During the Taconic Orogeny, one of the mountain building events of the Appalachians, blocks of continental shelf were broken off into the ocean. Large storm events, coupled with increased erosion associated with the uplift of the mountains helped the breccias make their way to 5000 m under the sea. The breccia is limestone and forms odd angles due to a partial dissolution before the mud matrix filled in around it. The white quartz veins cut through the rock later. This rock, part of an outcrop east of Rutland, VT, is Ordovician (505-438ma) in age. A rock hammer is typically placed in geology photos for scale.