Geology Field Trips in and around the U.S. Capital
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Prepared in conjunction with the GSA Southeastern and Northeastern Sections Joint Meeting in Reston, Virginia, the four field trips in this guide explore various locations in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. The physiographic provinces include the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Valley and Ridge, and the Allegheny Plateau of the Appalachian Basin. The sites exhibit a wide range of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, as well as rocks with a wide range of geologic ages from the Mesoproterozoic to the Paleozoic. One of the trips is to a well-known cave system in West Virginia. We hope that this guidebook provides new motivation for geologists to examine rocks in situ and to discuss ideas with colleagues in the field.
Accreted forearc, continental, and oceanic rocks of Maryland’s Eastern Piedmont: The Potomac terrane, Baltimore terrane, and Baltimore Mafic Complex
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Published:February 26, 2020
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CiteCitation
Rebecca Kavage Adams, William Junkin, David K. Brezinski, 2020. "Accreted forearc, continental, and oceanic rocks of Maryland’s Eastern Piedmont: The Potomac terrane, Baltimore terrane, and Baltimore Mafic Complex", Geology Field Trips in and around the U.S. Capital, Christopher S. Swezey, Mark W. Carter
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ABSTRACT
The Baltimore terrane, the Baltimore Mafic Complex (BMC), and the Potomac terrane are telescoped tectonostratigraphic packages of metasedimentary and meta-igneous rocks that record the geologic history of eastern Maryland from 1.2 Ga to 300 Ma. These terranes provide insight into the understanding of the rifting of Rodinia and the initial amalgamation of eastern Laurentia. The oldest of these rocks are exposed as gneiss domes in the Baltimore terrane, with gneissic Grenvillian crust overlain by a metasedimentary cover succession believed to have been deposited during Rodinian rifting and the formation of the Iapetus ocean. These rocks are interpreted to be...
- accretion
- accretionary wedges
- Alleghany Orogeny
- amalgamation
- Appalachians
- Baltimore County Maryland
- Baltimore Gneiss
- Baltimore Maryland
- Cambrian
- Carboniferous
- continental crust
- crust
- field trips
- genesis
- Grenvillian Orogeny
- Iapetus
- igneous rocks
- intrusions
- Laurentia
- Maryland
- metaigneous rocks
- metamorphic rocks
- metasedimentary rocks
- Neoproterozoic
- North America
- oceanic crust
- Paleozoic
- Pennsylvanian
- Piedmont
- plate collision
- plate tectonics
- plutonic rocks
- Precambrian
- Proterozoic
- rifting
- road log
- Rodinia
- stratigraphy
- subduction
- Taconic Orogeny
- tectonics
- tectonostratigraphic units
- terranes
- transpression
- ultramafics
- United States
- Upper Cambrian
- Upper Pennsylvanian
- upper Precambrian
- Setters Formation
- Cockeysville Marble
- Potomac Terrane
- Peters Creek Formation
- Sykesville Formation
- Loch Raven Schist
- Pleasant Grove fault zone
- Baltimore Terrane
- Patapsco River valley