Geology at Every Scale: Field Excursions for the 2018 GSA Southeastern Section Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee

Blue Ridge–Inner Piedmont geotraverse from the Great Smoky fault to the Inner Piedmont: Upper crust to upper-lower crust, terranes, large faults, and sutures
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Published:March 29, 2018
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CiteCitation
Arthur J. Merschat, Robert D. Hatcher, Jr., J. Ryan Thigpen, Elizabeth A. McClellan, 2018. "Blue Ridge–Inner Piedmont geotraverse from the Great Smoky fault to the Inner Piedmont: Upper crust to upper-lower crust, terranes, large faults, and sutures", Geology at Every Scale: Field Excursions for the 2018 GSA Southeastern Section Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, Annette Summers Engel, Robert D. Hatcher, Jr.
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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.
- absolute age
- Acadian Phase
- accretion
- amphibolite facies
- Appalachian Phase
- Appalachians
- basement
- Blue Ridge Province
- Brevard Zone
- Cambrian
- carbonate rocks
- clastic rocks
- continental margin
- crust
- crystallization
- dates
- facies
- faults
- field trips
- granites
- Great Smoky Fault
- Hayesville Fault
- high-resolution methods
- igneous rocks
- Inner Piedmont
- intrusions
- ion probe data
- Laurentia
- lower crust
- mafic composition
- mass spectra
- metamorphic rocks
- metamorphism
- Neoproterozoic
- nesosilicates
- North America
- oceanic crust
- Ordovician
- orogeny
- orthosilicates
- Paleozoic
- Pangaea
- passive margins
- Permian
- Piedmont
- plate collision
- plate tectonics
- plutonic rocks
- Precambrian
- Proterozoic
- rift zones
- rifting
- sedimentary rocks
- SHRIMP data
- silicates
- sillimanite
- Southern Appalachians
- spectra
- suture zones
- Taconic Orogeny
- terranes
- U/Pb
- ultramafic composition
- United States
- upper crust
- upper Precambrian
- zircon
- zircon group
- Tallulah Falls Dome
- Murphy Syncline
- Dahlonega gold belt
- Tugaloo Terrane
- Cowrock Terrane
- Cartoogechaye Terrane
- Cat Square Terrane
- Carolina Superterrane