Discussion and Reply: Yarrol terrane of the northern New England Fold Belt: forearc or backarc?

Introduction The cornerstone of plate tectonic models for the New England Orogen over the past quarter of a century was that through Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous time, the New England Orogen was a classic convergent continental margin with parallel west to east belts representing volcanic arc, forearc basin and accretionary wedge assemblages. Bryan et al. (2001) have questioned this interpretation by proposing that the rocks attributed to a forearc basin setting actually formed in a backarc basin, and that no arc volcanics of Devonian or Carboniferous age are ...