Inner Piedmont Geology in the South Mountains-Blue Ridge Foothills and the Southwestern Brushy Mountains, Central- Western North Carolina
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Inner Piedmont geology in the South Mountains-Blue Ridge Foothills and the southwestern Brushy Mountains, central- western North Carolina Tenness y of ee–K sit n er ox iv vi n ll Carolina Geological Society U e Annual Field Trip Tectonics Research October 19-20, 2002 S e c ci n en le c el e A xc lli f E Guidebook Editors: ance Center o Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. and Brendan R. Bream Field Trip Leaders (in order of appearance): Joseph C. Hill, Brendan R. Bream, Scott D. Giorgis, Scott T. Williams, James L. Kalbas, Arthur J. Merschat, and Russell W. Mapes Acknowledgments and Credits Sponsorship of CGS–2002 (received prior to printing) by: Campbell and Associates, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina Carolina Geological Conultants, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina Central Savannah River Geological Society, Aiken, South Carolina Steve Gurley, Consulting Soil Scientist, Lincolnton, North Carolina Godfrey and Associates, Inc., Blythewood, South Carolina Kubal and Furr, Greenville, South Carolina Zemex Corporation, Spruce Pine, North Carolina Vulcan Materials Company (Jim Stroud, Brad Allison) for access to the Lenoir Quarry. Organization, registering participants, keeping financial records, and guidebook proofreading: Nancy L. Meadows The National Cooperative Mapping Program, EDMAP component grants (administered by the USGS), funded the detailed geologic mapping. Without these grants, none of the petrologic, geochronologic, or other research presented here would be meaningful. Cooperation, encouragement, and field checking by North Carolina Geological Survey geologists: Leonard S. Wiener Carl E. Merschat Mark W. Carter and the cooperation of State Geologist (just retired): Charles H. Gardner Cover Photo: Recording data on a traverse in the South Mountains, winter 1998. Scott T. Williams and Scott D. Giorgis in foreground. (Photo by Bob Hatcher.). Adobe Pagemaker™ layout by Brendan R. Bream. Inner Piedmont geology in the South Mountains-Blue Ridge Foothills and the southwestern Brushy Mountains, central- western North Carolina Carolina Geological Society Annual Field Trip October 19-20, 2002 Guidebook Editors: Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. and Brendan R. Bream Field Trip Leaders (in order of appearance): Joseph C. Hill, Brendan R. Bream, Scott D. Giorgis, Scott T. Williams, James L. Kalbas, Arthur J. Merschat, and Russell W. Mapes i Carolina Geological Society http://carolinageologicalsociety.org/ 2002 Officers President.......Neil Gilbert Vice-President.......Randy Cumbest Secretary-Treasurer.......Duncan Heron Board Members Randy Cumbest Jim Hibbard 1015 Richardson Lake Rd. Box 8208 MEAS Warrenville, SC 29851 NC State Univeristy Raleigh, NC 27695 Neil Gilbert Zapata Engineering Bill Powell 1100 Kenilworh Avenue Carolina Geological Consultants Charlotte, NC 28204 619 Garmony Road Columbia, SC 29212 Duncan Heron Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences Kevin Stewart Box 90230 Department of Geological Sciences Duke University University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Durham, NC 27708-0230 Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27559 Doug Wyatt 118 Trailwood Ave. Aiken, SC 29803 ii 2002 Guidebook Contributors Sara E. Bier Joseph C. Hill Department of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences Pennsylvania State University University of Missouri–Columbia 503 Deike Building 101 Geology Building University Park, PA 16802 Columbia, MO 65211 [email protected] [email protected] Brendan R. Bream James L. Kalbas Department of Geological Sciences Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Tennessee–Knoxville Purdue University 306 Geological Sciences Building 1397 Civil Engineering Building Knoxville, TN 37996-1410 West Lafayette, IN 47907-1397 [email protected] [email protected] John M. Garihan Russell W. Mapes Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Department of Geological Sciences Furman University University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Greenville, SC 29613 CB 3315, Mitchell Hall [email protected] Chapel Hill, NC 275 [email protected] Scott D. Giorgis Department of Geology and Geophysics Arthur J. Merschat University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Geological Sciences 1215 W. Dayton St. University of Tennessee–Knoxville Madison, WI 53706 306 Geological Sciences Building [email protected] Knoxville, TN 37996-1410 [email protected] Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. Department of Geological Sciences Scott T. Williams University of Tennessee–Knoxville Rural Delivery 2 306 Geological Sciences Building Box 74 J Knoxville, TN 37996-1410 Huntingdon, PA 16652 [email protected] [email protected] iii iv DEDICATION Richard Goldsmith William C. Overstreet Two superb field geologists v CONTENTS An Inner Piedmont primer ............................................................................................................ 