Field Guide 47 Guide Field Edited by Christopher M. Bailey and Shelley Jaye Edited by Christopher M. Bailey and Shelley Jaye

GEOLOGICAL FIELD EXCURSIONS ACROSS ACROSS FIELD EXCURSIONS GEOLOGICAL

From the Blue Ridge to the Beach Beach Ridge to theRidge to the the Blue the Blue From From

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by guest Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3741315/frontmatter.pdf Edited by C.M. Bailey and S. Jaye From the Blue Ridge to the Beach: Geological Field Excursions across Virginia From the Blue Ridge to the Beach: Geological Field Excursions across Virginia

edited by

Christopher M. Bailey Department of Geology College of William & Mary Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA

Shelley Jaye Division of Mathematics, Science and Engineering Community College 8333 Little River Turnpike Annandale, Virginia 22003, USA

Field Guide 47 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140 Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA 2017

Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3741315/frontmatter.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Copyright © 2017, The Geological Society of America (GSA), Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright is not claimed on content prepared wholly by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted permission, without fees or further requests to GSA, to use a single figure, a single table, and/or a brief paragraph of text in other subsequent works and to make unlimited photocopies of items in this volume for noncommercial use in classrooms to further education and science. Permission is also granted to authors to post the abstracts only of their articles on their own or their organization’s Web site providing that the posting cites the GSA publication in which the material appears and the citation includes the address line: “Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140 USA (http://www.geosociety.org),” and also providing that the abstract as posted is identical to that which appears in the GSA publication. In addition, an author has the right to use his or her article or a portion of the article in a thesis or dissertation without requesting permission from GSA, provided that the bibliographic citation and the GSA copyright credit line are given on the appropriate pages. For any other form of capture, reproduction, and/or distribution of any item in this volume by any means, contact Permissions, GSA, 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA; fax +1-303-357-1070; [email protected]. GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society.

Authors of these field guides have noted where it is required to obtain permission from property owners before visiting stops. This information is correct to the best of GSA’s knowledge as of press time; however, those using the guides published herein should be aware that property ownership may change over time, and are cautioned to respect private property, including obtaining permission to visit stops as needed.

Published by The Geological Society of America, Inc. 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA www.geosociety.org

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bailey, Christopher M., editor. | Jaye, Shelley, editor. | Geological Society of America. Title: From the Blue Ridge to the beach: geological field excursions across Virginia / edited by Christopher M. Bailey, Department of Geology, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, Shelley Jaye, Division of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, Virginia, USA. Description: Boulder, Colorado: The Geological Society of America, 2017. | Series: Field guide; 47 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2017001873 | ISBN 9780813700472 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Geology—Virginia—Guidebooks. Classification: LCC QE173 .F76 2017 | DDC 557.55—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001873

Cover: Shaded relief map of Virginia and the surrounding region (map produced from 1-second National Elevation Data). Credit: Christopher M. Bailey.

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Preface ...... v

1. Geology along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia ...... 1 Mark W. Carter, Scott Southworth, Richard P. Tollo, Arthur J. Merschat, Sara Wagner, Ava Lazor, and John N. Aleinikoff

2. From Laurentia to Iapetus: Traversing the Blue Ridge–Piedmont terrane boundary in central Virginia ...... 59 Christopher M. Bailey, Anna V. Spears, and Aaron Marshall

3. Fossil-collecting from the middle Carmel Church Quarry marine ecosystem in Caroline County, Virginia ...... 77 Alexander K. Hastings and Alton C. Dooley Jr.

4. Geologic controls on cave development in Burnsville Cove, Bath and Highland Counties, Virginia ...... 89 Christopher S. Swezey, John T. Haynes, Philip C. Lucas, and Richard A. Lambert

5. Geology and biostratigraphy of the Potomac River cliffs at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia ...... 125 Robert E. Weems, Lucy E. Edwards, and Bryan Landacre

6. Geology of the Petersburg batholith, eastern Piedmont, Virginia ...... 153 Brent E. Owens, Mark Carter, and Christopher M. Bailey

7. Geology and the Petersburg Campaign in the American Civil War ...... 163 Aaron Cross, C. Rick Berquist, Marcie Occhi, Jessi Strand, and Christopher M. Bailey

iii

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The 2017 Geological Society of America Southeastern Section Meeting will take place in Richmond, Virginia, adjacent to the James River and its iconic Fall Zone rapids. Eleven fi eld trips are associated with this meeting, and explore Virginia’s rich geology from the to the Eastern Shore beaches. This volume includes fi eld guides for seven of those trips (Fig. 1), and neatly illustrates Virginia’s geologi- cal diversity. We hope this guidebook will serve as a useful resource for professionals, students, and people simply interested in the geology of Virginia. Carter et al. (Chapter 1) present the results of a research campaign by the U.S. Geological Survey to refi ne the geology of the Blue Ridge along the Blue Ridge Parkway; the trip will make stops along the Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 0 at Rockfi sh Gap to the eastern Continental Divide at milepost 205. Chapter 2 (Bailey et al.) is a traverse from the Blue Ridge to the Piedmont and will examine to rocks and structures formed during the assembly and breakup of Laurentia and the subsequent closure of the . Hastings and Dooley (Chapter 3) and Weems et al. (Chapter 5) explore the fossiliferous strata exposed on the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The trip by Hastings and Dooley focuses on the Carmel Church Quarry fossil site, which has yielded a rich assemblage of vertebrate fossils (both marine and non-marine organisms) during excavations by scientists from the Virginia Museum of Natural History over the past two decades. The trip by Weems et al. takes in the geology and biostratigraphy of the cliffs along the south side of the Potomac River at Stratford Hall on the ; the trip will also discuss the role that geology

Numbers correspond to chapter numbers and approximate fi eld-trip locations.

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has played in local history. Chapter 4 (Swezey et al.) focuses on the geologic controls on cave development in the Valley & Ridge province of western Virginia, and provides new insights on Paleozoic stratigraphy. The last two chapters round out the fi eld guide, and are focused on the geology in and around Richmond. Owens et al. (Chapter 6) provide an overview of the massive Petersburg batholith, a large ca. 300 Ma granitic complex in the eastern Piedmont, emplaced during the . Cross et al. (Chapter 7) explore the relationship between the geology of the Fall Zone and the 1864–1865 Petersburg Campaign in the Ameri- can Civil War; geologic factors played a signifi cant factor in this long and bloody last campaign of the war. We thank the fi eld-trip leaders and authors for putting together a set of trips that showcases the geo- logical diversity of Virginia and the Richmond region. Meeting co-chairs Karen Layou and David Spears provided vision and leadership throughout this process.

Christopher M. Bailey and Shelley Jaye 7 February 2017

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