The Mid-Atlantic Shore to the Appalachian Highlands: Field Trip Guidebook for the 2010 Joint Meeting of the Northeastern and Southeastern GSA Sections
This guidebook features field trips offered during the joint meeting of GSA’s Northeastern and Southeastern Sections held in Baltimore, Maryland, in March 2010. Chapters in this guide reflect the meeting’s theme (“Linking North and South: Exploring the Connections between Continent and Sea”) in that they span the lowlands of eastern Pennsylvania to the highlands of northeastern West Virginia. Four physiographic provinces are covered: Piedmont (Piedmont Upland and Gettysburg-Newark Lowland Sections), Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau. The geologic foci are likewise variable, ranging from Precambrian basement rocks to Pleistocene sediments.
The early through late Pleistocene record in the Susquehanna River Basin
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Published:January 01, 2010
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CiteCitation
Duane D. Braun, 2010. "The early through late Pleistocene record in the Susquehanna River Basin", The Mid-Atlantic Shore to the Appalachian Highlands: Field Trip Guidebook for the 2010 Joint Meeting of the Northeastern and Southeastern GSA Sections, Gary M. Fleeger, Steven J. Whitmeyer
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Abstract
A transect of the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Ridge and Valley, and Appalachian Plateau physiographic provinces valley will be made by going up the Susquehanna Valley. Early to late Pleistocene features will be examined at eleven sites. The pre-Pleistocene evolution of the Appalachian landscape will also be discussed at two sites. The journey will start on the Coastal Plain and travel to the lower Susquehanna bedrock gorge across the High Piedmont, where strath terraces will be examined. From there the Susquehanna River will be followed upstream to the Low Piedmont where broad outwash terraces, of early to late Pleistocene-age, flank the River. Continuing up-river into Ridge and Valley Province, the water gaps at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will be viewed and their origin discussed. The Susquehanna River will be followed across the remainder of the Ridge and Valley with stops to view early and mid-Pleistocene-aged features. Emphasis will be placed on the amount of erosion that has occurred since the early Pleistocene and the development of a pseudo-moraine landscape. At the wind gap through Bald Eagle Mountain, the mid-Miocene to present evolution of the overall Appalachian landscape will be discussed. The evidence for the early Pleistocene-age for Glacial Lake Lesley will be examined in the West Branch Susquehanna valley. In the deep valleys section of the Appalachian Plateau, the mid- and late Pleistocene glacial termini will be examined. Turning south into the Ridge and Valley, the trip will conclude with examination of glaciofluvial deposits of probable mid-Pleistocene-age.
- Appalachian Plateau
- Appalachians
- Atlantic Coastal Plain
- Cenozoic
- depositional environment
- erosion
- field trips
- fluvial environment
- fluvial features
- geomorphology
- glacial environment
- glaciated terrains
- glaciofluvial environment
- guidebook
- landform evolution
- landscapes
- Maryland
- North America
- Pennsylvania
- Piedmont
- Pleistocene
- Quaternary
- rivers
- road log
- sediments
- surficial geology
- Susquehanna River basin
- terraces
- United States
- Valley and Ridge Province
- water gaps