Date Thesis Awarded
8-2008
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Geology
Advisor
Christopher M. Bailey
Committee Members
R. Heather Macdonald
Gregory M. Capelli
Scott Southworth
Abstract
Deposits of iron-oxide cemented conglomerate and coarse sandstone were recently discovered in northern Albemarle County and southern Madison County, in the eastern Blue Ridge Province of north central Virginia. These deposits are interpreted to represent remnant Mesozoic rift basins on the basis of deformational age constraints, sedimentary provenance, and lithologic similarity and proximity to other Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. Mesozoic rift basins occur along eastern North America and were formed by tensile stresses from the breakup of Pangea and the birth of the Atlantic Ocean in the mid to late-Triassic and early Jurassic. The Beautiful Run Basin (new name) in Madison County is comprised of two erosionally separated ~100-200 m wide iron-oxide cemented conglomerate and sandstone deposits bounded by a normal fault trending 040 on their NW side. The Burnley Basin (Nelson, 1962) in Albemarle County is comprised of two erosionally separated ~50-100 m wide iron-oxide cemented conglomerate and sandstone deposits. In contrast to the Beautiful Run Basin, the Burnley Basin displays structural complexity, and may occur along a right stepping segment of the same normal fault. Both the Beautiful Run and Burnley basins abut a 10-400 m belt of graphite schist. This belt of graphite schist, called the Johnson Mill Member (Allen, 1963) of the Lynchburg Group, acted as a detachment surface during Mesozoic extension and controlled basin formation. Clast assemblage analyses on the Burnley Basin and Beautiful Run Basin reveal a local provenance. Similar analyses of conglomerates of the Culpeper and Barboursville Basins depict a larger westerly source area.
Recommended Citation
Hartmann, Ari, "Newly Discovered Mesozoic Basins in the Virginia Blue Ridge: Sedimentology, Provenace, Structure, and Tectonics" (2008). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 849.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/849
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Comments
Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.