View source for Champlain Thrust

{{Short description|Fault in Quebec, Vermont, and New York}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Champlain Thrust
| photo =Champlain_Thrust_Lone_Rock.jpg
| photo_caption = Champlain Thrust Fault, Lone Rock Point, Burlington Vermont
| map = 
| map_caption = 
| label_position = 
| location = 
| orogeny = Taconic Orogeny
| coordinates =
| coordinates_ref = 
| age = Ordovician
}}

The '''Champlain Thrust''' is a 200-mile long [[fault (geology)|fault]] extending from southern [[Quebec]], down through western [[Vermont]] in the [[Champlain Valley]], and into eastern [[New York (state)|New York]] in the [[Catskill Mountains|Catskills]]/[[Hudson Valley]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Champlain Thrust…what is it?|url=http://www.uvm.edu/geology/?Page=enews/champlainthrust.html|publisher=University of Vermont Department of Geology|accessdate=25 April 2016}}</ref> This east dipping [[thrust fault]] transports [[Cambrian]]-[[Ordovician]] passive margin shelf rocks westward by about {{convert|30|-|50|mi}} and places them on top of [[Middle Ordovician]] rocks. The Middle Ordovician accretion of the one or more island arcs terranes drove the initial thrusting during the [[Taconic Orogeny]], though reactivation of the fault may have occurred during the middle Devonian [[Acadian Orogeny]].<ref>Nicholas W. Hayman and W. S. F. Kidd., Reactivation of prethrusting, synconvergence normal faults as ramps within the Ordovician Champlain-Taconic thrust system., Geological Society of America Bulletin (April 2002), 114(4):476-489</ref><ref>Rolf Stanley, The Champlain thrust fault, Lone Rock Point, Burlington, Vermont., Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide--Northeast Section, 1987</ref> The Champlain Thrust marks the most westerly thrust of the Taconic Orogeny.

== Prominent exposures ==
The thrust fault is exposed to the north of the city of [[Burlington, Vermont]] on the shores of [[Lake Champlain]] at [[Lone Rock Point]]. Here the [[Lower Cambrian]] Dunham [[Dolomite (rock)|Dolomite]] can be seen thrust on top of the Middle Ordovician Iberville shales.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/geo/chthrust.htm Vermont State Geologic Survey Website]
* [http://www.uvm.org/vtgeologicalsociety/champlainthrust.html Photos of the thrust from Lone Rock Point, Burlington Vermont]

[[Category:Geology of Vermont]]
[[Category:Structural geology]]


{{Vermont-stub}}
{{struct-geology-stub}}