Exploring Franklin County examples

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This is a section of a page from “Exploring Franklin County” --  Appendix 6.

Note that these layers were formerly horizontal but have been tilted down to the east by quake movements along the Eastern Border Fault. Conglomerate rock (circles) is concentrated to the east of all the sedimentary layers since this area would have been closer to the steep mountains, where river flow was fast. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS  with topics and page numbers

3. Preface and Acknowledgements

7.  INTRODUCTION: GEOLOGY IN FIVE STEPS

STEP ONE: ROCKS. 

STEP TWO: GEOLOGIC TIME – THE PALEOZOIC ERA

STEP THREE: MESOZOIC EVENTS, THE BIG SPLIT

STEP FOUR: ICE AGES

STEP FIVE: RECENT EVENTS

17.  FRANKLIN COUNTY SITES (alphabetically listed by town)

17. ASHFIELD

Chapel Ledge and Falls

18. BERNARDSTON AND WEST NORTHFIELD

A Drive Through Glacial Monuments

24. COLRAIN

Catamount Dens and Caves

27. CONWAY

Conway Station

31. DEERFIELD

A Terrace Drive

Mt. Sugarloaf

41. ERVING

French King Bridge 

Rte. 2 Cliffs

The Great Wall

49. GILL

Barton Cove

Rte. 2 Overlook

Rock & Roll in the Mesozoic Rift along Rte. 2 

60. GREENFIELD

Greenfield Community College: Geology Path and When the River Meandered to College

Poet’s Seat Tower

Highland Park Lava Cliff

Stop and Shop: World’s Best Geology Field Site 

The World’s Only Church with an Armored Mud Ball

Stand Where Dinosaur Footprint Study Began

74. LEVERETT

Rattlesnake Gutter

Cave Hill

77. MONTAGUE

Turners Falls Walking Tour

Drive to Delta, Dunes, Kettles, and Spiritualists on the Montague Plain

86. NEW SALEM

Bears Den: A Cave with a Window

88. NORTHFIELD

Brush and Crag – Rock’n View

91. ORANGE 

Tully Mountain

Rte. 2 Cliff and Batchelder Road Folds

95. SHELBURNE FALLS

The High Ledges

“Glacial” Potholes

101. SUNDERLAND

The Sunderland Caves

Mt. Toby & Jelly Rolls

Roaring Brook Trail

Cranberry Pond to Long Plain Delta

108. MOHAWK TRAIL ROAD TRIP : Orange to North Adams

Amazing Route 2 Roadside Attractions from Central Uplands Exotic Terranes to the Paleozoic Edge of North America in the middle of the Berkshires. Includes Tannery Falls, Savoy ( p. 113) and Natural Bridge State Park, North Adams (p. 117)

120.  POSTSCRIPT  Armored mud balls on Mars?

122.  APPENDICES   Topics to enhance your knowledge 

122. APPENDIX 1 – ROCK IDENTIFICATION PAGE 

Characteristics of local rocks will help you name them and understand their stories.

123. APPENDIX 2 – GEOLOGIC TIME AND EVENTS A one page compilation .

124. APPENDIX 3 – “CARTOON” OF GEOLOGY EVENTS THROUGH TIME -- 

It’s a truthful graphic sketch, not meant to be funny, but feel free to laugh.

125. APPENDIX 4 – PALEOZOIC PLATE TECTONICS MAP What was where, way back when.

126. APPENDIX 5 – RIFT VALLEY STRUCTURE AND SEDIMENTS 

You must understand this to know and appreciate Connecticut Valley geology.

127. APPENDIX 6- VALLEY STRUCTURE CROSS SECTION 

Looking underground in our old rift valley.

128. APPENDIX 7a - JURASSIC LAVA FLOWS 7b – LAND VS. WATER Columns or Pillows?

130. APPENDIX 8 - GLACIAL LANDFORMS  What the glacier did to us.

132. APPENDIX 9 – LAKE HITCHCOCK TODAY AND “YESTERDAY” 

LANDFORMS & SEDIMENTS Important Landscape legacy revealed.

134. APPENDIX 10 – FRANKLIN COUNTY LANDSCAPES & ROADS (EAST & WEST) 

135. APPENDIX 11 - CENTRAL FRANKLIN COUNTY LANDSCAPES  Sketch by Diane Crane

136. APPENDIX 12 - 15,500 YEARS AGO, LOOKING SOUTH 

This could be an Alaska airplane view, but it’s an Amherst College Beneski Museum model.

