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GEOREF RECORD

Bedrock and Quaternary geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts

Clifford A. Kaye
Bedrock and Quaternary geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts (in Geology under cities, Robert F. Legget (editor))
Reviews in Engineering Geology (1982) 5: 25-40

Abstract

Boston lies near the geographic center of the Boston Basin, a roughly triangular area of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of late Precambrian and Cambrian age that is surrounded by older, contemporary, and younger granites and related rocks. The basin rocks are mostly argillites, sandstones, and conglomerates interlayered with rhyolitic and spilitic volcanics and volcaniclastic sediments. The rocks are deformed into large east-west folds and are much broken by faults of several orientations. Dikes and sills abound. Deep alteration of rock to a soft clyey aggregate is widespread. The irregular bedrock surface is the reult of differential glacial erosion of rocks of varying hardness, and under most of the central Boston area, bedrock is buried by thick drift. The stratigraphy of the drift is complex and includes four stratigraphically distinct tills and outwash units, representing several advances and retreats of glacial ice. These are provisionally interpreted to consist of two glacial stades of the early Wisconsinan and two of the late Wisconsinan, including a readvance that overrode much of the Boston area about 12,000 years B.P. The effects of the geology on local engineering practices are briefly described.--Journal abstract.


ISSN: 0080-2018
EISSN: 2169-799X
Coden: GAEGA4
Serial Title: Reviews in Engineering Geology
Serial Volume: 5
Title: Bedrock and Quaternary geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts
Title: Geology under cities
Author(s): Kaye, Clifford A.
Author(s): Legget, Robert F.editor
Affiliation: U. S. Geol. Surv., Boston, MA, United States
Pages: 25-40
Published: 1982
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
ISBN: 0-8137-4105-X
References: 50
Accession Number: 1983-026590
Categories: Engineering geology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. 1 table, sketch maps
N41°15'00" - N42°55'00", W73°30'00" - W69°55'00"
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute.
Update Code: 1983
Program Name: USGSOPNon-USGS publications with USGS authors
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