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Appalachian
Field Trips
Tennessee, Kentucky & Virginia
Introduction
The USC
Geological Science undergraduates and graduate students take class
field trips to examine the geology of the Appalachian Mountains.
These include GEOL
325 - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Basins Class, GEOL
553 - Marine Sediments, and GEOL
751 - Carbonate Petrology visit outcrops exposed along I 26
NC and Tennessee, I 75, Tennessee, I 64 in Kentucky, Rt 9 (AA Hwy),
Rt 801, Rt 519 and Rt 23 in Kentucky and Virginia, and Rt 58 in
Virginia. This page links to geological outcrops exposed in the
Appalachian Mountains of sediments that accumulated in the Paleozoic
from the Cambrian through the Mississippian to the Pennsylvanian
and Permian. Most of these outcrops are exposed along the interstate
and on state highways listed above. Geologists on the East Coast
who wish to see road side geology should take advantage of I 26
interstate exposures from South Carolina through Asheville, NC,
Johnson City, TN, to Kingsport, TN, which then becomes Rt 23 as
a two lane highway cut like cheese through Big Stone Gap, Norton,
Wise, Pound, VA, Jenkins to Pikeville, KY, and extending north through
Ashland KY. There the AA Highway winds through Kentucky close to
the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio. The Image galleries below contain
photographs that only partially capture the character of the magnificent
road cuts that extend along these highways.
Image
Gallery
The galleries
of the photographs for the various outcrops can be viewed by clicking
on the images that are beside the listed localities or the highlighted
text. They track alongI 26 NC and Tennessee, I 75, Tennessee, I
64 in Kentucky, Rt 9 (AA Hwy), Rt 801, Rt 519 and Rt 23 in Kentucky
and Virginia, and Rt 58 in Virginia. Maps locate the galleries on
their appropriate pages.
| ROAD
CUT LOCALITIES AND DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS |
CLICK
IMAGE |
BORDER-I
26 Blue Ridge Close to the North Carolina and Tennessee border
Metamorphic "melange
of different rocks" |
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I 75
Sixteen miles South of Jellico, Tennessee
Pennsylvanian "Flood
delta and back barrier facies" |
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Route
627 (between I 75 & I 64) vicinity
of Winchester, Kentucky:
Ordovician "storm
dominated shallow shelf sediments that include mixed carbonates
and clastics" of the Cincinnatian Group |
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MAYSVILLE
- Route 62 (just off AA Highway) west
of Maysville, Kentucky:
Ordovician "storm
dominated shallow shelf sediments that include mixed carbonates
and clastics" of the Cincinnatian Group |
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OWINGSVILLE
- I
64 East of Lexington between Mt. Stirling & Owingsville,
NE Kentucky.
Silurian "Shelf Carbonates & Dolomites" of Brassfield
Fm & Devonian Ohio
Shale |
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RIBOLT
& HERRON HILL - AA
Highway east of Maysville, Kentucky:
Silurian "Shelf
Carbonates and Dolomites" of the Bisher and Brassfield
Formations |
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SPY
RUN & GARRISON -
AA Highway east of Maysville, Kentucky:
Devonian
"Deeper water clastic fans" of the Berea Formation
at two localities |
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I 64
half mile east & north of exit for Morehead, NE Kentucky.
Mississippian"fans
and prodelta" of the Borden Formation |
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801
- Route 801, NE Kentucky, just east of Cave Run Lake.
Mississippian "Deeper
water clastic fans" of the Borden Formation at one locality |
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801
- Route 801, NE Kentucky, just east of Cave Run Lake.
Mississippian
"carbonate tidal flats and ooid shoals" of the
Newman Formation |
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BOONE
- Route 519, NE Kentucky, just east
of Cave Run Lake.
Mississippian "carbonate
tidal flats and tempestites?" of the Newman Formation |
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WEIGH
STATION - I 64 half a mile south of weigh station,
NE Kentucky.
Mississippian "carbonate
tidal flats and channels" of the Newman Formation |
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MILE
151 - I 64 half a mile north of the weigh station,
NE Kentucky.
Pennsylvanian "back
barrier storm washover" of the Lee Formation. |
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I
64 close to the Olive Hill exit, NE Kentucky
Mississippian
"ooid
shoal facies and orthoquatzite barrier" of Newman
Formation . |
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RHYTHMITES
- I 64 a mile north of weigh station,
NE Kentucky.
Pennsylvanian "tidal
flat " of the Breathitt Group |
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LOUISA
- Route 23 just north
of Louisa, NE Kentucky
Pennsylvanian "fluvial
facies" of the Breathitt Group |
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DMB
- Route 23 just south of Louisa, NE
Kentucky
Pennsylvanian
"deltaic facies" of the Breathitt Group have eroded
and filled to a coal and seat earth |
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Route
23 between Louisa and Jenkins, NE Kentucky.
Pennsylvanian "deltaic
facies" of the Breathitt Group |
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POUND
GAP - Route 23 at Pound Gap just
south and above Jenkins, NE Kentucky.
