The Prospect Rock thrust: western limit of the Taconian accretionary prism in the northern Green Mountain anticlinorium, Vermont

Abstract

This paper presents evidence for an early Taconian, west-directed fault in northern Vermont, the Prospect Rock thrust, which represents the trace of the contact between the Taconian oceanic accretionary prism (Dunnage Zone) and less allochthonous, continental margin rocks (Humber Zone). Mapping at 1 : 24 000 over the last decade has led to reassessment of units within the Camels Hump Group, resulting in newly defined lithotectonic packages: the Green Mountain slice and the Prospect Rock slice. Rocks in these slices may be of similar age, but those in the Green Mountain slice were originally deposited as more proximal sediments and remained on the Humber side of the sub duction zone, whereas those in the Prospect Rock slice were transferred by underplating to the accretionary prism. Both slices contain ultramafics. Motion on the Prospect Rock thrust (D1) preceded Taconian garnet-grade metamorphism and subsequent east-directed back-folding. However, D1 structures were diachronous across the orogen. Late Taconian (D2) structures record a change from east-verging back-folds in northern Vermont and southern Quebec to west-verging folds farther south. The Prospect Rock thrust does not correspond exactly to Cameron's line nor to the Baie Verte – Brompton line as originally defined. However, our understanding of the geometry of the Prospect Rock thrust demonstrates that the Dunnage Zone extends farther west than previously recognized and may also explain features farther to the east.