Geology & Fossils
Most of the rocks people see in Vermont are metamorphic or igneous, with few fossils. Vermont was also covered by glaciers during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age. The great sheets of ice crushed fossils, carried them away, or buried them under boulders and gravel. As a result, there are very few fossils in Vermont.
However, ledges along the shores of Lake Champlain harbor fossils of creatures that lived 400 to 500 million years ago. These fossils are of marine invertebrates, small, spineless animals that lived in an ancient sea. Among the marine invertebrates that lived in this sea was a large snail called Maclurites.
Some homes near Lake Champlain have doorsteps made of large limestone slabs containing Maclurites shells. This same snail was a candidate for adoption as New York’s official state fossil.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
