Geologic Map of the Loudoun County, Virginia, Part of the Harpers Ferry Quadrangle
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR TO ACCOMPANY MAP MF-2173 U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA, PART OF THE HARPERS FERRY QUADRANGLE By C. Scott Southworth INTRODUCTION Antietam Quartzite constituted the Chilhowee Group of Early Cambrian age. Bedrock and surficial deposits were mapped in 1989-90 as part For this report, the Loudoun Formation is not recognized. As of a cooperative agreement with the Loudoun County Department used by Nickelsen (1956), the Loudoun consisted primarily of of Environmental Resources. This map is one of a series of geologic phyllite and a local uppermost coarse pebble conglomerate. Phyl- field investigations (Southworth, 1990; Jacobson and others, lite, of probable tuffaceous origin, is largely indistinguishable in the 1990) in Loudoun County, Va. This report, which includes Swift Run, Catoctin, and Loudoun Formations. Phyl'ite, previously geochemical and structural data, provides a framework for future mapped as Loudoun Formation, cannot be reliably separated from derivative studies such as soil and ground-water analyses, which phyllite in the Catoctin; thus it is here mapped as Catoctin are important because of the increasing demand for water and Formation. The coarse pebble conglomerate previously included in because of potential contamination problems resulting from the the Loudoun is here mapped as a basal unit of the overlying lower recent change in land use from rural-agricultural to high-density member of the Weverton Formation. The contact of the conglom suburban development. erate and the phyllite is sharp and is interpreted to represent a Mapping was done on 5-ft-contour interval topographic maps major change in depositional environment.
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