Abstract The Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces in the central Virginia Appalachians are underlain by Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks that record multiple episodes of continental collision and rifting. This trip focuses on rocks and structures formed at the southeastern margin of Laurentia during: (1) the Mesoproterozoic assembly of Rodinia, (2) the Cryogenian to Ediacaran rifting that ultimately created the Iapetus Ocean, and (3) the Paleozoic deformation and metamorphism associated with the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and Appalachian orogenesis. A Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian cover sequence records the transition from continental rifting to a passive margin, but the character of this sequence is vastly different on the eastern and western limbs of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium, reflecting spatial differences in both the timing and tectonics of the Iapetan rift. Blue Ridge rocks experienced NW-directed contractional deformation during the Neo-Acadian (355-330 Ma), whereas low-grade metasedimentary rocks in the western Piedmont were deformed and cooled prior to ca. 400 Ma. In central Virginia, the boundary between the eastern Blue Ridge and western Piedmont is a 3- to 5-km-wide zone of distributed dextral transpression.

Abstract In 2014, the geomorphology community marked the 125th birthday of one of its most influential papers, ‘The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania’ by William Morris Davis. Inspired by Davis’s work, the Appalachian landscape rapidly became fertile ground for the development and testing of several grand landscape evolution paradigms, culminating with John Hack’s dynamic equilibrium in 1960. As part of the 2015 GSA Annual Meeting, the Geomorphology, Active Tectonics, and Landscape Evolution field trip offers an excellent venue for exploring Appalachian geomorphology through the lens of the Appalachian landscape, leveraging exciting research by a new generation of process-oriented geomorphologists and geologic field mapping. Important geomorphologic scholarship has recently used the Appalachian landscape as the testing ground for ideas on long- and short-term erosion, dynamic topography, glacial-isostatic adjustments, active tectonics in an intraplate setting, river incision, periglacial processes, and soil-saprolite formation. This field trip explores a geologic and geomorphic transect of the mid-Atlantic margin, starting in the Blue Ridge of Virginia and proceeding to the east across the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain. The emphasis here will not only be on the geomorphology, but also the underlying geology that establishes the template and foundation upon which surface processes have etched out the familiar Appalachian landscape. The first day focuses on new and published work that highlights Cenozoic sedimentary deposits, soils, paleosols, and geomorphic markers (terraces and knickpoints) that are being used to reconstruct a late Cenozoic history of erosion, deposition, climate change, and active tectonics. The second day is similarly devoted to new and published work documenting the fluvial geomorphic response to active tectonics in the Central Virginia seismic zone (CVSZ), site of the 2011 M 5.8 Mineral earthquake and the integrated record of Appalachian erosion preserved on the Coastal Plain. The trip concludes on Day 3, joining the Kirk Bryan Field Trip at Great Falls, Virginia/Maryland, to explore and discuss the dramatic processes of base-level fall, fluvial incision, and knickpoint retreat.

High-strain zones are common in basement terranes, and understanding their tectonic significance requires quantitative knowledge of deformation kinematics. We report on strained rocks from different tectonic settings that record pure shear dominated (W m =≤0.4) deformations. Mylonitic rocks derived from Mesoproterozoic basement granitoids are exposed in the Lawhorne Mill high-strain zone in the Virginia Blue Ridge. Chemical and mineralogical differences between the leucogranitoid protolith and mylonite are consistent with ∼50% volume loss during deformation. Minimum finite strains in XZ sections range from 4:1 to 7:1, and three-dimensional strains plot in the field of apparent flattening; however, with volume loss these rocks likely experienced bulk plane strain. The R s /Θ and quartz c -axis vorticity gauges yield W m values of 0.0–0.6. Fabric asymmetries normal to both foliation and lineation are consistent with modest triclinic deformation symmetry. Mylonitic rocks from the Lawhorne Mill high-strain zone record a pure shear dominated deformation that produced ∼70% contraction across the zone with only minimal displacement parallel to the zone (<0.5 km). Pure shear dominated high-strain zones occur in a variety of mid-crustal settings. Ultramylonites from metamorphic core complexes in Arizona record very low vorticity values (W m < 0.4). Well-foliated, steeply dipping, upper amphibolite facies rocks from the Coast shear zone in British Columbia are characterized by orthorhombic fabrics formed during pure shear dominated deformation that accommodated crustal contraction. These zones differ from simple and general shear zones because displacement across these zones is minimal relative to the overall finite strain. However, zone-normal shortening and zone-parallel stretching are significant in pure shear dominated zones. Steeply dipping zones formed in contractional settings serve to effectively shorten and thicken the crust across basement massifs, whereas gently dipping zones formed in extensional settings thin the crust.