1 Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. Geology of Standingstone Mountain quadrangle, western Inner Piedmont, North and South Carolina ...................................................................................................... 19 John M. Garihan The Walker Top Granite: Acadian granitoid or eastern Inner Piedmont basement? .............. 33 Scott D. Giorgis, Russell W. Mapes, Brendan R. Bream The southern Appalachian Inner Piedmont: New perspectives based on recent detailed geologic mapping, Nd isotopic evidence, and zircon geochronology .................... 45 Brendan R. Bream Inner Piedmont stratigraphy, metamorphism, and deformation in the Marion-South Mountains area, North Carolina................................................................... 65 Sara E. Bier, Brendan R. Bream, Scott D. Giorgis Geology of the southwestern Brushy Mountains, North Carolina Inner Piedmont: A summary and synthesis of recent studies........................................................................... 101 Arthur J. Merschat and James L. Kalbas FIELD TRIP STOP DESCRIPTIONS ........................................................................................... 127 STOP 1 Upper Tallulah Falls Formation on Rockwell Drive north of I-40 Exit 85 .......... 130 Joseph C. Hill STOP 2 Tallulah Falls Formation Aluminous (Sillimanite) Schist on CSX Railroad ....... 130 Joseph C. Hill STOP 3 Henderson Gneiss ...................................................................................................... 131 Brendan R. Bream STOP 4 Unconformity between upper Tallulah Falls Formation and Poor Mountain Amphibolite .............................................................................................. 131 Brendan R. Bream STOP 5 Migmatitic Sillimanite Schist at Victory Temple Full Gospel Church ................. 133 Joseph C. Hill vi STOP 6 Intensely migmatitic Poor Mountain (and Tallulah Falls?) Formation at Camp McCall in the Brindle Creek fault footwall ................................................. 133 Scott D. Giorgis STOP 7 Agmatite in intense migmatite in the Brindle Creek fault footwall ...................... 134 Scott T. Williams STOP 8 Dysartsville Tonalite northwest of Turkey Mountain ............................................ 135 Scott T. Williams and Brendan R. Bream STOP 9 (ALTERNATE) Poor Mountain Amphibolite Migmatite at Houston House....... 136 Scott D. Giorgis STOP 10 Sillimanite Schist–Walker Top Granite contact above Sisk Gap ........................ 136 Scott D. Giorgis STOP 11 (ALTERNATE) Walker Top Granite near Walker Top Mountain ..................... 137 Scott D. Giorgis and Russell W. Mapes STOP 12 Vulcan Materials Company, Lenoir Quarry ......................................................... 138 James L. Kalbas STOP 13 Devonian Walker Top Granite east of St. Johns Lutheran Church on U.S. 64 ....................................................................................................................... 141 Arthur J. Merschat and Russell W. Mapes STOP 14 Migmatitic Sillimanite schist saprolite .................................................................. 142 Arthur J. Merschat STOP 15 Metagraywacke/biotite gneiss on U.S. 64 just west of Southern Star gas station ................................................................................................................. 142 Arthur J. Merschat STOP 16 Toluca Granite and sillimanite schist on U.S. 64 .................................................. 144 Arthur J. Merschat and Russell W. Mapes vii viii Carolina Geological Society Annual Field Trip October 19-20, 2002 An Inner Piedmont primer Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. Department of Geological Sciences University of Tennessee–Knoxville 306 Geological Sciences Building Knoxville, TN 37996-1410 [email protected] der northeastward to beyond Lake Lure. Last year John M. INTRODUCTION Garihan and William. A. Ranson (Ranson and Garihan, 2001) convened the CGS meeting in Greenville, South The Inner Piedmont is the focus of the 2002 Carolina Carolina, to examine the results of several years of detailed Geological Society field trip for the fifth time in the history geologic mapping in northern Greenville and Pickens Coun- of the Society. The first was the 1963 meeting convened ties. Their mapping filled the gap that ties the earlier work by Charles J. Cazeau and Charles Q. Brown to discuss In- by Griffin and myself to the southwest to that of Davis and ner Piedmont geology near Clemson, South Carolina Yanagihara to the northeast. The purposes of the 2002 CGS (Cazeau and Brown, 1963). Villard S. Griffin and I con- field trip are: (1) to present the results of ten person-years vened the 1969 CGS meeting again at Clemson, South Caro- of detailed (1:12,000- and 1:24,000-scale) geologic map- lina (Griffin, 1969;