2004 Appalachian Tectonic Studies Group Field Trip

The 20th ATSG fieldtrip - "Something Old, Something New, and then....."

Bill Dunne, University of Tennessee

Click on the photo below

Close to 30 faculty members, students and applied geologists attended the 2004 ATSG trip in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. We even found Byron Kulander & Stuart Dean staying at the same hotel, busy mapping another WV quadrangle that weekend! We had a couple of quick stops on Saturday morning to introduce the regional geology and then went crosscountry to examine the deformation behavior of an isoclinal fold in the quartz arenite of the Silurian Keefer Sandstone. A page-size picture of the fold is in the rock deformation display in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum through connections of Tony Caldanaro. We discussed processes that involve the creation of many new surfaces and much fluid flow with negligible cataclasis. Much of the afternoon was spent examining the outcrop-scale contribution of folds in Upper Devonian rocks to regional deformation while wrestling with the stratigraphy. Two highlights were Terry Engelder taking the opportunity to use local occurrences of two joint sets to present the new work from his May Geology 2004 paper about the tectonic evolution of the Appalachians. And Mark Evans used a recent poster to discuss the tectonic-scale fluid-flow and fluid chemistry in the paleohydrostratigraphy of the central Appalachian foreland, particularly Devonian folded rocks. Saturday wrapped up with Charlie Onasch presenting results from Mike Harrison's investigation of folding of a quartz arenite in the Tuscarora, which set the table for an unusual example to be seen on Sunday. That evening, Charlie introduced PDA-based field data collection with some spirited discussion.

A brief discussion also showed that the ATSG has still got legs with talk of future trips to Penn State area, Reading Prong/Hamburg klippe, and NY plateau. Finally, Terry Engelder took the opportunity of the 20th trip to make a hilarious award presentation where slowly but surely every structural geologist of prior note in the room was eliminated from consideration, until only Bill Dunne was left to receive a "Brailler chevron test sample" for good attendance of ATSG fieldtrips.On Sunday, we delved into the Smoke Holes at Big Bend and investigated the structures in the Tuscarora that facilitated formation of the map-scale Cave Mountain anticline. A goodly amount of time was spent discussing an outcrop that is literally the core of Jennie Cook's master's thesis, and has amongst the most intensely developed brittle deformation to be found in the Tuscarora Sandstone while occupying an open fold hinge and yet, achieving only modest bulk deformation on a regional scale. This interesting but still partially enigmatic structural system lead to lively discussion! Charlie Onasch closed out the trip by letting folks work with PDA's to see the type of fieldmapping approach that is now being used at Bowling Green State's geology fieldcamp. Thanks to everyone for attending and being free with their thoughts and ideas.

bill

William M. Dunne
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1320

Rev. 2004 June 30