News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1916-10-04
ASBESTOS DEPOSITS.
Part of Vein Running into Can
ada, GeOlogist's Report Hints.

al I VI Gil NullIlllS lutO Vail
ada, Biologists Report Hints.
Prof c. H. Richardson of Syracus,
University, who for several years ha
been assisting Dean George IL. Perkin
OF the State University, State Geologist
published the following in the latter
biennial report for I9oo-Io. The matte
quoted is of some interest in view of til
fact that asbestos is now in increased de
1nand because of the war and becaus,
Vermont's deposits may be re-opened.
Says Prof Richardson "The area O
the SCI pentine belt in Vermont is man
tied with morainic material to such ar
extent that the geologist may trave
many miles without finding single
outcrop of crops for the study of field re-
lations. Asbestos is always found in
serpentine or with it, says DR.. Perkins, :,
This renders conclusions very difficult
as to correct geological distribution of
| the terranes.
- AVN ho"SfSiD ShS ALL PSA eoh
feature in this glaciation it has eroded
the hills of asbestos-bearing serpentine,
leaving in many cases the rocks ex-
posed to view, but, of far greater signif-
canoe, carving away a portion OF the
serpentine rock, leaving commercial
asbestos fibre at or near the surface. It
should hold true that the stoss or struck
side of the mountain or hill should be
more deeply eroded and therefore
brought nearer the commercial asbestos !;
but the asbestos is not always best devel-
oped on the north side of the hills. At
Chrysotile, the site of the Lowell Lum-
Der and Asbestos Co.'s mill, the best
development is in the north east side of
Belvidere mountain.
Another feature of the work of the
ice in this area is the rounding and
polishing of the Youngest intrusives,
the diabases, until they suggest hay
stacks in some localities and in
others, roches mountonnees. These
features are best seen in the northern
part of Troy and Newport.
GEOLOGY
"The geology of the serpentine belt
is Intricate and complex. The western
range of mountains, of which Jay Peak
and Belvidere mountain are the highest,
comprise gneisses and schists, folded
and faulted, Pre-Cambrian metamor-
phics. The schists are hornblende,
sericite, mica, etc., and dip everywhere
at high angle.
"The sedimentaries fanking the SER
pentine belt on the east are as highly
folded and as much metamorphosed as
those on the west. They are schists,
states, sandstones and quantities which
may all be Pre-Cambrian, but the writer
is inclined to believe that, in part at
least, thew are Cambrian. It is evident
that, in northern Vermont, the Ordovi-
clan terranes are not cut by the basic in
trusives. The Igneous rocks or intru-
sives in the serpentine belt consist Of the
ultra-basic rock known as peridotite,,
pyroxenite, gabbro, gabbrodiorite dia-
base and porphyrite are also found but
the more acid rocks like the GRANTEES
and aplites, I have not found in YER
mont cutting the serpentine, as they do
at Thetford, Quebec.
PERIDoTITE
at is with this rock mass in its num-
erous phases that this report has to deal,
for the perldotite is the source of the
serpentine in which the asbestos fibre
fibre appears and the magnetic of Troy
that was once worked for its iron con-
tent.
"The term peridotite, as here applied,
embraces series of rocks, sometimes
granitoid in texture, occasionally por-
phyritic, but always dark heavy and
basic. The writer has traced this belt
to the northeast through Quebec, Nova
Scotia and into Newfoundland where,
on the western coast of the island, most
excellent asbestos fiber is developed.
"In a southwesterly direction, the
belt extends along the Appalachian
mountains to Cuba, for have received
as fine samples of chrvsotile asbestos
from Cuba as ever came from Vermont
or Canada.
"The area covered in this report ex-
tends only about 80 miles south of the
international boundary up the valley of
the Missisquoi river into Eden. The
greatest width is in Troy and Jay, reach
ing a maximum of three miles. The |
general strike is northeasterly, but in |
Lowell it has a strike of N S. degrees,
provided that the outcroppings on Bel
videre mountain and Round mountain |
in Lowell are connected. The author |
has not had time to cover all possible |
exposures of rock between the two
places mentioned.
DISTRIBUTION
There seem to be two distinct belts |
of the peridotite in northern Vermont. |
The eastern belt is the more continuous. |
Ito hest develonment can be found /