Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	44° 46' 0'' North , 72° 31' 23'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	44.76667,-72.52306
GeoHash:	G#: druqttw2d
Locality type:	Group of Quarries
Köppen climate type:	Dfb : Warm-summer humid continental climate
Nearest Settlements:	Place Population Distance Lowell 228 (2017) 6.9km Albany 186 (2017) 12.0km Montgomery 1,195 (2017) 17.6km Troy 243 (2017) 17.8km Johnson 1,451 (2017) 19.1km

Note: The use of the name "Eden Mills Quarries" should be discouraged as this has never been an official name for the quarries and the quarries are closer to the towns of Lowell & Eden rather than Eden Mills.

Asbestos was first discovered on Belvidere Mountain before 1823 (in Lowell, formerly Kellyvale). In 1899, a prospect was developed at the east base of the mountain which was later mined by the Lowell Lumber & Asbestos Company. Another company, New England Asbestos Mining and Milling, began mining the southwest side in 1902.

According to the Vermont Geological Survey: "The Ruberoid Company bought the Belvidere Mountain mine in 1936. By this time, the Eden mine was the only operating chrysotile asbestos mine in the country, encompassing 1700 acres of asbestos deposits on Belvidere Mountain. When Ruberoid took over, the first modern, large scale development began (Crane, 1954). In 1967, the company merged with General Aniline and Film Corporation and became known as GAF Corporation. By 1973, health issues regarding the mining and use of asbestos came into public focus. Only two years later, GAF announced that the Eden mine would cease its operations. An economic feasibility study had determined that the estimated $1 million cost to retrofit the plant for the required environmental dust control equipment made further operation of the mine unprofitable (Wallace, 1990). That same year, mine workers raised $2 million and took control of the plant from GAF (Clairborne, 1976). The new company was called the Vermont Asbestos Group (VAG). The serpentine is blasted loose from the quarry face and then trucked to the mill where the fibers are separated from the rock. Vermont ranked second in the manufacturing of asbestos to California, the only other state that produces asbestos. The mine closed in 1993. Asbestos mining no longer occurs in Vermont."

The excavations for this asbestos deposit are virtually continuous and overlapping. Many collectors maintain a distinction without a difference as to the names of particular pits. Although there are historical references to particular sub-locations such as the C-area, etc., specimens from these locations have been distributed without specific labels to identify which pit or exact spot they have come from. The largest two levels are at the north end of the excavations the Lowell quarry and, consequently, which have produced most of the specimens, and are largely in Lowell, but exceptional specimens have also been found in Eden on the southern end of the quarry area (T-area). (Have fun figuring out how to label specimens from this area!)

Regions containing this locality

North America Plate

Tectonic Plate

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Ordovician 443.8 - 485.4 Ma ID: 3189350

Paleozoic intrusive rocks Age: Ordovician (443.8 - 485.4 Ma) Lithology: Mafic volcanic rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Cambrian - Neoproterozoic 485.4 - 1000 Ma ID: 2780125

Belvidere Mountain Structural Complex - albite gneiss Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian (485.4 - 1000 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Belvidere Mountain Complex Description: White, light-gray- and green-banded, fine- to medium-grained, well-layered epidote-white mica-quartz-albite (±garnet±magnetite) gneiss; contains plagioclase and polycrystalline quartz porphyroblasts. The 0.5- to 2-cm-thick layers are defined by variations in the amount of quartz, albite, white mica, and chlorite. Gneiss is similar to gneiss at the base of the Tillotson Peak Structural Complex. Rocks of the Early to Late Taconic Accreted Terrane of the Rowe-Hawley Zone. Eastern allochthonous sequence, oceanic and accretionary realm, ultramafic inclusions, volcanic-arc intrusives, and volcanic rocks. Comments: Original map source: Ratcliffe, N.M., Stanley, R.S., Gale., M.H., Thompson, P.J., and Walsh, G.J., 2011, Bedrock geologic map of Vermont: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3184, 3 sheets, scale 1:100,000. Lithology: Major:{muscovite gneiss} Reference: Horton, J.D., C.A. San Juan, and D.B. Stoeser. The State Geologic Map Compilation (SGMC) geodatabase of the conterminous United States. doi: 10.3133/ds1052. U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1052. [133]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References

External Links