Redefinition of the 

Hawley and Goshen 

Schists in 

Western Massachusetts

By NORMAN L. HATCH, JR.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1254-D

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Massachusetts Department of 

Public Works

Two Paleozoic units are revised 

and renamed as formations
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1967

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 10 cents
CONTENTS

	Page 

Abstract_____-_________________________________________________ Dl

Introduction____________________________________________________ 1

Hawley Formation.______________________________________________ 1

Lithologic description.______________________________________ _ 3

Stratigraphic sections._________________________________________ 5

Correlation, age, and thickness-------------__-_-------_--_- -__ 12

Goshen Formation._________________________________ _________ 12

Lithologic description._________________________________________ 13

Correlation, age, and thickness---------------------------------- 15

References cited.________________________________________________ 16

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

FIGURE 1. Map showing distribution of the Hawley and Goshen Formations in recently restudied areas of northwestern Massachusetts. _____________________________________________ D2

2. Chart showing correlation of the rock units of western Massachusetts and southeast Vermont-_-_____-__-________----_ 3

3. Diagram showing lateral relations between the Stratigraphic

sections through the Hawley Formation._________________ 10

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS 

IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

By NORMAN L. HATCH, JR.

ABSTRACT

Emerson's Hawley Schist, renamed the Hawley Formation, is redefined to 

include the graphitic schists that are interbedded with the metavolcanic rocks of 

the original definition. A Middle Ordovician age is assigned to the formation. 

Emerson's Goshen Schist, renamed Goshen Formation, is redefined to include 

all gray schists, cyclically bedded rocks, and quartzites between the top of the 

underlying Hawley and the base of the lowest calcareous bed in the overlying 

Waits River Formation. The Goshen is dated as Silurian and Devonian.

INTRODUCTION

Emerson (1898, 1917) divided the Paleozoic rocks on the east side 

of the Berkshire Massif in western Massachusetts into the Hoosac, 

Rowe, Savoy, Hawley, Goshen, and Conway Schists. Emerson's descriptions, however, do not clearly define the limits of, or the criteria 

for, distinguishing between, some of these units, and restudy of these 

units in northwestern Massachusetts has shown that a somewhat 

different subdivision of the rocks would be desirable (fig. 1). In the 

present report, therefore, the Hawley and Goshen Schists of Emerson 

are redefined on the basis of lithologic evidence from current mapping. 

A similar redefinition has also been made for the Rowe Schist (Hatch 

and others, 1966).

Much of the fieldwork on which this report is based was done with 

Philip H. Osberg, and the system of stratigraphic subdivisions and 

nomenclature being used in this area evolved from many hours of 

discussion with him. The author, however, must take full responsibility 

for the discussion that follows. The fieldwork was done in cooperation 

with the Massachusetts Department of Public Works.

HAWLEY FORMATION

Emerson (1898) applied the name Hawley Schist to the sequence of 

green chloritic and hornblendic schists and f eldspathic schists between 

his Savoy Schist and Goshen Schist (fig. 2). In his description of the

Dl
CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

72°45'

rea of figure 1 

MASSACHUSETTS

Geology mapped by N. L. Hatch, Jr 

P. H. Osberg, and A. H." Chidester, 

1961-66

FIGURE 1. Distribution of the Hawley and Goshen Formations in recently 

restudied areas of northwestern Massachusetts. Stratigraphic sections of the 

Hawley Formation described in text and the proposed type section for the 

Goshen Formation are indicated by heavy lines.
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D8

s

UJ

il

E 

_j

ORDOVICIAN

SERIES

1 o

Q.

ZD

_0>

 a 

 a

2

0)

 a 

 a

is

Southeast Vermont 

Doll and others (1961)

Waits River Formation

Northfield Formation

Formation Missisquoi 

Black schist member

Barnard Volcanic 

Member

Moretown Member

Western Massachusetts 

Emerson (1898)

Conway Schist 

Goshen Schist

Hawley Schist

Savoy Schist

Western Massachusetts 

This report

Waits River Formation <f

Goshen Formation

Black schist^- - """^ 

c _-- o ^_- ^

rtj

£ Amphibolite and 

"£, felsic schist 

 ^~

ra ^ -^^^ 

X ^^-^

^^^^ Black schist

Moretown Formation

FIGURE 2. Correlation of the rock units of western Massachusetts (Emerson, 

1898; this report) and southeast Vermont (Doll and others, 1961).

