Appalachian Geology Overview

GLY 4750 Spring, 2013

Appalachian
Geomorphic
Provinces

Orogeny
Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a large
structural deformation of the Earth's lithosphere due to
the interaction of tectonic plates
The response to tectonic interactions results in the
formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called
orogens or orogenic belts
The word "orogeny" comes from the Greek (oros for
"mountain" plus genesis for "creation" or "origin"), and
it is the primary mechanism by which mountains are
built on continents

 Orogens develop
while a continental
plate is crumpled and
is pushed upwards to
form mountain
ranges, and involve a
great range of
geological processes
collectively called
orogenesis

Orogens

DEM Data
Maps such as this are
computer generated
images generated from
Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) data

Orogenies that Created the

Appalachians
Grenville Orogeny ca.
1,400-1,100 Ma
Taconic Orogeny ca.
450 Ma
Acadian Orogeny ca.
375 Ma
Alleghenian Orogeny
ca. 300 Ma
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Overprinting
Each orogeny leaves evidence.
In areas where several orogenies have occurred, the later
orogenic episodes overprint earlier deformations,
complicating the interpretation
Orogenies are typically accompanied by deformation of
rock, both folding and faulting
Metamorphism accompanies the deformation.
The Southern Appalachians are heavily deformed, and
polymetamorphic episodes are common
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Appalachian Geomorphic
Provinces
The Appalachian
Mountains
occupy four
different
geomorphic
provinces.

Appalachian Orogeny Cross-sections

Cross-sections in Tennessee and Pennsylvania

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Passive Margins
A passive margin marks the
transition between oceanic
and continental crust, with
no active tectonics
Continental rifting
separates continents, and
creates new ocean basins
Eventually a mid-ocean rift
zone forms as the
continents spread apart

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Passive Margin Development

Diagram shows passive margins after the

development of an ocean ridge
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Transition to Active Margin

Collision of a passive margin with another
tectonic plate transforms the passive margin
into an active convergent margin
The sediments and sedimentary rocks that
now are part of the metamorphosed, folded,
and faulted Appalachian Mountains were
once a passive margin before the collision
with Europe, and later Africa
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Middle Ordovician
During the middle Ordovician Period (about 440-480
million years ago), a change in plate motions set the stage
for the first Paleozoic mountain building event (Taconic
orogeny) in North America
The once quiet, Appalachian passive margin changed to a
very active plate boundary when a neighboring oceanic
plate, the Iapetus, collided with and began sinking beneath
the North American craton
With the birth of this new subduction zone, the early
Appalachians were born
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Early Volcanism
Along the continental margin, volcanoes grew,
coincident with the initiation of subduction
Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older
sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin
As mountains rose, erosion began to wear them
down
Streams carried rock debris downslope to be
deposited in nearby lowlands.
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Continuing Orogenesis
This was just the first of a series of
mountain building plate collisions that
contributed to the formation of the
Appalachians
By about 300 million years ago
(Pennsylvanian Period) Africa was
approaching North American craton
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Simplified
Tectonic Map
of the
Southern
Appalachians

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Appalachian Plateau
The Appalachian Plateau Province contains
the westernmost deformed rocks in the
Appalachian orogen and is the external,
least deformed, part of a foreland fold and
thrust belt.

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Appalachian Plateau

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Surficial Rocks of the

Appalachian Plateau
Surficial rock exposures consist mainly of
flat-lying sedimentary rocks such as
sandstone, shale, conglomerate, and coal
beds
The only visible structures are broad folds

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Appalachian
(Cumberland)
Plateau

Sedimentary rocks, virtually unmoved since their deposition

Flat laying Pennsylvanian and older sedimentary rocks several km thick

Valley and Ridge Province

The Valley and Ridge province comprises the most
characteristic part of the Appalachian foreland fold
and thrust belt
The Valley and Ridge is underlain by the same
sequence of unmetamorphosed sedimentary rocks
that are found in the Appalachian Plateau
These rocks have been tightly folded into
synclines and anticlines generally separated by
thrust faults
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Fold Types

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Valley and Ridge

Boundaries
Although the transition from the
Valley and Ridge to the Plateau
on the northwest is somewhat
gradual, the boundary can be
drawn on the west flank of the
Sequatchie Anticline
The southeast boundary of the
Valley and Ridge is the Great
Smoky or Blue Ridge thrust
which separates the Valley Ridge
from the Blue Ridge
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Valley and Ridge Radar Image

