Flatrock Quarry, Waterford, New London Co., Connecticut, USA

I'm curious, is there a more recent reference than Dale (1911) for aegirine occurring at this locality (or anywhere else in the New London Granite-gneiss)? I'm interested because this quarry and two other nearby localities are the only reported occurrences of aegirine in Connecticut.

Goldsmith (1961) sampled "aegirine-augite granitic gneiss" from this quarry and reported aegirine-augite, monazite, allanite and sphene. I can find no other reference for aegirine or aegirine-augite from Flat Rock.

Goldsmith, Richard et al (1961). Sphene in Granitic Gneisses of Southeastern Connecticut (USGS Prof Paper 424-A).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2012 04:41PM by Peter Cristofono.

I've looked all over for more about this area, but found nothing.
I have, however, seen some aegrine in nearby outcroppings.

-Rowan Lytle

Necessities:
Food, Water, Shelter, Fire, Minerals.

By WWI, the use of bldg and paving stone was rapidly declining in favor of concrete and asphalt, so not long after Dale and Gregory (1911) no one cared much about the granite resource anymore. The Avalonian terrane of SE and eastern Conn is not a mineral hotbed either. Schairer's 1931 mentions aeschynite from the Flatrock Quarry and Sohon's 1951 Minerals of Conn. mentions acmite coming from Waterford. These documents are generally not primary sources in any case, but the latter has a great reference list. Otherwise, I havent seen anything.

I just came across an old book called "the Commercial Granites of New England". The only quarry listed for Waterford that contains aigerite granite was called by the name of "Scott Quarry". This book was printed in 1923 by the USGS. Perhaps this is the quarry you are looking for but by '23 was under a new name. All the other quarries listed for Waterford were associated with the gray granites of Westerly RI. Just got this book from a friend of our RI club for our library and decided to take it home to look at it yesterday!! Your good luck if it turns out to be the same place.

Good Hunting
Rach

Hi,

The Flat Rock and Scott quarries were separate operations. Flat Rock was among the larger quarries along with the Millstone and Booth quarries and operated until the 1940s. Scott was a small quarry and defunct prior to 1930.

-Mike K.

Rachel:
Is the author of "The Commercial Granites of New England" one of the same authors of "The Granites of Connecticut" (T. Nelson Dale and Herbert E. Gregory)? I have the latter but not the former, though I'd heard of it.
Thanks
Fritz

Harold

book is written by T.Nelson Hale, United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 738

rach