Part 3

The tilt or dip of the Park rocks resulted from subsequent earth movements. When were these rocks tilted? From the evidence presented in the Park all that can be said is that they were tilted sometime after hardening and before the Pleistocene glaciers overrode the region during quite recent times (at least 10,000 years ago). Thus, there are some 350 million years of rock record missing in the Park. Can we tell what happened during these “missing” years through a study of only the Park rocks? The answer to this question is partially “yes,” but we must look to the work done in adjacent areas for a more complete story.

The mere fact that there are no rocks representing these millions of years tells us that the sea had withdrawn from the area and that the previously deposited rocks were undergoing erosion during most or all of the missing rock gap (the time not represented by rocks). Information from adjacent areas, however, tells us that the Park rocks were tilted during the Taconic Disturbance which occurred during the final stages of the Ordovician Period. East of the Park, Taconic earth movements are more dramatically exhibited. The rocks are tilted even more than in the Park and are broken by faults or cracks in the earth’s crust. Some of these faults, known as thrust faults, positioned giant slabs of rock far from their original locations and placed older on top of younger rocks.

Following these earth movements there occurred a long period of erosion. Many of the rock layers were stripped off and carried piece by piece by rivers to other regions. Hundreds of millions of years passed and then, less than one million years ago the great glacial ice sheets slowly advanced southward over the Park area. Pieces of hard rock frozen to the underside of the ice sheets scratched and scraped the rock surfaces leaving these scratches or striations for us to see today (near the northern end of the Park beach these striations are common on the outcropping rock). The retreating glaciers created a series of lakes in which clay, silt, sand and gravel were deposited. Today these sediments are found resting on the beveled edges of the Park rocks.

Present-day Lake Champlain owes its existence to a general uplift of the earth’s surface, greater in the north than in the south, perhaps due to the removal of the heavy glacial ice sheet from the area. The greater uplift in the north dammed the Champlain valley which slowly filled with water. For a diagrammatic picture of the geologic history of D.A.R. State Park, see Figure 7.

SUGGESTED READING

Beerbower, J. R., 1960, Search for the Past, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Collinson, C. C., 1959, Guide for beginning fossil hunters, Educational Series 4, Illinois State Geological Survey, Urbana, Ill.

Dunbar, C. O., 1959, Historical geology, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Fenton, C. L., 1937, Life long ago, The John Day Co., New York.

Goldring, Winifred, 1931, Handbook of paleontology for beginners and amateurs, part 2, Handbook 9, New York State Museum, Albany, New York.

—— ——, 1950, Handbook of paleontology for beginners and amateurs, part 1, Handbook 9, 2nd Edition, New York State Museum, Albany, New York.

Moore, R. C., 1958, Introduction to historical geology, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.

Shimer, H. W., 1933, Introduction to study of fossils, The Macmillan Co., New York.

Simpson, G. G., 1953, Life of the past, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.

Stokes, W. L., 1960, Essentials of earth history, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Welby, C. W., 1961, Bedrock geology of the Central Champlain Valley of Vermont, Vermont Geological Survey Bull. 14.

—— ——, 1962, Paleontology of the Champlain Basin in Vermont, Vermont Geological Survey Special Publication 1.

THE GEOLOGY OF MT. PHILO STATE FOREST PARK

INTRODUCTION

Mt. Philo State Forest Park, consisting of some 160 acres, is located about 15 miles south of Burlington and 1 mile east of U.S. Route 7 (see map, Fig. 1). This park is noted for its scenic views, especially of the broad Champlain Valley and the rugged Adirondack Mountains beyond (see cover picture and Fig. 7a). From a 46-foot high observation tower a panoramic view is easily gained. Picnic facilities, including stone fireplaces, fuel wood, piped spring water and sanitary facilities are available. A large rustic lodge with porch and portico provides protection from sudden showers. Tenting on the top of Mt. Philo is not allowed.

THE GEOLOGY OF THE PARK

The Rocks

The rocks of the Park which will probably first attract your attention are those exposed at the main western Overlook which is located in the summit area. This Overlook is found just northwest of the Park lodge (see Fig. 8). These rocks are light to dark red or purplish in color, are primarily quartzite with minor dolostone dipping approximately 35 degrees to the northeast (for an explanation of dip, see Fig. 3 and text of D.A.R. State Park, page 6) and striking toward the northwest (for an explanation of strike, see immediately preceding reference).

A closer look at this Monkton Quartzite outcrop shows that it is made up of several layers of rock (see Fig. 8). These layers, strata, or beds are not all of the same thickness, but are generally from 1 inch to 1 foot thick. If an individual layer is traced over the extent of the outcrop, it is found that its thickness remains about the same throughout. It is therefore said to be regularly bedded. Thin laminations of dark red shale are abundant and commonly define individual layers. A magnified look at a specimen of this quartzite, under a hand lens, shows that it is composed of fine to coarse fragments of quartz. Some of these fragments have rounded edges, but others are quite angular. The spaces between the fragments are filled with silica (quartz). Therefore, the rock is said to possess a silica cement.

In many places where this Monkton Quartzite has been studied, features attesting to a shallow water origin have been found. Among these features are mud cracks, which form under alternating wet and dry conditions; ripple marks, which are usually found only on shallow water bottoms; and cross-bedding, which commonly forms in shallow water areas.

The Monkton Quartzite underlies approximately a third of the Park (see Geologic map, Fig. 9). This quartzite is between 250 and 300 feet thick on Mt. Philo; however, the lower 50 feet or so consist predominantly of white quartzite interbedded with dolostone. The age of the Monkton Quartzite is considered to be Lower Cambrian (see Standard Geologic Time Scale, Fig. 4).

LEGEND UPPER MIDDLE ORDOVICIAN Oib Iberville shale Osp Stony Point shale Ogf Glens Falls limestone LOWER CAMBRIAN Cm Monkton quartzite Park roads Other roads Contour line Approximate park boundary Dip and strike symbol. Layers dip 21° toward N.E. Approximate contact of rock units. Surface trace of thrust (low-angle) fault, carat on upthrown side Inferred trace of thrust (low-angle) fault, carat on upthrown side Surface trace of high-angle fault Dip and strike of cleavage Observation tower

A second type of rock is exposed in the south bank of the exit road approximately 0.7 miles from the summit area. This is the black to bluish-black Stony Point Shale (see Fig. 10), which underlies the Monkton quartzite. This shale, or hardened limy mud, is thinbedded and shows abundant cleavage parallel to the layers or beds. At this outcrop the layers strike to the northeast and dip 20 to 40 degrees toward the southeast. The dip and strike of the Monkton Quartzite (see above) is not similar to the dip and strike of the underlying Stony Point Shale. It follows, that the layers of the Monkton Quartzite are not parallel to those of the Stony Point Shale.