Giro conglomerate

This massive conglomerate was collected along Thunderbolts Way in early Permian sequences belonging to the Manning Basin. It froms part of a group that includes the Giro Diamictite. Unlike glacial diamictites, these conglomerates and accompanying sequences of massive mudstone were deposited in a deep ocean environment that formed in rift basins that opened in the Southern New England Orogen during the early Permian. Clasts in the conglomerate are derived from the surrounding older subduction-accretion complex and contain a wide variety of clast types. Diorites, granites, volcanics, greenshcists, blueschists, siltstones, chert and many other clast types are all present. It has a very fine-grained silty matrix. The conglomerate is also very strongly indurated due to a silica cement and later deformation and low-grade metamorphism.