Publications
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Post-rift magmatic evolution of the eastern North American “passive-aggressive” margin
Understanding the evolution of passive margins requires knowledge of temporal and chemical constraints on magmatism following the transition from supercontinent to rifting, to post-rifting evolution. The Eastern North American Margin (ENAM) is an ideal study location as several magmatic pulses occurred in the 200 My following rifting. In particular, the Virginia-West Virginia region of the ENAM ha
Authors
Sarah E. Mazza, Esteban Gazel, Elizabeth A. Johnson, Michael Bizmis, Ryan J. McAleer, C. Berk Biryol
Geology of the Petersburg batholith, eastern Piedmont, Virginia
The 295-300 Ma Petersburg batholith in east-central Virginia forms one of the largest and northernmost of the Alleghanian plutonic complexes in the southern Appalachian Piedmont. The batholith is primarily composed of granite including massive and foliated (both magmatic and solid-state fabrics) varieties. The plutonic complex intruded medium-grade metamorphosed volcanic/plutonic rocks of the Roan
Authors
Brent E. Owens, Mark W. Carter, Christopher M. Bailey
Geology along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia
Detailed geologic mapping and new SHRIMP (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) U-Pb zircon, Ar/Ar, Lu-Hf, 14C, luminescence (optically stimulated), thermochronology (fission-track), and palynology reveal the complex Mesoproterozoic to Quaternary geology along the ~350 km length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Traversing the boundary of the central and southern Appalachians, rocks along
Authors
Mark W. Carter, C. Scott Southworth, Richard P. Tollo, Arthur J. Merschat, Sara Wagner, Ava Lazor, John N. Aleinikoff
A simple rubric for Stratigraphic Fidelity (β) of paleoenvironmental time series
The Pliocene, specifically the late Pliocene, has been a focus of paleoclimate research formore than 25 years. Synoptic regional
and global reconstructions along with high-resolution time-series have produced nuanced conceptual models of paleoenvironmental
conditions and enhanced our understanding of climate variability and climate sensitivity from the Late Pliocene, the most
recent interval of gl
Authors
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley
Linking the Central and Southern Appalachian Blue Ridge: What We Know and Don’t Know about Stratigraphy, Structure, Tectonism, and Regional Correlation in the Eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia
The transition from Neoproterozoic Lynchburg Group rocks on the eastern limb of the para-autochthonous Blue Ridge anticlinorium in central Virginia to the fault-bounded Ashe Formation and Alligator Back Formation in southern Virginia has been a source of intense debate and speculation for decades. There are fundamental differences in the tectonogenetic interpretation for these rock packages, desp
Authors
Mark W. Carter, Arthur J. Merschat
The Carolina Sandhills: Quaternary eolian sand sheets and dunes along the updip margin of the Atlantic Coastal Plain province, southeastern United States
The Carolina Sandhills is a physiographic region of the Atlantic Coastal Plain province in the southeastern United States. In Chesterfield County (South Carolina), the surficial sand of this region is the Pinehurst Formation, which is interpreted as eolian sand derived from the underlying Cretaceous Middendorf Formation. This sand has yielded three clusters of optically stimulated luminescence age
Authors
Christopher S. Swezey, Bradley A. Fitzwater, G. Richard Whittecar, Shannon A. Mahan, Christopher P. Garrity, Wilma B. Alemán‑González, Kerby M. Dobbs
Geology of the eastern Piedmont in Virginia
No abstract available.
Authors
J. Wright Horton, Brent E. Owens, Paul C. Hackley, William C. Burton, Paul E. Sacks, James P. Hibbard
Geology of the western Piedmont in Virginia
No abstract available.
Authors
James P. Hibbard, James S. Beard, William S. Henika, J. Wright Horton
Karst
Karst areas present unique hydrologic and hydrogeological characteristics that
are often challenging to investigate. These characteristics are largely dependent
on the extent of development of solution conduits within the underlying bedrock,
and the resulting integration of surface and subsurface drainage components
into a karst aquifer system. The investigation and characterization of
karst aquif
Authors
C.J. Taylor, D.H. Doctor
Calcareous microfossil-based orbital cyclostratigraphy in the Arctic Ocean
Microfaunal and geochemical proxies from marine sediment records from central Arctic Ocean (CAO) submarine ridges suggest a close relationship over the last 550 thousand years (kyr) between orbital-scale climatic oscillations, sea-ice cover, marine biological productivity and other parameters. Multiple paleoclimate proxies record glacial to interglacial cycles. To understand the climate-cryosphere
Authors
R. E. Marzen, Lauren H. DeNinno, Thomas M. Cronin
Seismic evidence of glacial-age river incision into the Tahaa barrier reef, French Polynesia
Rivers have long been recognized for their ability to shape reef-bound volcanic islands. On the time-scale of glacial–interglacial sea-level cycles, fluvial incision of exposed barrier reef lagoons may compete with constructional coral growth to shape the coastal geomorphology of ocean islands. However, overprinting of Pleistocene landscapes by Holocene erosion or sedimentation has largely obscure
Authors
Michael Toomey, Jonathan D. Woodruff, Andrew D. Ashton, J. Taylor Perron
Nannoplankton malformation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and its paleoecological and paleoceanographic significance
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is characterized by a transient group of nannoplankton, belonging to the genus Discoaster. Our investigation of expanded shelf sections provides unprecedented detail of the morphology and phylogeny of the transient Discoasterduring the PETM and their relationship with environmental change. We observe a much larger range of morphological variation than pr
Authors
Timothy J. Bralower, Jean Self-Trail