ABSTRACT The southern Appalachian orogen is a Paleozoic accretionary-collisional orogen that formed as the result of three Paleozoic orogenies, Taconic, Acadian and Neoacadian, and Alleghanian orogenies. The Blue Ridge–Piedmont megathrust sheet exposes various crystalline terranes of the Blue Ridge and Inner Piedmont that record the different effects of these orogenies. The western Blue Ridge is the Neoproterozoic to Ordovician Laurentian margin. Constructed on Mesoproterozoic basement, 1.2–1.0 Ga, the western Blue Ridge transitions from two rifting events at ca. 750 Ma and ca. 565 Ma to an Early Cambrian passive margin and then carbonate bank. The Hayesville fault marks the Taconic suture and separates the western Blue Ridge from distal peri-Laurentian terranes of the central and eastern Blue Ridge, which are the Cartoogechaye, Cowrock, Dahlonega gold belt, and Tugaloo terranes. The central and eastern Blue Ridge terranes are dominantly clastic in composition, intruded by Ordovician to Mississippian granitoids, and contain ultramafic and mafic rocks, suggesting deposition on oceanic crust. These terranes accreted to the western Blue Ridge during the Taconic orogeny at 462–448 Ma, resulting in metamorphism dated with SHRIMP (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) U-Pb ages of metamorphic zircon. The Inner Piedmont, which is separated from the Blue Ridge by the Brevard fault zone, experienced upper amphibolite, sillimanite I and higher-grade ­metamorphism during the Acadian and Neoacadian orogenies, 395–345 Ma. These events also affected the eastern Blue Ridge, and parts of the western Blue Ridge. The Acadian and Neoacadian orogeny is the result of the oblique collision and accretion of the peri-Gondwanan Carolina superterrane overriding the Inner Piedmont. During this collision, the Inner Piedmont was a forced mid-crustal orogenic channel that flowed NW-, W-, and SW-directed from underneath the Carolina superterrane. The Alleghanian orogeny thrust these terranes northwestward as part of the Blue Ridge–Piedmont megathrust sheet during the collision of Gondwana (Africa) and the formation of Pangea.

ABSTRACT The Brevard fault zone is one of the largest faults in the Appalachians, extending from Alabama to Virginia. It had a very complex history of movement and reactivation, with three movement episodes: (1) Acadian-Neoacadian (403–345 Ma) movement accompanying the thermal peak of metamorphism and deformation with dextral, southwest-directed emplacement of the Inner Piedmont; (2) ductile dextral reactivation during the early Alleghanian (~280 Ma) under lower-greenschist-facies conditions; and (3) brittle dip-slip reactivation during the late Alleghanian (260 Ma?). The Brevard is comparable to other large faults with polyphase movement in other orogens worldwide, for example, the Periadriatic line in the Alps. Two types of far-traveled, fault-bounded horses have been identified in the Brevard fault zone in the Carolinas: (1) metasedimentary and granitoid horses located along the southeastern margin of the Alleghanian retrogressive ductile dextral Brevard fault zone in North and South Carolina; and (2) limestone/dolostone horses located along the brittle, late Alleghanian Rosman thrust, the contact between Blue Ridge and Brevard fault zone rocks in North and South Carolina. Field, stratigraphic, petrographic, and Sr-isotope data suggest the carbonate horses may be derived from Valley and Ridge carbonates in the Blue Ridge–Piedmont megathrust sheet footwall. The horses of metasedimentary and granitoid rocks occur along faults that cut klippen of the southwest-directed Inner Piedmont Acadian-Neoacadian Alto (Six Mile) allochthon. New laser ablation– inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U-Pb zircon analyses from the metasedimentary mylonite component yield a detrital zircon suite dominated by 600 and 500 Ma zircons, and a second zircon population ranging from 2100 to 1300 Ma, with essentially no Grenvillian zircons, suggesting a peri-Gondwanan provenance. The granitoid component has a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) age of 421 ± 14 Ma, similar to the ~430 Ma plutonic suite in northern Virginia and Maryland—a prominent component of the Cat Square terrane detrital zircon suite in the Carolinas. Peri-Gondwanan Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Avalon–Carolina superterrane rocks are nowhere in contact with the Brevard fault zone at present erosion level. While these far-traveled metasedimentary and granitoid horses may have originated several hundred kilometers farther northeast in the central Appalachians, they could alternatively be remnants of Avalon–Carolina superterrane rocks that once formed the tectonic lid of the southwest-directed Neoacadian–early Alleghanian (Late Devonian–early Mississippian) orogenic channel formed during north-to-south zippered accretion of Avalon–Carolina. The remnant fossil subduction zone survives as the central Piedmont suture. Avalon–Carolina terrane rocks would have once covered the Inner Piedmont (and easternmost Blue Ridge) to depths of >20 km, and have since been eroded. Data from these two suites of horses provide additional insights into the mid- to late Paleozoic history and kinematics of the Brevard fault zone, Inner Piedmont, and Avalon–Carolina superterrane. It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. … And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong. —John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) “The Blind Men and the Elephant”