Hawley, Emerson (1898, p. 163-169) emphasized the widespread 

distribution of hornblende and the richness in iron as distinguishing 

characteristics of the formation. Although many rocks in the Hawley 

contain both hornblende and abundant iron, these criteria were not 

found to be sufficient or reliable to define the unit, which is here 

renamed the Hawley Formation.

LITHOLOGIC DESCRIPTION

The dominant rocks of the Hawley Formation in the area shown in 

figure 1 are light- to dark-green fine- to medium-grained schistose to 

massive, locally porphyritic or fragmental amphibolites. Greenstone 

schists and buff, light-green, or light-gray fine- to medium-grained 

schistose to massive feldspar rocks with accessory hornblende, garnet, 

quartz, or muscovite are common.

The amphibolites are composed principally of hornblende (or 

actinolite), plagioclase, epidote, and chlorite, with minor biotite, 

garnet, and quartz. Most abundant is a medium-grained massive 

hornblende-plagioclase rock; chloritic, garnetiferous, or schistose 

amphibolites are present as thin beds or lenses throughout the formation. A local subunit 500-1,000 feet thick of medium- to dark-graygreen plagioclase-hornblende-chlorite schist contains conspicuous
D4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

angular to rounded crystals of plagioclase 2-4 mm in diameter and 

angular rock fragments as much as 15 cm across; some fragments are 

darker and some lighter than their matrix (P. H. Osberg, N. L. Hatch, 

Jr., and S. A. Norton, unpub. data). Somewhat similar dark-graygreen massive amphibolite with conspicuous megacrysts of plagioclase 

3 mm in diameter, but without rock fragments, is interbedded with 

black schists at the top of the formation in the northern part of the 

Heath quadrangle (fig. 1; N. L. Hatch, Jr., and J. H. Hartshorn, unpub. 

data). Also common throughout much of the formation are intermediate- and light-colored amphibolites in which distinct blades, or 

groups of blades, of hornblende as much as 1 inch long are set in a finegrained matrix of plagioclase, chlorite, and epidote. Locally present 

in the Plainfield quadrangle (P. H. Osberg, N. L. Hatch, Jr., and 

S. A. Norton, unpub. data) are outcrops of probable pillow lava. The 

"pillows" have interiors of dark-green hornblende-chlorite-albiteepidote-carbonate schist. Concentrations of green epidote-albite-carbonate rock are generally concentric with, or form the centers of, the 

"pillows," which are rimmed with hornblende.

Light-gray, light-green, or buff feldspathic rocks are present in 

the formation. Most are fine grained and either schistose or granulose 

depending on the abundance of white mica. A zone of these rocks a 

few hundred feet thick has been traced for about 7 miles; also, scattered 

thin beds are present, but not mapped, in other parts of the area. 

The spectacular "fasciculite" sprays of Emerson (1898, p. 164) consist of bundles of hornblende needles as much as 6 inches long and 

garnets %-% inch in diameter set in a white or near-white fine-grained 

granulose or schistose felsitic matrix. Medium-grained pJagioclasequartz gneiss with accessory biotite, muscovite, and garnet forms a 

few scattered thin beds and a zone about 100 feet thick that has been 

traced for 5 miles south of the Vermont-Massachusetts State line. 

Angular feldspar crystals and faint compositional layering suggest 

that this rock may be a metamorphosed crystal tuff.

An area of amphibolites and felsic gneisses in the southeast corner 

of the Heath quadrangle is mapped as Hawley Formation (N. L. 

Hatch, Jr., and J. H. Hartshorn, unpub. data). These rocks form part 

of an elliptically shaped area (Balk, 1946; Segerstrom, 1956) known 

as the Shelburne Falls dome, which is surrounded and unconformably 

overlain by schists of the Goshen Formation. The stratigraphic position and the chemical composition of the rocks in the Shelburne 

Falls dome form the basis for assigning them to the Hawley Formation. The amphibolites are all fine- to medium-grained hornblendeplagioclase rocks and show none of the textural variations of the 

amphibolites in the rest of the Hawley Formation. Fine-grained 

sandy-textured plagioclase-quartz-biotite-hornblende rocks are tex-
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D5

turally similar to the amphibolites and form scattered beds within 

the dome. Medium- to coarse-grained plagioclase-quartz-biotitemuscovite-garnet gneiss similar to the narrow band in the Hawley 

to the west is abundant in the dome and probably represents both 

metamorphosed crystal tuffs and intrusive sills and dikes (Hatch and 

Hartshorn, unpub. data).

