CompuServe Messages

The State of Vermont publishes a lot of inexpensive geological reports, but the best single source I've seen is "Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire." — one of the "Roadside Geology" series If you're just looking for a brief summary, the Green Mountains are to some extent a Northern extension of the Appalachians. Unlike the Appalachians which folded when North America collided with Eurafrica in the late Paleozoic, the Green Mountains formed as a series of thrust blocks stacked atop each other. The Westernmost thrust blocks are exposed more or less along the line of Lake Champlain and several thrust slices can be traced North to South in the hills to the West of the Green Mountains. The main body of the Green Mountains is composed of metamorphized Cambrian and Ordovician sediments. The area east of the main range of the Green Mountains is mostly younger Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferious sediments — also metamorphised with some granite domes lined up north to south down the Eastern side of Vermont. The remains of an island arc that got caught between Europe and North America can be found East of the Conneticut River in New Hampshire. All the rocks in Vermont are somewhat metamophized, with the least alteration along the Eastern and Western borders and the maximum being found in the"Talc Belt" along VT100 thru the center of the state. If you can let me know more about what you are interested in, I'll try to come up with specific references.