A new tectonic map of the southern and central Appalachians incorporates modern field and structural-stratigraphic, geochronologic (mostly sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe–reverse geometry, SHRIMP–RG, and Sm-Nd), geochemical, and geophysical data to identify crustal boundaries and blocks. Major tectonic units include the ∼735 Ma Laurentian failed rift, ∼565 Ma rifted margin sedimentary-volcanic assemblage deposited on Grenvillian and pre-Grenvillian crust, the Laurentian platform, and a series of distal Laurentian terranes (Cowrock, Cartoogechaye, Tugaloo-Chopawamsic-Potomac) accreted to Laurentia during the Taconian (Ordovician) or Neoacadian (Late Devonian–early Mississippian) orogenies. The Dahlonega gold belt consists of more proximal metasandstone and pelitic schist; it also contains Ordovician arc volcanic rocks, and a mixed detrital zircon suite of Laurentian and Gondwanan, or Penokean, affinity. The newly recognized Cat Square terrane contains Laurentian, Avalonian, and 430 Ma detrital zircons, and is considered a remnant ocean basin that closed during Acadian-Neoacadian accretion of the Carolina superterrane. The Pine Mountain terrane (southernmost exposed Appalachians) consists of Grenvillian basement and a cover sequence bearing Gondwanan or Penokean detrital zircons. The Carolina superterrane contains numerous peri-Gondwanan terranes that were deformed, metamorphosed, and amalgamated prior to 530 Ma, then accreted to Laurentia during the Neoacadian along the central Piedmont suture. The Raleigh-Goochland terrane contains blocks of Laurentian basement and cover that moved SW (dextrally) out of the collision zone to the north as the Theic ocean closed north to south during the early Alleghanian orogeny. This event also produced the Kiokee-Raleigh belt high-grade metamorphic core in the eastern Piedmont, and includes faults of the Pine Mountain window. The latter is framed by Alleghanian thrust and dextral faults formed at different crustal depths (times?). Subsurface components of the southern and central Appalachians are recognized in potential field and limited drill data. The Carolina superterrane extends beneath the Coastal Plain—possibly eastward to the East Coast magnetic anomaly. South of the Carolina superterrane and north of the Wiggins suture is the Brunswick (Charleston) terrane, another peri-Gondwanan terrane. The east–west Alleghanian Wiggins suture with the Suwannee terrane is recognizable to the south beneath Georgia and Alabama in potential field data, truncating all Appalachian structures and older crustal blocks west of the Appalachians. South of the suture, African basement and cover lie in the eastern Florida subsurface, while to the west are other Gondwanan or peri-Gondwanan components that may have originally connected with Yucatan.

Thrusts in the crystalline core of the southern Appalachians formed by both ductile and brittle mechanisms during three or more major Paleozoic deformational-thermal events (Taconic, Acadian, Alleghanian), in contrast to thrusts in the foreland which formed primarily as brittle faults during the Alleghanian. Early prethermal peak thrusts formed in the crystalline core, then were subsequently thermally overprinted and annealed. Thrusts that formed late in a metamorphic-deformational sequence have maintained a planar geometry. Many of these thrusts, such as the Brevard and Towaliga faults, were later reactivated in either the ductile or brittle or both realms, possibly involving both dip-slip and strike-slip motion. The thrusts framing the Pine Mountain and Sauratown Mountains windows formed both pre- and post-thermal peak. The pre-thermal peak Box Ankle thrust in the Pine Mountain window is a structurally lower fault, whereas the window is flanked externally by the post-thermal peak Towaliga (northwest) and Goat Rock (southeast) faults. Conversely, in the Sauratown Mountains the brittle Hanging Rock thrust frames an inner window beneath the older Forbush thrust. Here a downward and outward propagating sequence is suggested for the development of thrusts. North American basement rocks are involved in both the Pine Mountain and Sauratown Mountains windows, and basement and cover behave as a homogeneously coupled mass with respect to strain. Consequently, the only factor that controlled the siting of early thrusts may have been the depth to the ductile-brittle transition zone. The frontal Blue Ridge thrust was the last formed in the Blue Ridge-Piedmont thrust sheet although the Cartersville-Miller Cove thrust is a slightly older Alleghanian thrust than the Great Smoky fault.

Abstract This publication consists of 5 chapters and resulted from the need to incorporate most of the COCORP southern Appalachian seismic reflection data and interpretations into a single work. Presented are ideas and models which are not only internally consistent, but also are consistent with what is known about the major geological and geophysical features.