Trip C: Tectonic slivers of oceanic crust: sheeted dikes and sheared gabbros in the eastern Orange-Milford Belt, Connect

This trip examines the eastern part of the Orange-Milford belt (OMB) in south-central Connecticut, a wedge of chlorite to kyanite grade argillites and mafic rocks wedged between kyanite-sillimanite grade rocks of the “Rowe-Hawley zone” to the west and anatectic rocks of the Bronson Hill arc to the east. The unusual absence of Acadian and Alleghanian events in these rocks allows them to preserve pre-Acadian fabrics and structures otherwise unknown in the area. Our main focus will be the polydeformed ophiolitic slivers of the Maltby Lakes complex, which experienced complex prograde deformation before being faulted against the Ordovician (?) Savin Schist and intruded by the Silurian (?) Allingtown sheeted dike swarm. This trip features a ~1 mile walk through the Maltby Lakes Recreation Area, with a stop at Benjamin Silliman’s 1818 verde antique quarry. Other highlights include stops at the Bradley Point phyllonites on the shore of Long Island Sound and an…