Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic Petrologic and Ductile-Brittle Structural

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Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic Petrologic and Ductile-Brittle Structural The Geological Society of America Field Guide 29 2012 Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic petrologic and ductile-brittle structural relationships along the Alleghanian Nutbush Creek fault zone and Deep River Triassic basin in North Carolina David E. Blake Department of Geography and Geology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403-5944, USA Edward F. Stoddard North Carolina Geological Survey, 1620 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1620, USA, and Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8208, USA Philip J. Bradley North Carolina Geological Survey, 1620 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1620, USA Timothy W. Clark Wake Technical Community College, 9101 Fayetteville Road, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, USA ABSTRACT The focus of this fi eld trip is the complex lithologic, metamorphic and structural transition between high-grade infrastructural and low-grade suprastructural ter- ranes that defi ne the accreted peri-Gondwanan Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Carolina Zone, an island-arc superterrane in the north-central Piedmont of North Carolina. This transition is now exposed across a metamorphic suite of amphibolite facies lay- ered gneiss plus kyanite-sillimanite zone pelitic schist, and another metamorphic suite of greenschist facies mylonitic and phyllonitic metagranitoids and their unde- formed equivalents. A variety of mineral assemblages, fabric elements, and struc- tures within the transition zone may be linked into a progressive sequence recording (1) the transpressional buildup of an Alleghanian collision zone between Laurentia, the Carolina Zone, and Gondwana during Pangean continental amalgamation, and (2) its extensional collapse during the Permo-Triassic through Jurassic rifting and breakup of Pangea. We will observe the effects of Alleghanian ductile strain superposed on this infrastructural-suprastructural terrane transition, including the interplay between *[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Blake, D.E., Stoddard, E.F., Bradley, P.J., and Clark, T.W., 2012, Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic petrologic and ductile-brittle structural relationships along the Alleghanian Nutbush Creek fault zone and Deep River Triassic basin in North Carolina, in Eppes, M.C., and Bartholomew, M.J., eds., From the Blue Ridge to the Coastal Plain: Field Excursions in the Southeastern United States: Geological Society of America Field Guide 29, p. 219–261, doi:10.1130/2012.0029(07). For permission to copy, contact [email protected]. © 2012 The Geological Society of America. All rights reserved. 219 220 Blake et al. dextral transpression and the generation of syn- to post-kinematic granitic plutons. Metamorphosed volcanogenic and syn-kinematic granitoid rocks record the effects of ductile dextral-slip deformation associated with at least four major fault zones. These fault zones are combined as the Nutbush Creek–Lake Gordon fault system, an integral member of the Eastern Piedmont fault system. Finally, the trip highlights the ductile-brittle effects of Late Permian to Triassic normal-slip faulting, uplift and rift sedimentation in the northern Durham sub-basin of the Triassic Deep River rift basin, as well as crosscutting Jurassic intrusive rocks. INTRODUCTION and structures in north-central North Carolina. The region lying between the capital city of Raleigh and Kerr Lake Recreation The starting point for much of the modern geologic map- Area located along the North Carolina–Virginia state line has ping in the transition from the eastern to central Piedmont been the primary focus of these mapping efforts. Noted for its in north-central North Carolina involves the work of Parker 800 miles of shoreline (www.ncparks.gov), Kerr Lake State Rec- (1968, 1978, 1979). He showed that the region is composed reation Area, together with major southeast-fl owing tributaries to of a variety of rock types and metamorphic assemblages that the Tar River and Falls Lake–Neuse River drainage basins to its are overprinted by multiple ductile and brittle deformations. south provide abundant erosional exposures. These will be used Parker’s mapping served as the basis for lithologic contacts on this two-day fi eld trip to examine rocks representing mid-to- in north-central North Carolina on the most recent version of upper-crustal levels in cross-strike and along-strike traverses and the state geologic map (North Carolina Geological Survey, the geologic transition between the eastern and central Piedmont. 