Examination of the central Virginia Blue Ridge shows that both regional and local factors affected the development of 1,107 debris avalanches during Hurricane Camille in 1969. Major factors influencing the triggering of debris avalanches were rainfall, topographic relief, and contrasting lithologic associations between the Pedlar massif with its metavolcanic cover and the Lovingston massif. Within areas of high rainfall and high chute density, secondary factors affect the susceptibility of individual rock units and chute orientations within those rock units. Units that have high to moderate susceptibility generally have a prominent biotite or amphibole foliation and/or multiple rock fabrics (compositional layering and foliation). Units showing a moderate to low susceptibility are generally more massive and/or lack a well-defined biotite foliation. Rock fabrics influenced preferred chute orientations in most rock types. Chute azimuths are moderately concentrated within a 75° arc between N60°E and S45°E, subparallel to the direction of dip of the regional foliation. These Camille results suggest that most of the Pedlar massif has a moderate susceptibility to shallow-seated landsliding. By contrast, the topographically rugged areas of the Lovingston massif have high to moderate susceptibility.

Abstract Debris fans in low-order Appalachian Mountain drainage basins can be used to estimate the return periods between catastrophic debris flow events such as the Hurricane Camille storm of 1969 in Virginia. Debris fans in Davis Creek, Virginia, have been the sites of repeated debris flow deposition at least three times during the last 11,000 years. Debris flow frequency estimates are possible if individual events can be recognized in the fan stratigraphy. Discrimination of events is based on the recognition of paleosols, and on abrupt changes in sediment texture and in matrix composition at suspected event boundaries. Major controls on slope stability appear to include the orientation of the slope, bedrock structure, and presence of colluvial hollows at the sites prior to slope failures. Hollows are sites of between-event accumulation of colluvium, and are areas of subsurface water concentration during heavy rains. Tropical air masses seem to have been a factor in most historical Appalachian debris flows. The early Holocene initiation of debris flow activity on the central Virginia fans appears to coincide with paleoclimatic data, indicating the commencement of conditions that permitted the invasion of tropical moisture into the region at the close of Pleistocene time.

The Roseland district of Nelson and Amherst Counties, Virginia, is a typical Grenvillian terrane, analogous to similar terranes of eastern Canada. The oldest rocks in the Roseland district are layered granulites, quartz mangerites, and quartzo-feldspathic gneisses. Ages on zircon from the Shaeffer Hollow Granite, a leucocratic granite related to these oldest rock types, are discordant but apparently pre-Grenvillian. The Roseland Anorthosite intrudes these older rocks and consists of andesine antiperthite megacrysts and blue quartz in a finer grained oligoclase-K feldspar matrix. The Roseland Anorthosite is more alkalic and silicic than massif anorthosites elsewhere. Pyroxene megacrysts and rutile are found in its border areas. After the emplacement of the anorthosite, the Roses Mill and Turkey Mountain ferrodiorite-charnockite plutons (of the Roses Mill Plutonic Suite) were intruded. Layered diorite and nelsonite, an ilmenite-apatite rock, are found near the bases of these plutons. These rocks may have formed, in part, by liquid immiscibility. Ages determined on the Roses Mill Pluton are about 970 m.y. The largest part of the plutons is altered to biotitic granitic augen gneiss. The Rockfish Valley deformation zone crosses the district from northeast to southwest. Northwest of the deformation zone are ferrodioritic charnockitic rocks of the Pedlar massif, which are slightly older than the Roses Mill Pluton. These ages may have been modified by metamorphism. The Mobley Mountain Granite is a fine- to medium-grained, subsolvus two mica granite and has been dated at 650 m.y. Various mafic and ultramafic dikes, of different ages, are present throughout the district. The major structure of the district is the Roseland dome, cored by the Roseland Anorthosite, and trending northeast for at least 22 km. Three periods of deformation are evident; one is possibly pre-Grenvillian and is seen only in the oldest rocks. The Roses Mill Plutonic Suite was deformed and underwent retrograde metamorphism to lower amphibolite assemblages in Proterozoic Z time. Paleozoic deformation was responsible for a reactivation of the Rockfish Valley deformation zone, which originated as a Precambrian feature and a selective overprinting of retrograde greenschist facies metamorphism on the granulite- to upper amphibolite-facies assemblages of the country rock. The principal resources of the district are rutile and ilmenite. Both are present as hard rock and saprolite deposits. The rutile formed at the anorthosite border, and ilmenite is contained largely in nelsonite and mafic ferrodiorite bodies.