Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Calc-silicate-rockrarely calc-silicate rock
Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metacarbonate > Marblerarely marble
Map references
Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey, DEP, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, 2000, Bedrock Geology of Connecticut, data format: shapefile, file name: bedrock, downloaded from: http://magic.lib.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/MAGIC_DBsearch2.pl?Geography=37800&Loc=0000 on 9/18/2003, scale 1:50,000.
Unit references
Rodgers, John, compiler, 1985, Bedrock Geological Map of Connecticut: Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey, Hartford, Connecticut, 2 sheets, scale 125,000.
Sevigny, J.H. and Hanson, G.N., 1993, Orogenic evolution of the New England Appalachians of southwestern Connecticut: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 105, no. 12, p. 1591-1605.
Geographic coverageFairfield - Hartford - New Haven

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