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"The Appalachians constitute one of Earth's major tectonic features and have served as a springboard for innovative geologic thought for more than 170 years. This volume contains 36 original papers reporting the results of research performed throughout nearly the entire length and breadth of the Appalachian region, including all major provinces and geographical areas. Memoir 206 was designed to commemorate the (near-)fortieth anniversary of the publication of the classic Studies of Appalachian Geology volumes that appeared just prior to the application of plate tectonic concepts to the region. Contributions concerning structural evolution, sedimentation, stratigraphy, magmatic processes, metamorphism, tectonics, and terrane accretion illustrate the wide range of ongoing research in the area and collectively serve to mark the considerable progress in scientific thought that has occurred during the past four decades."--pub. desc.
Mountain ranges are the most conspicuous elements of the earth's architecture, and the manner in which the architectural units are arranged or disarranged has become the study of a subdivision of geology known as Tectonics. A hundred years ago James Hall attempted the first scientific synthesis of the steps in the building of the eastern North American mountains, the Appalachians. His initial hypothesis of 1857, expanded and broadened by J.D. Dana during the decade which followed, laid the foundation for our modern geosynclinal theory of mountain building. During the last century of modifications and refinements were contributed concerning the roles played by crustal compression, sub-crustal convection currents, batholiths, metamorphism, gravity sliding, and isostasy. In recent years detailed mapping, supplemented by studies of turbidity currents, paleomagentism, stable isotopes, and radio-activity have helped to unravel the history of mountain building, but today there are as many questions unanswered as there are those for which there are tentative solutions. Aspects of Appalachian orogeny was a suitable subject for the symposium of the Royal Society of Canada Annual Meeting in 1966 at Sherbrooke, Quebec—a city within the Appalachian Mountain System. This book assembles the papers of this symposium, dealing with gravity sliding, studies of sedimentation and structure in limited areas, comparisons with the Appalachians of the United States, the bearing of gravity measurements upon our understanding of mountain structure, earthquakes, and a broad, general view of the tectonic pattern of the earth of which this mountain-built belt is but a small part. Such a comprehensive volume, bringing together a variety of points of view of some of the foremost scholars in the field, indicates the vastness of the subject, the significant progress made thus far, the necessity for new and progressive methods of exploration, and above all the interdependence of all the workers in the field, no matter how seemingly unrelated their specialities are.
Detailed geologic mapping in the central Georgia Inner Piedmont has revealed a plutonic complex in the Cat Square terrane (CST) between the Brindle Creek and Towaliga faults ~80 km SE of Atlanta. The complex has an area ~235 km2 and is composed of two distinct mappable granitoids. The High Falls Granite (HFG) is a Siluro-Devonian (424-380 Ma) porphyritic granite with characteristic blocky microcline megacrysts. The Indian Springs Granite (ISG, 313-299 Ma) has an equigranular, fine- to medium-grained texture. Some foliation in the HFG is concordant with regional trends, but a relict magmatic or secondary tectonic foliation was also observed in many parts of the pluton. The location of two terrane boundaries was delineated during field mapping. The Brindle Creek fault and terrane boundary is a narrow (
The exposed Appalachian Mountains extend about 2500 km from Newfoundland to Alabama with the highest peaks >2000 m above sea level. The last orogeny that affected Appalachian crust was the 325-260 Ma Alleghanian. Even with minimal erosion rates, it is highly unlikely that the Appalachians could have sustained such elevations for over 200 m.y., suggesting that recent tectonic uplift has produced today's mountainous topography. The multiple phases of Tertiary uplift are related to poorly understood processes, but a large amount of data from today's mountain chain and the adjacent Coastal Plain indicate the present high topography is anomalous and clearly not related to Paleozoic crustal processes. Uplift signatures suggest that current topography and visible geomorphology are a product of the late Tertiary uplift. Antecedent rivers flowing westward across very high topography in the Blue Ridge, westward-migrating drainage divide and anomalous drainage patterns are common in the southeastern Appalachians. A marked shift in high topography occurs northward from the Blue Ridge in Tennessee-North Carolina to the Valley and Ridge in Virginia-West Virginia. Evidence suggests a possible late Tertiary tectonic uplift in the southern and central Appalachians, although more data and evidence are needed to understand the uplift. The main research problem of this project is to identify and analyze uplift signatures as recorded in lower Gulf Coastal Plain sediments and fluvial terraces along Douglas Lake, French Broad River. Detrital zircon geochronology of Miocene-Pliocene lower Gulf Coastal Plain sediments shows important age peaks at 1.0 Ga, 600 Ma, 480 Ma, 440 Ma and 300 Ma. Collective zircon data suggest a possible predominance of Appalachian provenance. This indicates occurrence of tectonic uplift in the source region during the Miocene-Pliocene, producing exceptionally high sediment influx in the Coastal Plain during that time. Fluvial terrace mapping along Douglas Lake, Tennessee has been done with the help of vintage topographic maps and classic geologic mapping involving foot traverses. A provisional geologic terrace map at 1:24,000 scale has been produced as part of this study. Terrace mapping has helped identify five distinct terraces, resolve their relative chronology and understand the evolution of terraces along the river.