1985). It also served as the foundation for a major regional Outcrops in this transition expose varying scales of windows into geologic overview by Farrar (1985a, 1985b), who presented a Neoproterozoic to Jurassic crystalline and sedimentary rocks. synopsis of the stratigraphy, structure, and metamorphic his- They also provide a view of the low- to medium-grade metamor- tory of the eastern Piedmont based on his own reconnaissance- phism and ductile-brittle fault zone relationships and structures level geologic mapping and sampling. In continuity with the associated with the transition from Paleozoic transpressional regional studies by Farrar, Harris and Glover (1988) provide a orogenesis to Mesozoic extensional rifting of eastern North synopsis of the stratigraphic, structural, and metamorphic devel- America. These events document the fi nal pulses of Laurentian- opment of the northeastern portion of the central Piedmont based Gondwanan amalgamation and subsequent breakup of the Pan- upon regional fi eld studies and stratigraphic correlations. gean supercontinent. Additional geologic mapping across the eastern-to-central The study area is separated into amphibolite (infrastructural) Piedmont transition in the north-central North Carolina includes and greenschist facies (suprastructural) terranes that lie within a fi ve-county NCGS reconnaissance map by McDaniel (1980), the orogen-scale, Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Carolina Zone, a the USGS 1:100K South Boston sheet geologic map by Hor- peri-Gondwanan island-arc superterrane (Fig. 1). Specifi cally, ton et al. (1993a; 2001), an east-west strip of four USGS 1:24K the fi eld trip will focus upon the complex petrologic transition geologic maps along the North Carolina–Virginia state line by from deeper infrastructural to shallower suprastructural terranes. Sacks (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d), as well as the fi eldwork of This transition is now exposed across a suite of amphibolite facies Cook (1963), Carpenter (1970), Hadley (1973, 1974), McCon- layered gneiss and kyanite-sillimanite zone pelitic schist, and nell (1974), McConnell and Glover (1982), Hoffman and Gal- greenschist facies mylonitic and phyllonitic metagranitoids and lagher (1989), and Gottfried et al. (1991). Several studies pro- their undeformed equivalents. We will observe the superposed viding additional geologic mapping include those focused on the effects of Pennsylvanian–Early Permian, Alleghanian orogeny Hamme tungsten deposit in the central Piedmont (Parker, 1963; ductile-brittle strain on this terrane transition, including the inter- Casadevall and Rye, 1980; Foose et al., 1980; LeHuray, 1989), play between dextral-slip transpression and generation of syn- and on the late Paleozoic, Alleghanian Nutbush Creek fault zone to post-kinematic granitic plutons. Finally, the trip highlights in the eastern Piedmont (Casadevall, 1977; Hatcher et al., 1977; ductile-brittle effects of Permo-Triassic normal-slip faulting, and Bobyarchick, 1981; Druhan, 1983; Druhan et al., 1994) then uplift and rift sedimentation linked to the Durham sub-basin Since the completion of the regional mapping by Farrar and of the Triassic Deep River basin, as well as crosscutting Jurassic then by Harris and Glover, the central and eastern Piedmont has diabase intrusive bodies. been the subject of 27 years of detailed geologic mapping of all From north to south, as well as east to west, fi eld trip stops or parts of over 50 1:24K quadrangles in the Raleigh and Hender- are located within the John H. Kerr Dam, Middleburg, Hender- son 1:100K sheets, largely from the efforts of the North Carolina son, Oxford, Wilton, and Lake Michie 1:24K Quadrangles (Figs. Geological Survey (NCGS). Detailed NCGS geological map- 2, 3, and 4). This fi eld trip honors the 75th anniversary of the ping under the USGS-administered STATEMAP and EDMAP establishment of the Carolina Geological Society and its contri- programs has added clarity to our understanding of rock types bution to our understanding of southern Appalachian geology. Alleghanian Nutbush Creek fault zone and Deep River Triassic basin 221 Figure 1. Tectonostratigraphic element map of suprastructural and infrastruc- tural terranes within the Carolina Zone of the southern Appalachian orogen. Suprastructral elements include the Milledgeville (MT), Augusta (AT), Roanoke Rapids (RR), Spring Hope (SH), Carolina (CT), and Easternmost Carolina (ECT) terranes. Infrastruc- tural elements include the Uchee (UT), Savannah River (SR), Dreher Shoals (DS), Falls Lake (FLT), Triplet (TT), Warren (WT), Raleigh (RT), Crabtree (CRT), and Charlotte (CHT) terranes. VA—Virginia; TN—Tennessee; NC— North Carolina; AL—Alabama; GA— Georgia; SC—South Carolina. Modifi ed from Hibbard and Samson (1995) and Hibbard et al. (2002). Figure 2. Regional geologic setting of the northeastern Carolina Zone show- ing tectonostratigraphic terranes, Dur- ham sub-basin (Dsb) of the Deep River Mesozoic
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