The black schists and quartzites which form mappable subunits 

within the Hawley Formation are fine-grained sooty-black, rustyweathering quartz-muscovite-biotite-graphite-pyrite rocks. Garnet 

and chlorite are present locally. These rocks are characteristically 

complexly folded and sheared.

Because most of the beds and subunits are discontinuous, no one 

stratigraphic section can represent the entire Hawley Formation. 

The sections given below are as representative of the formation as 

any can be.

STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS

In the following stratigraphic sections, minerals preceding rock 

names are listed in decreasing order of abundance. Minerals in parentheses occur only locally and generally form less than 10 percent of 

the rock. Percentages, which are given only for minerals forming more 

than 10 percent of the rock, are estimated averages. Locations of 

stratigraphic sections are indicated in figure 1. Lowercase letters in 

the right-hand column are the symbols used for stratigraphic intervals 

in the columnar sections in figure 3.

SECTION A. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation across 

Clark Hill, Heath quadrangle

[N. L. Hatch, Jr., and J. H. Hartshorn, unpub. data. Section 1,500 ft north of the Massachusetts-Vermont 

State line. Correlations with the Vermont State map (Doll and others, 1961) are as follows: Upper 1,000 ft 

of Hawley, rusty-weathering carbonaceous schist and quartzite member (Omc) of Missisquoi Formation; lower 1,700 ft, Barnard Volcanic Member of Missisquoi Formation]

finsihpTi "EWma+irm Thickness Symbol uosnen ± ormation. ^ in flgure s

Gray fine-grained crinkly quartz (55 percent)-muscovite(35 percent)-biotite-garnet-chlorite phyllite 

and schist. Bedding indistinct---_-_-_-_---_--__ 6,000+ _________

Hawley Formation (2,700 ft):

Gray to black fine-grained dull to shiny quartz (50- 

95 percent)-muscovite (2-40 percent)-chloritebiotite-graphite schist. Dark-gray to dark-green 

medium-grained porphyritic (plagioclase crystals 

as much as 5 mm long) to equigranular plagioclase 

(50-70 percent)-hornblende(25-45 percent) amphibolite, both intrusive and extrusive, forms 

about 50 percent of unit as beds, sills, and dikes 

2-25 ft thick__________________--_____ 1,000 a

274-037 67 2
D6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

SECTION A. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation across 

Clark Hill, Heath quadrangle Continued

Hawley Formation (2,700 ft) Continued $%* infills

Dark-gray to dark-green medium-grained porphyritic and equigranular plagioclase-hornblende amphibolites. Green schistose plagioclase-hornblende- 

(or actinolite)-chlorite-epidote amphibolite and 

white medium-grained feldspar-quartz granulite 

form about 10 percent of interval. One 3-footthick bed of gray hard dense quartz(70 percent)- 

garnet(25 percent)-cummingtonite rock________ 900 b

Pale-buff medium-grained banded schistose plagioclase(75 per cent)-quartz (20 percent) gneiss with 

minor biotite, garnet, chlorite and muscovite____- 200 c

Dark-gray to dark-green fine- to medium-grained, 

locally schistose, generally compositionally layered (}{- to l-in.-thick layers of feldspar- and hornblende-rich rock) plagioclase-hornblende-amphibolite______________________________________ 600 d

Moretown Formation (quartz-mica schist unit):

Buff to light-silvery-gray fine- to medium-grained

quartz-plagioclase-mica-garnet schist.___________ 1, 100 _________

SECTION B. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation along 

Davis Mine Brook, west-central Heath quadrangle

[N. L. Hatch, Jr., and J. H. Hartshorn, unpub. data] 

ftrwhpTi Fnrmatirm- Thickness Symbol uosnen v ormation. yeef) in figure s

Gray fine-grained crinkly quartz(55 percent)- 

muscovite(35 percent)-biotite-garnet-chlorite phyllite and schist. Generally poorly bedded, but locally 

cyclically bedded______________________------- 4,000 _________

Hawley Formation (4,150 ft):

Sooty-black fine-grained graphitic quartz (50-95 percent)-muscovite (2-40 percent) schist and quartzite. 

Interlaminated with 5- to 50(?)-foot-thick beds 

and sills of dark-green medium-grained plagioclase 

(50-70 percent)-hornblende (25-45 percent) amphibolite with scattered plagioclase megacrysts as 

much as 4 mm in diameter_________________ 500 e

Dark-green medium-grained massive plagioclasehornblende amphibolite with white plagioclase 

megacrysts forms about 40 percent of interval. 

