Cameron's Line

Did you know that New England was not always part of the North American continent? Slices of land known as terranes collided with North America ages ago. In geological terms, a terranes is a fault-bounded area or surface over which a particular rock or group of rocks is prevalent. As these collisions occurred, the terranes were squeezed, crumpled, deformed and intensely metamorphosed. This has made for some rather complex geology in the New England area.

A proto-continent ripped open during the Late Proterozoic era 700 million years ago, giving birth to an ocean named Iapetus. Then Iapetus's edges came together again essentially squeezing the sea out of existence.

Huge tectonic plates drifted and collided in a series of stages, eventually merging into the land mass of Northeastern U.S. as we know it today. The Roxbury Land Trust has an excellent illustrated guide (PDF) about the geological history of New England replete with details on the tectonic plates movements:

Source: Roxbury Land Trust (Geology)

The final merging and naming of all these terranes is a complicated saga, more thoroughly explained and illustrated on this site: “Exotic Terranes: the making of New England”

Cameron’s Line in west Connecticut is a major thrust fault that separates (1) rocks that were originally part of the ancient Iapetus Ocean (deep ocean metasedimentary rocks) from (2) metamorphic rocks derived from the previous continental shelf and slope deposits to the west.
This line marks an abrupt change in the earth’s crust that resulted from a collision between North America and a European-African land mass 400 million years ago.

Source:
Weir Farm Geologic Resources Inventory Report

Further Info (with Maps)

Iapetus Ocean (Wikipedia)
Ancient Terranes of New York and Connecticut
Connecticut Geology
New England Terranes (jpg)
Ridgefield Earthquake

Visual Quick Study - Fracking in New York State

Much of western New York sits atop the natural gas-rich Marcellus shale, the same formation that has made neighboring Pennsylvania one of the country’s largest natural gas producers because of high-volume hydraulic fracturing operations. The Marcellus shale, stretching from Tennessee to New York, is estimated to contain about 84 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas, up to 9 trillion of which is in the Empire State.

Did You Know?
December 22nd, 2014 - New York State became the first energy-rich state to ban the method of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to extract natural gas found in underground shale formations. The ban came at about the same time that the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick officials said they’d prevent shale gas development, too.

New York State Fracking Maps

Shale Gas Deposits in the Northeast

Fracking Map

Each dot on the map below represents one natural gas well. Most existing wells were drilled using conventional drilling methods. 

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Fraccidents 

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