A complex sequence of deformation produced the major central and southern trends of the Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt in the Roanoke recess, Virginia. The incipient recess first experienced the Appalachian-wide stress field, then shifted to far-field effects from incremental counterclockwise rotation of the shortening direction, which resulted in the Central Appalachian fold belt, and then shifted to incremental clockwise rotation, which produced the Southern Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt. We analyzed joints, veins, normal and reverse faults, stylolites, and paleoseismites from Mississippian strata at the structural front of the Southern Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt, and the adjacent Appalachian Plateau west of the recess. We distinguished seven deformational events using orientations, intersection relationships, fault-slip directions, and mineralization histories. Five of these sets represent late Paleozoic deformational events (A1–A5), with shortening directions that show an evolving Alleghanian fold-and-thrust belt in the recess. A1 (shortening trend 085°–265°) is consistent with the previously determined Appalachian-wide stress field and incipient layer-parallel shortening strain in middle Mississippian carbonates. A2 (trend 145°–325°) is a newly recognized event, herein called the Princeton event, which is consistent with dominant orientations of previously determined layer-parallel shortening strain, clastic dikes in Upper Mississippian strata, and stylolites. These far-field effects may mark high-angle basement faulting associated with development of the foredeep bulge during incipient thrusting along the Pulaski thrust system far in the hinterland. A3 (trend 120°–300°) corresponds to initiation of the major Central Appalachian deformation, which resulted in fold-and-thrust belt structures such as the North Mountain fault and Wills Mountain anticline, while A4 (trend 160°–340°) is associated with Southern Appalachian (e.g., St. Clair thrust and Glen Lyn footwall-syncline) structures. A5 (trend 010°–190°) represents late Alleghanian deformation of the Glen Lyn syncline, likely associated with blind thrusting coeval with emplacement of the nearby Pine Mountain thrust sheet. Two post-Alleghanian fracture sets, PA1 (joint trend 150°–330°) and PA2 (joint trend 060°–240°), are orthogonal; PA2 is younger. These joint sets are associated with strike-slip and normal faults that are compatible with some fault-plane solutions from the nearby Giles County seismic zone.

The Blue Ridge and Great Valley of western Virginia are part of a detached master thrust sheet that extends through the central-southern Appalachian change of trend and has a root zone situated east of the Blue Ridge under the Piedmont. The mapped Pulaski fault and North Mountain fault crop out in the Great Valley as splay faults terminating in thrust tip anticlines and merge at depth with the buried master detachment floored primarily in Upper Ordovician Martinsburg Shales. Overall transposition of the thrust sheet from the root zone indicates that as much as 32 km (20 mi) of displacement may be translated westward into the Valley and Ridge proper and Allegheny Plateau as initial cover shortening above the Martinsburg Shale. Within the Great Valley and into the Roanoke recess at the juncture of the central and southern Appalachians, much of the cover shortening of this master sheet is accommodated by the Pulaski and North Mountain faults. From northeast to southwest, movement on the outcropping and buried master segment of the North Mountain fault decreases, and the surface fault terminates in southern Rockbridge County. Displacement on the Pulaski fault increases from northeast to southwest, and we infer that it assumes the decreasing displacement on the outcropping and buried segments of the North Mountain fault by displacement transfer.

ABSTRACT The problem of how map-view curves (variously named salients, recesses, arcs, oroclines, virgations, festoons, bends, oroflexes, and syntaxes) in fold-thrust belts originate has caught the attention of geologists for more than 200 years. This chapter reviews the advances in understanding curves. Early geologists recognized that by understanding curve formation, one might gain insight into the process of orogeny. In recent decades, researchers have proposed several geologically reasonable models to explain curve formation; no single explanation can work for all curves. The majority of curving fold-thrust belts can be called “basin controlled,” in that their presence reflects the architecture of the predeformational sedimentary basin from which the curve formed. Factors such as depth to detachment, rock strength, detachment strength, and detachment slope all affect the width of a fold-thrust belt for a given amount of hinterland displacement, as predicted by critical-taper theory. Therefore, along-strike variation in these factors leads to the inception of thrust belts that vary in width along strike, and thus have curved traces. However, not all curved thrust belts are basin controlled. Other causes for curve formation include interaction of a thrust belt with foreland obstacles or promontories, hinterland collision of an indenter, interaction with subsequent strike-slip faults, and warping of the downgoing (underthrust) plate. Not all curve-forming processes lead to “oroclinal” bending of a fold-thrust belt, in that not all curves involve rotation of segments of the thrust belt around a vertical axis. Thus, not all curves are oroclines, where the term “orocline” specifically refers to a mountain belt bent in plan. Basin-controlled curves and curves formed in front of indenters generally initiate with a curved trace, whereas curves formed in response to interactions with foreland obstacles or with strike-slip faults involve oroclinal bending.

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.

Abstract Interpretation of magnetic, gravity, seismic, and geological data shows that the curvilinear Late Paleozoic orogen affected the location of Central Atlantic syn-rift faults. While northeast-southwest striking thrust faults were perpendicular to extension, prominent curvatures, such as the Pennsylvania salient, introduced structural complexities. East-northeast/west-southwest striking, dextral, transpressional strike-slip faults of this salient became reactivated during Carnian-Toarcian rifting. They formed sinistral, transtensional strike-slip “rails” that prevented the Georges Bank–Tarfaya Central Atlantic segment from orthogonal rifting, causing formation of a pull-apart basin system. Central Atlantic segments to the south and north underwent almost orthogonal rifting. “Rails” lost their function after the continental breakup, except for minor younger reactivations. They were not kinematically linked to younger oceanic fracture zones. Atlantic segments initiated by normal rifting differ from the segment initiated by the Georges Bank–Tarfaya strike-slip fault zone. They contain Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic evaporites having salt-detached gravity glides, while the connecting transfer segment does not. Their structural grain is relatively simple, divided mostly by northeast-southwest striking normal faults. Northwest-southeast striking oceanic fracture zones kinematically link with continental faults in a few places, controlling the sediment transport pathways across the uplifted continental margin. The connecting Georges Bank–Tarfaya Central Atlantic segment, initiated as a sinistral transfer-zone, has a complex structural grain, characterized by numerous small depocenters and culminations. Their boundaries are formed by east-northeast/west-southwest striking, sinistral, strike-slip, north-northeast/south-southwest, striking normal and west-northwest/east-southeast striking, dextral, strike-slip faults. Sediment transport pathways have complex trajectories, weaving through local depocenters.

Abstract The Mid-Atlantic region hosts some of the most mature karst landscapes in North America, developed in highly deformed rocks within the Piedmont and Valley and Ridge physiographic provinces. This guide describes a three-day excursion to examine karst development in various carbonate rocks by following Interstate 70 west from Baltimore across the eastern Piedmont, across the Frederick Valley, and into the Great Valley proper. The localities were chosen in order to examine the structural and lithological controls on karst feature development in marble, limestone, and dolostone rocks with an eye toward the implications for ancient landscape evolution, as well as for modern subsidence hazards. A number of caves will be visited, including two commercial caverns that reveal strikingly different histories of speleogenesis. Links between karst landscape development, hydrologic dynamics, and water resource sustainability will also be emphasized through visits to locally important springs. Recent work on quantitative dye tracing, spring water geochemistry, and groundwater modeling reveal the interaction between shallow and deep circulation of groundwater that has given rise to the modern karst landscape. Geologic and karst feature mapping conducted with the benefit of lidar data help reveal the strong bedrock structural controls on karst feature development, and illustrate the utility of geologic maps for assessment of sinkhole susceptibility.