Dark-green medium-grained schistose to massive 

intermediate to mafic plagioclase (50-90 percent) - 

hornblende (10-45 percent) amphibolites with 

minor chlorite and epidote form about 50 percent 

of interval. White feldspar granulite and schist 

forms scattered beds 10-20(?) ft thick_______ 1,200 /
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D7

SECTION B. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation along 

Davis Mine Brook, west-central Heath quadrangle Continued

Hawley Formation (4,150ft) Continued f)m

White or pale-green fine-grained schistose to massive 

feldspar rock with minor hornblende, biotite, and 

garnet. Hornblende locally forms blades %-%-inch 

long. Scattered beds 5-50(?) ft thick of dark-green 

coarse-grained plagioclase-hornblende amphibolite 

and fine-grained slabby schistose needly plagioclase-hornblende amphib olite_ ________________ 2,000

Dark-green fine- to medium-grained schistose plagioclase-hornblende amphibolite with minor chlorite 

and gray-green medium-grained punky-weathering 

plagioclase-hornblende-chlorite-carbonate-epidote 

schist.__________--_____-___----__-______-_-_ 450

Moretown Formation (quartz-mica schist unit):

Buff to light-silvery-gray fine- to medium-grained

quartz-plagioclase-mica-garnet schist.___________ 600

SECTION C. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation across 

Parker Hill, Plainfield quadrangle

[P.H. Osberg, N. L. Hatch, Jr., and S. A. Norton, unpub. data]

Goshen Formation: ^^ m figures

Gray fine-grained quartz-muscovite-biotite-chloritegarnet schist-________________________________ 1,500+ _________

Hawley Formation (5,450 ft):

Black fine-grained graphitic quartz-mica schist. _ _ _ _ 25'

White fine-grained granular feldspar rock (about 40

percent) and dark-green medium-grained amphi- ^

bolite (60 percent)________________________ 100

Black fine-grained graphitic quartz-mica schist_____ 25,

Interbedded dark-gray-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende amphibolites and white lightgray or light-brown fine- to medium-grained 

schistose to granulose feldspar and feldspar-mica 

schists..._______________________________ 1,100 j

Medium- to dark-gray plagioclase-hornblende-chlorite schist with conspicuous 2- to 4-mm plagioclase 

insets and angular rock fragments______________ 200 k

Dark-green fine- to medium-grained schistose to 

massive plagioclase (65 percent)-hornblende (25 percent)-(chlorite)-(epidote) amphibolites________-__ 500 I

Medium- to dark-gray plagioclase(65 percent)-hornblende(25 per cent)-chlorite schist with conspicuous 

2- to 4-mm plagioclase insets and angular rock 

fragments-______________-__-_-_-___---___--- 800 m
D8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

SECTION C. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation across 

Parker Hill, Plainfield quadrangle Continued

Hawley Formation (5,450 ft) Continued Thi$ 8

Green to dark-green fine- to medium-grained, schistose to massive plagioclase(65 percent)-hornblende 

(25 percent)-(chlorite)-(epidote) amphibolites____ 1,100

White to light-green plagioclase granulite with minor 

white to light-gray plagioclase(90 percent)-calcitechlorite granulite and plagioclase(80 percent) - 

quartz-hornblende-garnet gneiss._______________ 300

Green to dark-green fine- to medium-grained schistose 

to massive plagioclase(65 percent)-hornblende (25 

percent)-(chlorite)-(epidote) amphibolites-_______ 1,300

Moretown Formation (quartz-mica schist unit):

Buff to light-gray fine- to medium-grained quartzplagioclase-mica-garnet schist and minor graphitic 

schist._._______________________ 700

SECTION D. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation west 

of Plainfield village, Plainfield quadrangle

[P. H. Osberg, N. L. Hatch, Jr., and S. A. Norton, unpub. data]

Goshen Formation: Thickness Symbol In 

Gray fine- to medium-grained generally cyclically nsrure

bedded quartz - muscovite- biotite- chlorite- garnet

schist and gray fine-grained quartzite ___--_---__ 6,000 _________

Hawley Formation (2,550 ft):

Dark-gray fine-grained graphitic quartz(60-90 percent)-muscovite (10-35 per cent)-biotite schist___- 100 q 

