Two continuous gas assessment units (AU’s) are present in the Late Triassic (Norian) onshore rift basins of North Carolina and south-central Virginia. Continuous AU’s are the USGS classification/nomenclature for the oil and gas rich resource plays industry has been pursuing and exploiting throughout the continental United States. “Continuous gas assessment units” include tight gas sandstone as well as two resource plays—coal-bed methane and shale gas/oil. The USGS assessed the East Coast Mesozoic rift basins as continuous gas AU’s primarily as tight gas AU’s because oil and gas have been found (although not produced) from tight (i.e., low...