The slide shows a radar image of typical Valley and

Ridge topography at Kingston, Tennessee
Intensity of deformation decreases westward from the
Blue Ridge
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Valley and Ridge

Ridges are made up of
erosion-resistant
sandstone (green on
image), while the
valleys are made up of
limestone and other
less-resistant rock
layers (purple in
image)
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Blue Ridge Province

The Blue Ridge province comprises thrust sheets
that form the westernmost part of the crystalline
core in the Southern Appalachians
The province is bounded to the west by the Great
Smoky or Blue Ridge thrust and to the east by
faults in the Brevard zone
The Blue Ridge may be divided into western and
eastern segments separated by the folded
premetamorphic Hayesville fault.
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Blue Ridge
Radar Image

Shenandoah National Park

lies astride part of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, which form
the southeastern range of the
greater Appalachian
Mountains in Virginia.
Park is well framed by this
one-degree of latitude (38-39
north) by one-degree of
longitude (78-79 west) cell of
Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission data, and it appears
here as the most prominent
ridge trending diagonally
across the scene.
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Thrust Faulting

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Blue Ridge Boundaries

This province is the backbone of the Appalachians
It rises quickly from the Piedmont on the east
The western boundary is less sharply defined, but
occurs when the tightly folded rocks of the Valley
and Ridge appear
It extends from southwestern Pennsylvania into
northern Georgia, beginning as a single ridge in the
north and splitting into several irregular ridges in
the south.
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Blue Ridge Geology

Basement Complex
Taconic Orogeny and Acadian orogeny
produced mountains, eroded to their roots
Alleghenian Orogeny produced the modern
Appalachians
Thrust Faulting pushed the Blue Ridge and
Piedmont Provinces to the NW, as much as
160 miles
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Old Mountains
Erosion has taken its toll
on the Blue Ridge
The mountains are
smaller, and much more
rounded than the Rockies
or the Sierras
They are twice as old as
the Rockies, and are very
tough to have survived
this long

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway in

North Carolina (DLW, 2010)

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Western Blue Ridge

The Western Blue Ridge is separated from
the Valley and Ridge by the Great Smoky or
Blue Ridge thrust and from the Eastern
Blue Ridge by the folded Hayesville fault
A good map of this region is at
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/dmt/docs/hatche
r05fig7.pdf
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Bedrock Geology of Western

Blue Ridge

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Blue Ridge Map

The Eastern Blue

Ridge is separated
from the Western
Blue Ridge by the
Hayesville fault and
from the Inner
Piedmont, to the
southeast, by the
Brevard zone
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Eastern Blue Ridge

The metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks in the
southern part of the Eastern Blue Ridge comprise the
Coweeta Group, Tallulah Falls Formation, and
Precambrian basement gneisses that are likely of Grenville
affinity
These rocks have been metamorphosed to amphibolite or
locally to granulite facies (Winding Stairs Gap).

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The Piedmont
The Piedmont province comprises the
easternmost part of the crystalline core that
is exposed in the Southern Appalachians,
and is a plateau of moderate elevation (150300 m)
Part or all of this province may consist of
crustal fragments exotic to North America
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 The province bounded to the

west by the Brevard zone and
to the southeast it is covered
by younger Coastal Plain
sediments
The Piedmont is divided into
the Inner Piedmont to the
northwest and the Charlotte
Belt to the southeast
It is separated from the
Coastal Plain by the "Fall
Line"

Piedmont
Boundaries

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Inner Piedmont
This province comprises medium and high
grade schists and gneisses that have been
multiply deformed
All of the metamorphic rocks have been
metamorphosed to amphibolite or facies

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Piedmont Characteristics
The Piedmont, which literally means "foot
of the mountain, is generally regarded as a
monotonous plain
Actually, there are some prominent features
above the gently rolling plain

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Piedmont Geology
Many of the rocks began as marine sediments and
volcanic deposits, typical oceanic crust, that were
deformed and metamorphosed mostly to the
greenschist facies of chlorite and biotite schists
and slate
Numerous granite intrusions form domes within
the Piedmont, and narrow belts of serpentine are
common
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Cross-Section

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Map View

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