42-3 A Conodont Dataset for New England: A Digital Dataset of Conodont Biostratigraphic Data and Color Alteration Index Values for Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and eastern parts of New York.

Session: Paleozoic Events and Processes: Sedimentary Geology, Paleontology, and Geochemistry (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

For decades, researchers have recognized the utility of conodont elements in biostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic, and thermal maturation investigations. Therefore, there is a need for these fossil data to be available in a centralized digital format that includes spatial information. The New England conodont dataset represents the region's first publicly accessible digital collection of previously published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) paleontological data and Color Alteration Index (CAI) values. This collection includes results from rock samples analyzed by the USGS; it does not currently incorporate data from state agencies, academic institutions, or the private sector.

The initial version of this dataset comprises sample collections sourced from the USGS National Geologic Map Database’s biostratigraphic archive, USGS Reports on Referred Fossils, and recently USGS published work. Subsequent iterations of the dataset may include backscatter electron images of representative conodonts from major biozones, as well as new data from samples collected in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The dataset facilitates the regional correlation of geologic units and the resolution of stratigraphic inconsistencies across the borders of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. This effort supports the USGS 1:500,000-scale geologic map compilation of New England. CAI values are particularly vital for determining the thermal maturity of host rocks, the thermal stability of hydrocarbons, and superposed metamorphic temperatures.

Recent 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping in the southern Lake Champlain Valley underscores the importance of this resource; it reveals that certain formations are locally absent despite being observed elsewhere, regionally providing clear evidence of several unconformities Furthermore, mapping the Knox unconformity highlights the effectiveness of conodont biostratigraphy, as fossil data from adjacent outcrops provide correlations that are corroborated by local lithologies. This dataset is intended to serve as a prototype of an approach to assembling/presenting/compiling biostratigraphic and CAI data across the U.S. Appalachians and as a primary resource for resolving regional stratigraphic inconsistencies.

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