Dark-gray-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende-(chlorite)-(epidote)-(ankerite) schist______ 200 r

Dark-gray fine-grained graphitic quartz (60-90 percent)-muscovite(10-35 percent)-biotite schist___ 500 s 

Dark-gray-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende-(chlorite)-(epidote)-(ankerite) schist-_____ 500 t 

Medium- to dark-gray plagioclase-hornblende-chlorite schist with conspicuous 2- to 4-mm plagioclase

insets and 15-cm angular rock fragments. _______ 350 u

Dark-gray-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende-(chlorite)-(epidote)-(ankerite) schist-_____ 500 » 

Dark-gray fine-grained graphitic quartz-muscovitebiotite schist_-__---------___--------___--___- 400 w

Moretown Formation (quartz-mica schist unit):

Buff to light-gray fine- to medium-grained quartzplagioclase-mica-garnet schist __________________ 1,700 _________
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D9

SECTION E. Approximate stratigraphic section through the Hawley Formation along 

Sam Hill Road, south-central Worthington quadrangle

rirvshpn "EYirmnKrwr Thickness Symbol uosnen * ormation. ^ {n figure s

Gray fine- to medium-grained thin-bedded, generally 

cyclically bedded quartz-muscovite-biotite-chloritegarnet-staurolite schist and gray fine-grained 

quartzite___----_---___---_________.---_______ 6,000 _________

Hawley Formation (585 ft):

Dark-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende 

amphibolite, in part compositionally layered with 

1-inch felsic and mafic bands___________________ 250 x

Gray fine-grained quartz-muscovite-plagioclase-biotite-garnet schist with graphitic streaks________ 20

Dark-green medium-grained plagioclase-bornblende

amphibolite. _________________________________ 75

Dark-gray fine-grained graphitic quartz-muscovite 

schist and brown sandy quartz-feldspar-micagarnet schist-_______--_______________________ 40

Dark-green medium-grained plagioclase-hornblende 

amphibolite_ _______________________________ 200

Moretown Formation (quartz-mica schist unit):

Buff to silvery-gray medium-grained quartz-plagioclase-mica-garnet schist.______________________ 800

The lenticular character of many of the lithologic subunits of the 

Hawley is shown diagrammatically in figure 3, in which the lateral 

relations between the stratigraphic sections described above are 

portrayed. The thinning of the volcanic pile both north and south of 

the general Hawley-Charlemont area (fig. 1) is clearly shown.

Black schists that locally are present at or near the top and base of 

this sequence of metavolcanic rocks have ambiguous stratigraphic 

relationships. In his descriptions of the Hawley Schist and the overlying Goshen Schist, Emerson (1898, p. 165, 179-180) was apparently 

uncertain how best to deal with them. He stated (p. 165), in describing 

a section across the Hawley Schist, that:

this [the hornblende schists and chlorite schists] is followed by a series of thinfissile, very fine-grained, friable, dark gray mica schists, made up almost wholly of 

muscovite, and without accessories; this band can be followed clear across the 

town of Worthington and lies beneath the undoubted flaggy schists of the next 

series (Goshen), to which I have usually, but with some hesitation, referred it.

Emerson referred again to a "doubtful border layer" (p. 180) of black 

schist above the Hawley hornblende schists but separated from the 

main body of the Goshen Schist by a thin band of amphibolite.
SECTION

MORETOWN FORMATION

FIGURE 3. Lateral relations between the stratigraphic sections through the H

intervals described in measured sectio
Dll

In his earlier report Emerson (1898, pis. 24, 34) also interpreted a 

band of black schists and quartzites at the base of the Hawley as a 

wedge of Goshen Schist, downdropped along two faults. On his later 

map (1917, pi. 10), however, this lower belt is not indicated and the 

rocks are included in the Hawley. Finally Emerson (1917, p. 45) noted 

the similarity between the Ordovician graptolite slates at Magog, 

Quebec, and "certain black slates in Heath and Charlemont which I 

have put in the Hawley Schist." Despite this comment, however, 

his accompanying map (pi. 1) shows these "certain black slates in 

Heath and Charlemont" as a band of Goshen Schist west of (stratigraphically below) a band of "hornblende schist in the Goshen Schist." 

This band may be the same "doubtful border layer" referred to above. 

Although Emerson's final conclusion as to the identification of these 

bands of black schist within the Hawley is not clear, one can infer 

from his discussion of these schist bands (above) that he was aware 

of their ambiguity and consequently fluctuated some in his interpretation of their stratigraphic and structural position.

