Mt. Frissell (summit in MA)
       7½ quad: Bashbish Falls, MA-CT-NY
       Litchfield County
       Private land
       (Appalachian Trail follows a high ridge two miles east of Mt. Frissell,
       over the top of the highest mountain top in Connecticut, Bear
       Mountain, at 2,316 ft)
       Taconic Range

Metamorphic (metamorphosed sedimentary)
2,380 ft (725m)

Gray to green, locally rusty-weathering, fine to medium-grained quartz-feldspar-muscovite-garnet +/- staurolite +/- chloritoid schist. Part of the Taconic allochthons, rocks which were thrust westward in middle Ordovician time (+/- 454 million years ago) when an island arc farther east collided with Laurentia. Originally deposited as muds along the eastern continental slope of Laurentia.

Surficial Geology: Thin mantle of Wisconsinan glacial till; ice retreated from this part of New England about 15,000 years BP.

Soil Series: Hollis sandy loam, extremely rocky and steep, fine sandy loam, derived from the till and underlying residuum. In some areas, bedrock exposure is greater than 50%.

Selected References:
Gonick, Walter N. and others, 1970, Soil Survey of Litchfield County, Connecticut: United States Soil Conservation Service.

Rodgers, John, 1985, Bedrock Geological Map of Connecticut: Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey, Hartford.

Other suggested sources of information:

• Glossary: www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/misc/glossaryAtoC.html
• Time scale: www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html
• Geology of Connecticut: www.wesleyan.edu/ctgeology
• Connecticut Bedrock quadrangle maps: http://g3.tmsc.org/geology/bedrock/