The Appalachian Geology of John M. Dennison: Rocks, People, and a Few Good Restaurants along the Way

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.
Late Devonian fossils and position of the Frasnian-Famennian boundary in the Foreknobs Formation of Virginia and West Virginia
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Published:August 12, 2020
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CiteCitation
Thomas J. Rossbach, 2020. "Late Devonian fossils and position of the Frasnian-Famennian boundary in the Foreknobs Formation of Virginia and West Virginia", The Appalachian Geology of John M. Dennison: Rocks, People, and a Few Good Restaurants along the Way, Katharine Lee Avary, Kenneth O. Hasson, Richard J. Diecchio
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ABSTRACT
The Upper Devonian Foreknobs Formation is a series of sandstones and siltstones that outcrops in the central Appalachian Basin from Pennsylvania south into Virginia and West Virginia. The Foreknobs Formation is generally regarded as the delta slope portion of the Catskill clastic wedge (= Catskill delta) occurring between the dark marine lithologies of the underlying Brallier and Scherr Formations and the younger fluvial red beds and conglomerates of the overlying Hampshire Formation. Progradational and retrogradational pulses of the clastic wedge are recorded in the alternating siltstones and sandstones before grading into nonmarine lithologies at its top. Well-preserved fossils are very abundant within the Foreknobs Formation. They have aided in locating the Frasnian-Famennian Stage boundary and have provided important information regarding its namesake extinction event. The progradation of the clastic wedge during Foreknobs Formation deposition allowed for both shallow- and deep-water environments to exist up to and across the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, which may have contributed to some uncertainty in correlating the lithostratigraphic position of the boundary with the biostratigraphic signature of the extinction event.
- Appalachian Basin
- biostratigraphy
- Brachiopoda
- Catskill Delta
- depositional environment
- Devonian
- Echinodermata
- extinction
- Famennian
- Frasnian
- Hampshire Formation
- Hardy County West Virginia
- ichnofossils
- lithostratigraphy
- marine environment
- North America
- paleoenvironment
- Paleozoic
- regression
- sea-level changes
- storm environment
- stratigraphic boundary
- United States
- Upper Devonian
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Foreknobs Formation
- Scherr Formation
- Brallier Formation