Linkages and Feedbacks in Orogenic Systems

Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the western Blue Ridge, southern Appalachians: A critical examination of long-standing conflicts in a polydeformed system
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Published:September 11, 2017
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CiteCitation
J. Ryan Thigpen, Robert D. Hatcher, Jr., 2017. "Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the western Blue Ridge, southern Appalachians: A critical examination of long-standing conflicts in a polydeformed system", Linkages and Feedbacks in Orogenic Systems, Richard D. Law, J. Ryan Thigpen, Arthur J. Merschat, Harold H. Stowell
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ABSTRACT
The southern Appalachian western Blue Ridge preserves a Mesoproterozoic and mid-Paleozoic basement and Neoproterozoic to Ordovician rift-to-drift sequence that is metamorphosed up to sillimanite grade and dissected by northwest-directed thrust faults resulting from several Paleozoic orogenic events. Despite a number of persistent controversies regarding the age of some western Blue Ridge units, and the nature and extent of multiple Paleozoic deformational/metamorphic events, synthesis of several multidisciplinary data sets (detailed geologic mapping, geochronology and thermochronology, stable-isotope chemostratigraphy) suggests that the western Blue Ridge likely records the effects of two discrete orogenic events. The earlier Taconic (470–440 Ma) event involved a...
- absolute age
- Alleghany Orogeny
- Appalachians
- Ar/Ar
- basement
- Blue Ridge Mountains
- Cambrian
- Chilhowee Group
- cross sections
- deformation
- faults
- Grenvillian Orogeny
- kinematics
- lithostratigraphy
- Lower Cambrian
- metamorphism
- Neoproterozoic
- North America
- Ocoee Supergroup
- orogenic belts
- orogeny
- Paleozoic
- Precambrian
- Proterozoic
- Southern Appalachians
- Taconic Orogeny
- tectonics
- tectonostratigraphic units
- thermochronology
- thrust faults
- thrust sheets
- United States
- upper Precambrian
- Neoacadian Phase