Recent mapping by the author in the Heath and Worthington 

quadrangles and by the author and P. H. Osberg in the Plainfield 

quadrangle (P. H. Osberg, N. L. Hatch, Jr., and S. A. Norton, unpub. 

data) clearly demonstrates that these black schists, about which 

Emerson expressed concern, are interbedded with the metavolcanic 

rocks of the Hawley. The black schists are distinguishable from the 

Goshen gray schists by their darker color, higher graphite content, 

more complex folding, harder and less micaceous interbedded quartzites, 

and rusty-weathered surfaces. They generally are also physically 

separated from the Goshen gray schists by a sharp stratigraphic break. 

Further, three separate mappable bands of black schist and quartzite 

are present in some areas at the bottom as well as at the top of the 

Hawley sequence. (See strat. section Z>.) Finally, although these 

rocks have been studied in detail only as far south as the south edge 

of the Worthington quadrangle (fig. 1), reconnaissance mapping 

farther south suggests that the Hawley Formation may change laterally into a sequence that is about 80 percent graphitic schists and only 

20 percent metavolcanic rocks. The Hawley, therefore, is here redefined to include these black schists and quartzites, as well as the 

interbedded chloritic, hornblendic, and feldspathic rocks of Emerson's 

original definition. The formation thus includes all rocks between the 

top of the Moretown Formation and the bottom of the Goshen Formation as redefined below.

The base of the Hawley Formation is here defined as the top of the 

highest bed of light-silvery-gray quartz-mica-garnet schist or quartzfeldspar granulite characteristic of the underlying Moretown Forma-
D12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

tion. The top of the Hawley is here defined as the top of the highest 

bed of metavolcanic schist or of the black schist and quartzite just 

described.

Representative sections of the Hawley Formation can be seen along 

Hunt Road, west of Hawley Village, in the eastern part of the Plainfield quadrangle, and in Davis Mine Brook between the Davis Mine 

and Mill Brook in the southwestern part of the Heath quadrangle. 

The author proposes that the section across Parker Hill in the Plainfield quadrangle between Moody Spring on the west and East 

Hawley Road on the east be taken as the type section for the redefined formation (strat. section C, p. D7-D8). Although this type section is characteristic of the formation in the central part of the area of 

figure 1, it is not truly representative of the formation either north or 

south of Parker Hill as shown by the stratigraphic sections (p. D5- 

D9) and figure 3.

CORRELATION, AGE, AND THICKNESS

The Hawley Formation in Massachusetts is continuous with the 

Barnard Volcanic Member and the black schist member of the Missisquoi Formation of the Vermont State map (Doll and others, 1961; 

see also fig. 2, present report). Because no fossils have been found in 

these rocks in Massachusetts, the Middle Ordovician age assigned 

to the Hawley is based entirely on this correlation with Vermont 

and on correlations of these Vermont units with the fossiliferous 

rocks in the Beauceville of Quebec (Cady, 1960).

In the area studied (fig. 1), the Hawley Formation ranges in thickness from about 6,000 feet in Charlemont to about 600 feet in Worthington.

GOSHEN FORMATION

Emerson's (1898, 1917) Goshen Schist is here redefined to make 

its definition compatible with the above redefinition of the Hawley 

and to clarify its internal stratigraphy and its upper boundary. 

Its designation is here changed from Goshen Schist to Goshen Formation.

The redefinition of the Hawley described above assigns to the 

Hawley some black schists that Emerson included in his Goshen 

Schist. This change alone necessitates some restatement of the boundaries of the Goshen. A further complication stems from Emerson's 

division of the rocks above the Hawley into the Goshen and Conway 

Schists. At the Vermont-Massachusetts State line, Emerson's GoshenConway boundary approximates the boundary of Doll, Cady, Thompson, and Billings (1961) between the Northfield and Waits River 

Formations. This boundary in Vermont is based on the presence of 

brown sandy carbonate beds more than a foot thick in the Waits
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D13

River Formation. About a mile or more south of the Vermont-Massachusetts State line, however, Emerson's Goshen-Conway boundary 

does not even approximate the contact mapped by the author at the 

base of the Waits River Formation (N. L. Hatch, Jr., and J. H. 