137. APPENDIX 13 – TOPOGRAPHIC MAP, MT. TOBY QUADRANGLE MAP 

Go to the “Resources” section and discover how easy it is to get these hard-to-find maps (free).

138. APPENDIX 14 - TOPOGRAPHIC MAP, MONTAGUE PLAIN Yes, that’s what it is. 

139. APPENDIX 15 – IDEALIZED LANDFORMS OF CENTRAL FRANKLIN COUNTY 

140. APPENDIX 16 – MAKING TERRACES They are all around us, but why and how?

142. APPENDIX 17 - A FAULTY OPTICAL ILLUSION In geology, you need to think in 5-D!

144. APPENDIX 18 –  3  RIVER MYSTERIES: Solved!

(1)  THE ABYSS & OTHER DEEP HOLES.  Look what the waterfalls did!

(2) WHY SOME LOCAL RIVERS FLOW NORTH  A cold, but uplifting, story.

(3)  UNIQUE JURASSIC FISH FILLET   There’s a fault in this fishy fossil. 

157. APPENDIX 19 – THE GEOLOGY PATH AT GREENFIELD COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

See armored mud balls, lava, marble, and the giant egg-shaped hardest rock in the world.

159. APPENDIX 20 – CRANBERRY POND TO LONG PLAIN DELTA DIAGRAMS Graphic content.

161. APPENDIX 21 -- GEOLOGY MAP OF DOMES IN EASTERN FRANKLIN COUNTY  Yes.

163. APPENDIX 22 -- TURNERS FALLS ARMORED MUD BALLS

& A RARE DINOSAUR BONE DISCOVERY Who would have believed it?

166. APPENDIX 23 -- TURNERS FALLS GEOLOGY WALK Lots to see. Running is ok.

181. APPENDIX 24 – CAVE HILL, LEVERETT, GUIDE  Interesting view of a tectonic plate collision.

183. APPENDIX 25 – SINKS, KETTLES, POTS The whole hole story.

184. APPENDIX 26 -- FRANKLIN COUNTY ROCK DESCRIPTIONS 

All the bedrock of Franklin County revealed, alphabetically.

187.  RESOURCES  This section has useful information such as how to get free, hard-to-find maps from the US Geological Survey. Put contour lines on Google Earth views. And more.

190. REFERENCES  You might want to know more.

192. “THE BEST OF” Only have a few days here? Selected Franklin County places not to miss.

193.  INDEX 

GET FREE MAPS

This is a page from “Exploring Franklin County”. “Resources” chapter.

5.  The Massachusetts Geological Survey  [https://mgs.geo.umass.edu/ ]

A good resource to explore. Get Free Geologic Quadrangle Maps!!! See below

For geologic details about any spot in Franklin County or Massachusetts, you need the Geologic Quadrangle maps of your area of interest. There are two basic types: Surficial (glacial and recent deposits) and Bedrock. It is often difficult or inconvenient to find these maps, but they are online!  See below.

Dr. Steve Mabee is our Massachusetts State Geologist. I asked him for the best way to access Geologic Quadrangle maps and his answer is below. The “GQ” maps are the way geologists and others investigate an area. They are the result of detailed field work and analysis. Note that older maps will have had formations renamed and perhaps reinterpreted, so do one more step for current geological data: go to the site described in “1” page 187. This database will have updated names and geological time dates, however, the GQ maps have greater detail. They also have a written narrative of the geologic formations and history. Geologic cross sections are included. In other words, whether you are a professional or just wish a deeper look at your “spot”, the GQ map series is where you need to go. 

Steve Mabee, State Geologist, suggests this two step process.

1. First, find out what quadrangle map you are looking for.   Steve created an index map showing all the watersheds, towns and quadrangle names for MA.  Go here: http://mgs.geo.umass.edu/resources/quad-index 

Or http://mgs.geo.umass.edu/biblio/what-75-quadrangle-am-i-pdf-paper-map

You will see a map of this index or you can load the index into Google Earth as a kmz file and see more detail for locating your area of interest within each quad.

2. Once you know what quad you want, go to the Geologic Map Database found here:  https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngmdb/ngmdb_home.html 

Select “Map Catalog”.

Enter the name of the quad under “Title”, select the type of map (surficial or bedrock) under “Geology Themes” and then select “Massachusetts” under State or Territories.  

This will give you the link to the map!  Just click on the map and you can preview it as well as download various options.

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