Devonian through Mississippian to Pennsylvanian "deeper
water fans, carbonate shelf, barrier and fluvial deltaic facies"
of the Ohio Shale, Bedford Shale, Beria Sandstone, Sunbury
Shale, Grainger, Newman Formations, and Breathitt (Pennington
& Lee Formations) Group |
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Route
58 east of St. Pauls,Virginia
Cambrian "algal
mounds and ribbon rock" of the Nolichucky Formation |
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Route
58 between St Pauls and Lebanon, Virginia
Ordovician "carbonate
shelf margin" of the Rockdell Formation |
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Route
58 between Lebanon and Hansonville, Virginia
Cambrian "algal
mounds and ribbon rock" of the Nolichucky Formation
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Route
58 south east of Lebanon, Virginia
Cambrian "algal
mounds and ribbon rock" of the Nolichucky Formation
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Photographs
along I 26 from South Carolina to Rt 23 and AA Highway
in Kentuck
A variety of photographs of trees in bloom and houses and towns.
Kentucky giving her
best!! |
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Using
only observations that you made during the field trip,
you should write a paper (7-10 pages of text) that describes and
interprets the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy of
eastern Kentucky. As part of this paper, you should generate a
series of paleogeographic maps that depict the schematic evolution
of the Appalachian basin.
The data
you collected should include:
(a)
observations, descriptions and interpretations from each of
the stops that we visited during the trip, and
(b)
the collective composite measured section that you will compile
as a class at Pound Gap in the easternmost part of the basin.
Information
gleaned from external sources will generally not
help your grade—you will be evaluated based on your observations
and your ability to effectively interpret and synthesize them
using the concepts learned during lecture. Your reliance on literature
instead of your noggin' could negatively impact your grade.
Field
Work Suggestions
•
Take thorough, readable notes. Augment them with sketches or
photographs. Record the location of each stop and tie the location
to the descriptions in your field book.
• Some stratigraphic units may occur in multiple locations
but have different lithofacies assemblages. Be sure to describe
each occurrence separately, but note when different occurrences
may be lateral equivalents to one another.
• Your descriptions & interpretations should span
several spatial and temporal scales:
(
DESCRIPTIONS TO
INTERPRETATIONS )
lithofacies & lithofacies assemblages to deposional systems
[10 it -2 - 101 m; minutes – 100s ka] ‘Formations'
and ‘Groups' to basins [10s – 1000s of m;
100s ka - 100s million years]
•
Don't forget Walther's ‘Law.' When a
vertical succession of rocks obeys Walther's ‘Law,'
you can determine whether depositional systems are
(a)
prograding (proximal strata overlaying distal strata), or
(b) retrograding
(distal strata overlaying proximal strata).
When a
vertical succession of rocks does not obey Walther's ‘Law,'
there is some exinsic mechanism (usually climate, tectonics or
sea-level) at work on the depositional systems. Your ultimate
goal is to identify these disobedient changes in stratigraphy
(EX: alluvial-fan conglomerates overlain by shelf carbonates),
and provide plausible explanation(s) (EX: eustatic sea-level rise;
decreased convergent tectonic activity).
Paper-Writing Suggestions
•
Describe units and events in chronologic order, from oldest
to youngest.
• Don't use a narrative style (EX: ‘First
we did this, then we did this, then we had lunch' or ‘Dave
said this was this') in your writing. Avoid passive voice.
• Keep descriptions and interpretations separate. ‘Coarse-grained,
trough-cross-stratified fining-upwards succession of sandstone'
is a description. ‘Fluvial channel deposits' is
an interpretation.
• Don't bullshit.
Deliverables
Apaper
(7-10 pages of text) that describes and interprets the Paleozoic
sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy of eastern Kentucky with
a series of paleogeographic maps that depict the schematic evolution
of the Appalachian basin.
Report
should include:
(a)
observations, descriptions and interpretations from each of
the stops that visited during the trip, and
(b)
the collective composite measured section that you compiled
as a class at Pound Gap in the easternmost part of the basin.
Useful
Links for this trip
To aid
in your write up you might want to the visit the terminology
page and look under parasequence-shoreline.  Also
Check the four examples that Van Wagoner et al (1990) provided
for coarsening upward parasequences for a beach;
delta;
stacked
beaches ; and fining upward
stacked tidal flats in the terminology section of this
site.
Also you might want to search with Google and under the images
search look for sedimentary structures like Hummocky Cross beds.
Here are some of links that can be currently found:
http://www.earth.rochester.edu/ees201/Bren/Bedforms+Strat.html
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/seds/
http://www.stmarys.ca/academic/science/geology/sediments/bedforms.html
http://www.oswego.edu/Acad_Dept/a_and_s/earth.sci/geo_geochem/G420/oscflow/
http://www.ocean.washington.edu/people/faculty/parsons/OCEAN549B/bedforms-lect.htm
http://www.colby.edu/~ragastal/GE356/Bedforms.htm
If you search for a little time you will find more.
Student Contributions
Click
on the students name to view contributions from the Geology
325 of Spring 2001.
Adams,
Danny
Alnaji,
Nassir
Jones,
Anthony
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