Hartshorn, unpub. data). Even Emerson's (1898, p. 177-185; 1917, 

p. 45-46) written descriptions fail to make clear his criteria for mapping the Goshen-Conway boundary. He (1898, p. 178) emphasized the 

"flaggy schists" of the Goshen in contrast with the "corrugated 

schists" of the Conway, yet most of the flagstone quarries and flaggyweathering rocks are in areas mapped as Conway by Emerson. For the 

above reasons, Emerson's term Goshen cannot stand without modification and clarification.

The name Northfield Formation is used in eastern Vermont for a 

sequence of gray phyllites and slates (Skehan, 1961; Chang and others, 

1965) which, at the State line, are essentially continuous with the 

rocks of Emerson's Goshen Schist. A few miles south of the State line, 

however, these rocks grade laterally into cyclically bedded schists and 

quartzites that are like no rocks described from the Northfield in 

Vermont. For this reason, the term Northfield is not suitable for these 

rocks in Massachusetts. Rather than introduce a new name, the 

following redefinition of the Goshen, henceforth Goshen Formation, 

is proposed as the simplest and least confusing solution to the problem.

LITHOLOGIC DESCRIPTION

The Goshen Formation, as shown in figure 1, is composed of gray 

quartz-muscovite-biotite-garnet-chlorite-(staurolite)-graphite schist, 

cyclically bedded gray schist and quartzite, thick-bedded (1-2 ft) 

gray quartzite, and rare, scattered beds as much as 10 inches thick 

of brown-weathering sandy carbonate granulite.

The gray schist contains megacrysts of garnet, biotite, and chlorite 

1-3 mm in diameter and, within the staurolite isograd, crystals of 

staurolite K-1% inches in diamater set in a fine-grained phyllitic 

matrix of muscovite, quartz, and graphite. Bedding is absent or indistinct. This rock constitutes about 95 percent of the formation in 

the northernmost few miles of the State, but it changes laterally into 

the cyclically bedded rock described below.

The cyclically bedded rock is composed of individual beds, 2-6 

inches thick, in which fine-grained very light gray sandy quartzite 

grades upward into light-gray quartz-mica schist, which in turn grades 

upward into gray phyllitic schist similar to that described in the previous paragraph. This cyclically bedded rock forms the bulk of the 

Goshen Formation in the Plainfield and Worthington quadrangles 

(fig. 1). Although the relations between the poorly bedded gray schists
D14 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY

and the cyclically bedded rock will not be positively known until the 

area between the Heath and Plainfield quadrangles is mapped in 

detail (fig. 1), major lateral facies changes must be involved.

Thick-bedded to massive gray and buff sandy quartzite and micaceous quartzite form a locally mappable subunit above the cyclically 

bedded rocks along the east edge of the southern half of the area. 

Fine- to medium-grained punky brown-weathering gray carbonatequartz-mica granulite forms widely scattered beds as much as 10 

inches thick and constitutes less than 1 percent of the formation. The 

redefined Goshen includes all these rocks in any stratigraphic 

sequence or relative abundance in which they may occur between 

the formational boundaries defined below.

The base of the redefined Goshen Formation is believed from 

regional relations to be a major regional unconformity. Where exposed 

in outcrop in northern Massachusetts, this contact is sharp and 

separates gray quartz-mica-garnet schists above from amphibolites, 

feldspathic schists, and black schists below. No chlorite schists, 

feldspathic schists, or amphibolites, other than calc-silicate bands 

a few inches thick, have been seen in the areas mapped to date (1967) 

(fig. 1) in the Goshen Formation.

The upper boundary of the Goshen is here defined as the base of the 

lowest dark-brown-weathering sandy limestone bed that is more than 

1 foot thick. This definition is similar to the definition of the boundary 

between the Northfield and Waits River Formations described by 

Chang, Ern, and Thompson (1965). Although this boundary is fairly 

straight across most of Vermont (Doll and others, 1961), it is very 

irregular in the small area of Massachusetts in which it has recently 

been mapped (fig. 1; N. L. Hatch, Jr., and J. H. Hartshorn, unpub. 

data). These irregularities are interpreted as being due to lateral 

facies changes in which Goshen rocks pass laterally into Waits River 

rocks. For this reason, it should be emphasized that the upper boundary of the Goshen is a lithologic boundary known to diverge markedly at least locally from time lines. Structural interpretations 

based on this boundary should therefore be made only with great 

caution.

