Abstract
Hornblende and biotite /sup 40/Ar//sup 39/Ar age spectra from rocks in south-central Connecticut help define a Permian-Triassic cooling curve for the area. Together with petrologic and structural information, a time-temperature-pressure-strain path is established. Similar data for the Narragansett basin in Rhode Island and Massachusetts allow correlation of the late Paleozoic histories of the two areas. Together, these data suggest that in the late Paleozoic, south-central New England was part of a fold-thrust belt, and the Narragansett basin was a retroarc foreland basin. NW-SE compression during the final assembly of Pangaea resulted in SE directed thrusting, causing the development of clastic wedges in adjacent Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian. A clockwise rotation of this deformation from NW to NNE led to northward underthrusting and concomitant uplift of both eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island in the Permian and Triassic.
Published Version
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