ABSTRACT The Fernow Experimental Forest (the “Fernow”) is an 1860-ha (4600-acre) research forested watershed in Parsons, West Virginia, USA. The Fernow has been in operation since 1934 and has historically been the site of timbering and silvicultural research programs. Beginning in the 1950s, a water quality research program was established in the Fernow to assess the effects of different forestry management techniques on water quantity and quality. As a result, most peer-reviewed research from the Fernow has focused on water quality data directly related to forestry efforts with little mention of the effects of geology, hydrogeology, or climate on water resources in the Fernow. Further, the Fernow is representative of Appalachian headwater mountain watersheds and is a protected and secure research site in the greater Monongahela National Forest. This, in combination with the long-term data records from the water research program, make the Fernow an ideal location for further geologic and hydrologic investigations in forested mountain watersheds. The geology of the Fernow is dominated by moderately dipping Paleozoic-aged strata with local karst features (e.g., springs) occurring in one unit. The hydrology of the Fernow consists of intermittent and perennial streams that are reactive to seasonal weather patterns. This field guide serves as an overview of the geology and hydrology of the Fernow and surrounding region to be used as a teaching and recruitment tool to advance the geologic understanding of Allegheny Mountain headwaters.

ABSTRACT A local clay lens up to 60 cm thick in the Eocene Castle Hayne Limestone at the abandoned Fussell Quarry, Duplin County, North Carolina, is identified as a bentonite. It is composed of authigenic smectite with sparse euhedral biotite and apatite. Scanning electron microscope examination shows that the bentonite consists of relic bubble-wall shards altered to smectite. Smectitic columnules, rod-shaped casts of elongate pipe vesicles in pumice fragments derived from early dissolution of nearby small glass shards, also occur. This association is considered diagnostic of a silicic air-fall ash. K-Ar and Rb-Sr biotite dates from the bentonite are 46.2 ± 1.8 Ma and 45.7 ± 0.7 Ma, respectively, and a fission-track age of apatite is 51.0 ± 2.0 Ma; this later date is considered to be incorrect. Biotite compositions determined from electron microprobe analyses on 100 crystals suggest derivation from a single volcanic source no more than 4000 km from the bentonite. Possible sources of the ash include Bermuda; Highland County, Virginia; and the Caribbean; however, because of distance, prevailing wind direction, and similarity in age and composition, the volcanic swarm in Highland County, Virginia, is the suggested source.

Dr. John M. Dennison spent his career studying the Appalachians; teaching and mentoring his students and professional colleagues; publishing papers; leading field trips; and presenting ideas at regional, national, and international conferences. This volume is a collection of papers contributed by former students and colleagues to honor his memory. Topics include stratigraphy and paleontology ranging in age from Ordovician to Mississippian in Kentucky, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia; Devonian airfall tephras throughout the eastern United States; a Devonian lonestone; a Middle Eocene bentonite in North Carolina and its relationship to a volcanic swarm in western Virginia; and a 3D model of a ductile duplex in northwestern Georgia. The stratigraphic and geologic diversity of the papers reflects Dennison's many interests and collaborative relationships.

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.

Abstract: The most extensive Permian tetrapod (amphibian and reptile) fossil records from the western USA (New Mexico to Texas) and South Africa have been used to define 11 land vertebrate faunachrons (LVFs). These are, in ascending order, the Coyotean, Seymouran, Mitchellcreekian, Redtankian, Littlecrotonian, Kapteinskraalian, Gamkan, Hoedemakeran, Steilkransian, Platbergian and Lootsbergian. These faunachrons provide a biochronological framework with which to assign ages to, and correlate, Permian tetrapod fossil assemblages. Intercalated marine strata, radioisotopic ages and magnetostratigraphy were used to correlate the Permian LVFs to the standard global chronostratigraphic scale with varying degrees of precision. Such correlations identified the following significant events in Permian tetrapod evolution: a Coyotean chronofaunal event (end Coyotean); Redtankian events (Mitchellcreekian–Littlecrotonian); Olson’s gap (late Littlecrotonian); a therapsid event (Kapteinskraalian); a dinocephalian extinction event (end Gamkan); and a latest Permian extinction event (Platbergian–Lootsbergian boundary). Problems of incompleteness, endemism and taxonomy, and the relative lack of non-biochronological age control continue to hinder the refinement and correlation of a Permian timescale based on tetrapod biochronology. Nevertheless, the global Permian timescale based on tetrapod biochronology is a robust tool for both global and regional age assignment and correlation. Advances in Permian tetrapod biochronology will come from new fossil discoveries, more detailed biostratigraphy and additional alpha taxonomic studies based on sound evolutionary taxonomic principles.

ABSTRACT The Middle Devonian Marcellus shale play has emerged as a major world-class hydrocarbon accumulation. It has rapidly evolved into a major shale gas target in North America and represents one of the largest and most prolific shale plays in the world with a prospective area of approximately 114,000 km 2 (44,000 mi 2 ). Two major core areas have emerged, each with a unique combination of controlling geologic factors. Production from the Marcellus play reached 16 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent per day (BCFepd) in 2015, and it has been recognized as the largest producing gas field in the United States since 2012. The organic-rich black shales comprising the Marcellus shale were deposited in a foreland basin that roughly parallels the present-day Allegheny structural front. The Marcellus shale accumulated within an environment favorable to the production, deposition, and preservation of organic-rich sediments. The key geologic and technical factors that regionally define the Marcellus play core areas include organic richness, thermal maturity, degree of overpressure, pay thickness, porosity, permeability, gas in place, degree of natural fracturing, mineralogy, depth, structural style, lateral target selection, completion design, and important rock mechanics issues such as the ability to be fractured, rock brittleness versus ductility, and the ability to generate complex fractures. Structural setting and deformation styles are critical to address natural fracture trends, potential geologic hazards such as faulting and fracturing in structurally complex areas, and fracture stimulation containment issues. Since the Marcellus shale unconventional shale gas reservoir discovery in 2004 until May 2015, more than 8600 horizontal Marcellus shale wells had been drilled in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and limited portions of eastern Ohio. Many decades of future drilling potential remain due to the enormous extent of the Marcellus shale play. Horizontal Marcellus wells report initial production rates ranging from less than 1 MMCFe/day to over 47.6 MMCFe/day. Despite the large number of wells drilled and completed to date and production of 16 BCFepd in 2015, the play is still in its infancy due to its vast geographic extent and production potential. The Marcellus shale represents a continuous-type gas accumulation and when fully developed will comprise a large continuous field or series of fields. Over its productive trend, the Marcellus shale play has significant additional reserve potential in the overlying organic shales in the Devonian Age Rhinestreet, Geneseo, and Burket units as well as deeper potential in the Ordovician Age Utica/Point Pleasant units. Estimates of recoverable reserves from the world’s largest gas fields combine their reserve estimates for all key productive units in the field/play trend. Likewise, estimates of in-place gas resources for the Marcellus play range from 2322 tcf for the Marcellus (Hamilton Group) to over 3698 tcf for the combined Devonian Age Marcellus-Geneseo-Rhinestreet system. This represents the largest technically accessible in-place gas resources in the world.