Abstract

Lineation studies of aeromagnetic, topographic, aeroradioactivity, radar, ERTS imagery and gravity data for southern New England reinforce and complement one another well and show an overall pattern of northeast, north, northwest, and east trends in decreasing order of importance. Studies of geologically well known areas in southern New England show that only a few minor lineaments are produced by glacial features and that many prominent lineaments are coincident with mapped faults. The lineaments reveal extensions of known faults, suggest additional previously unrecognized faults, and bring out the regional importance of certain fault zones.

A geologic interpretaion of the lineaments in southern New England shows a pattern similar to that formed by the pervasive faulting known in the Triassic rocks of the southern Connecticut River valley and suggest that this fault pattern and density of faulting is also present in the older crystalline rocks. Mapped faults and lineaments indicative of fault extensions and probable faults show that southern New England is cut by several important northeast-trending fault-lineament zones. Northerly trending lineaments representing fault traces lie between these zones in places and cut some of the northeast-trending faults. Several important easterly trending lineaments, mainly in southeastern New England, also represent fault zones. These northeast, north and east trends appear to have formed contemporaneously, as they cut one another. All three are cut by prominent northwest-trending lineaments that mark traces of faults, generally with little displacement. The geological, geophysical and topographical data for northern New England and the Gulf of Maine, although much less complete, indicate a similar pattern. Several northeast-trending fault-lineament zones exhibit apparent right lateral displacement, and many east of the Connecticut River also indicate a reverse, west over east, displacement. These two components probably are indicative of the regional sense of tectonic movement as they are the most clearly defined and appear to be consistent with the regional structural pattern.