Representative sections through the Goshen Formation can be 

seen along State Route 2 east of Charlemont, where the formation is 

mostly poorly bedded schist, and along State Route 9 east of a point 

2% miles west of Cummington. This latter section is taken as the type 

section for the redefined Goshen Formation. Here the formation consists of about 1,500 feet of relatively indistinctly bedded schists 

overlain by about 4,500 feet of cyclically bedded rock, overlain in 

turn by about 1,000 feet of thick-bedded quartzite and micaceous
REDEFINITION OF THE HAWLEY AND GOSHEN SCHISTS D15

quartzite. Although the rocks have not been mapped in detail east of 

the Worthington quadrangle (fig. 1), both Emerson's report (1898) 

and the author's reconnaissance suggest that the thick-bedded 

quartzites are stratigraphically the highest rocks exposed in this area. 

Although all possible lithologic variations will be distinguished 

in the mapping of these rocks, the mappable extent of any of them is 

impossible to know at this time. Hence, no formal member names 

are being used or proposed at this time.

CORRELATION, AGE, AND THICKNESS

Because no fossils have yet been found in the Goshen, the only age 

assignment that can be given to the formation is based on correlations 

with the section in Vermont (fig. 2; Doll and others, 1961). Lateral 

facies changes are known to displace the upper boundary of the 

Goshen horizontally, so it is not known how much of the Silurian and 

Devonian section in Vermont is correlative with the Goshen Formation. The Goshen may therefore include rocks that range in age from 

Middle Silurian to Lower Devonian. Thus, the redefined Goshen is 

dated as Silurian and Devonian.

Tight isoclinal folds greatly complicate any effort to calculate or 

even estimate the thickness of the Goshen Formation. The top of the 

formation has only been mapped in the Heath quadrangle, where the 

minimum outcrop width of the formation is 4,300 feet. This minimum 

section is considered to be a homoclinal sequence in which the dips 

average about 75° E.; the total thickness of beds, measured normal 

to the bedding planes, is 4,150 feet. If a correction factor of 60 percent 

is applied to compensate for the isoclinal folds, a figure of 2,500 feet 

is obtained for the estimated original stratigraphic thickness of the 

formation at this one locality, wher3 the formation is thinnest.

Only minimum thicknesses for the formation can be estimated south 

of the Heath quadrangle because the top of the formation is not 

exposed. If present interpretations of the structure are correct, a 

homoclinal sequence of beds at least 12,000 feet in outcrop width is 

exposed in the vicinity of Cummington (fig. 1). With dips averaging 

85° E. in this area, if the same 60-percent factor is applied to correct 

for the isoclinal folds, the estimated minimum thickness for the 

Goshen Formation in the Cummington area is about 7,000 feet. 

If, as is tentatively believed, the Goshen beds immediately east of the 

Worthington quadrangle are a structural repetition of the beds in the 

Worthington quadrangle, this figure may be close to a true thickness 

for the formation in this area.
D16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRATIGRAPHY 

REFERENCES CITED

Balk, Robert, 1946, Gneiss dome at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts: Geol. Soc. 

America Bull., v. 57, p. 125-159.

Cady, W. M., 1960, Stratigraphic and geotectonic relationships in northern 

Vermont and southern Quebec: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 71, p. 531-576.

Chang, P. H., Ern, E. H., and Thompson, J. B., Jr., 1965, Bedrock geology of the 

Woodstock quadrangle, Vermont: Vermont Geol. Survey Bull. 29, 65 p.

Doll, C. G., Cady, W. M., Thompson, J. B., Jr., and Billings, M. P., 1961, Centennial geologic map of Vermont: Montpelier, Vermont Geol. Survey.

Emerson, B. K., 1898, Geology of old Hampshire County, Massachusetts, comprising Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Mon. 29, 790 p.

 1917, Geology of Massachusetts and Rhode Island: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Bull. 597, 289 p.

Hatch, N. L., Jr., Chidester, A. H., Osberg, P. H., and Norton, S. A., 1966, 

Redefinition of the Rowe Schist in northwestern Massachusetts, in Cohee, 

G. V., and West, W. S., Changes in stratigraphic nomenclature by the U.S. 

Geological Survey, 1965: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1244-A, p. A33-A35.

Segerstrom, Kenneth, 1956, Bedrock geology of the Shelburne Falls quadrangle, 

Massachusetts: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-87.

Skehan, J. W., 1961, The Green Mountain anticlinorium in the vicinity of Wilmington and Woodford, Vermont: Vermont Geol. Survey Bull. 17, 159 p.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1967