Elevating Geoscience in the Southeastern United States: New Ideas about Old Terranes—Field Guides for the GSA Southeastern Section Meeting, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2014

This volume includes 10 field guides that explore the diverse geology of the southern and central Appalachians. These guides examine both ancient rocks and modern landscape processes, highlighting new research ideas regarding these old terranes. Three guides focus on the geology of the Appalachian Plateau and Valley and Ridge, considering topics such as the enigmatic Eocene igneous rocks, the gas-rich Marcellus and Millboro Shales, and new models for karst formation. The 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake literally shook up our understanding of the Piedmont and two guides focus on new research in the epicentral region. Two guides take in the Paleozoic to Proterozoic geology of the Blue Ridge province. The volume is rounded out by three guides focused on Mesozoic geology, including the world-class Lagerst–tte fauna in the Dan River basin, a unique uranium deposit at Coles Hill, Virginia, and the tectonics of the Scottsville Basin.
Geology of the Coles Hill uranium deposit, Virginia Piedmont
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Published:January 01, 2014
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CiteCitation
Joseph Aylor, Jr., Robert Bodnar, Jim Beard, 2014. "Geology of the Coles Hill uranium deposit, Virginia Piedmont", Elevating Geoscience in the Southeastern United States: New Ideas about Old Terranes—Field Guides for the GSA Southeastern Section Meeting, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2014, Christopher M. Bailey, Lorrie V. Coiner
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Abstract
The Coles Hill uranium property is located in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, within the Smith River allochthon in Southside Virginia's Western Piedmont Province. The Coles Hill property is bounded on the east by the listric normal Chatham fault at the Triassic Danville basin. Uranium mineralization occurs in the footwall of the Chatham fault and is hosted in healed fractures and in hydrothermal apatite in the Leatherwood granite mylonite that is intruded by the Rich Acres gabbro amphibolite. The granite is silica depleted. The mylonite is foliated with a strike of 030° and dips 30°SE; the Chatham fault strikes 030° and dips 60°SE. The structural trap for uranium mineralization is contained on the east by the Chatham fault and beneath by unmineralized Leatherwood biotite gneiss, which is underlain by the Fork Mountain schist. Hematite staining of the ground surface is from weathering of Fork Mountain schist, which outcrops west of the Chatham fault at a constant distance of half a kilometer. In the southern property, pods of uranium mineralization plunge south at 45°. In the northern property, pods of uranium mineralization plunge northeast at 12°. Saussurite, rapakivi textures, Na- and K-metasomatism, titanite, zircon, apatite, calcite, and hematite are present. One possible uranium source is remobilization from the Triassic basin by westward-flowing meteoric waters that intersected the Chatham fault at depth and migrated upward and laterally into the Leatherwood granite. Another uranium source model may be introduction of uranium mineralization by hydrothermal fluids associated with emplacement and cooling of the Leatherwood granite. These fluids would have migrated upward into a structural trap where uranium minerals were precipitated in hydrothermal fractures.
- Appalachians
- cataclasites
- cores
- dip
- faults
- field trips
- foliation
- fractures
- grabens
- granites
- guidebook
- history
- host rocks
- igneous rocks
- listric faults
- Mesozoic
- metal ores
- metamorphic rocks
- metasomatism
- meteoric water
- Mill Creek
- mineral composition
- mineral deposits, genesis
- mineralization
- models
- normal faults
- North America
- ore-forming fluids
- outcrops
- Piedmont
- Pittsylvania County Virginia
- plutonic rocks
- precipitation
- road log
- shear zones
- strike
- structural controls
- surface water
- systems
- textures
- Triassic
- United States
- uranium ores
- Virginia
- weathering
- Smith River Allochthon
- Fork Mountain Formation
- Chatham Fault
- Leatherwood Granite
- Coles Hill Deposit
- Rich Acres Gabbro