ORIGINS OF BEDROCK AND SEDIMENT DEPOSITS IN FLINT WOODS, FARMINGTON, MAINE

This investigation was to determine the origins of the bedrock and sediments in Flint Woods, Farmington, Maine. The methods used to carry out this study included profiling, determining strike and dip, and collecting bedrock and sediment samples. To process the sediments, a standard grain size analysis was performed. Evidence suggests that sediments deposited on the bottom of the Iapetus Ocean floor, between the ancestral North American and European-African continents, formed shale. Furthermore, it suggests that during the middle Devonian Period those continental plates collided during the Acadian Orogeny. This collision resulted in the folding and deformation of the existing bedrock. Also during this event, the shale was heavily metamorphosed, becoming the phyllite that makes up Titcomb Hill Ridge. More recently in the Quaternary Period, the Laurentide Ice Sheet formed. As it moved across the ridge from the northwest, it dropped off till on the southeast side. This event formed a till deposit perpendicular to the ridge, which may possibly be a crag and tail feature.