devonian

A fistful of fossils (Devonian Helderberg Group of West Virginia)

by

More images for you today from my field trip a few weeks ago to West Virginia’s bizarro highway Corridor H, a quiet place built for roaring traffic. Its multistory roadcuts are fresh and profound; they offer the most incredible views into the mid-to-late-Paleozoic surface of Earth… and the creatures that lived there. In the Devonian … Read more

A marine incursion in the Hampshire Formation?

by

I went out last Tuesday to Corridor H, the exemplary new highway cutting through the Valley and Ridge province of eastern West Virginia. Joining me was former student Alan Pitts, a devotee of Corridor H from way back in the early days when we just called it “New Route 55.” The boondoggle highway is now … Read more

Another example of the perplexing mystery “fossil”

by

In April, I posted some images of an odd structure from some of the fossiliferous siltstones of the Fort Valley. Some of the commenters suggested it was no fossil, but simply a very small scale version of soft-sediment deformation. Now, another “Fortian” has shown me another example, and this one is better preserved. Its lobes … Read more

Brallier Formation 2: tectonic structures

by

Yesterday we examined primary sedimentary structures (including trace fossils) at an outcrop of Devonian-aged Brallier Formation turbidites between Deerfield and West Augusta, Virginia. Today, we’ll zoom in on the tectonic structures at the site: folds, faults, and joints. Remember, you don’t have to take my word for it. You can explore it for yourself in … Read more

Brallier Formation 1: primary structures

by

Last week, I mentioned some geologizing with the family in the Staunton area. The furthest west we ventured was to the road connecting Deerfield, Virginia, with West Augusta. There, the Brallier Formation is well exposed in a dramatic roadcut. Explore it for yourself in this M.A.G.I.C. GigaPan: [gigapan id=”128612″] link The Brallier is turbidites, shed … Read more

Mystery fossil (?) for crowd-sourced identification

by

A Fort Valley neighbor brought me this sample yesterday, asking me to tell her what it was. But while my brain’s pattern-recognition centers lit up when examining its “rows” of scale-like bumps, it didn’t match up with anything that I know from anywhere else here. Take a look, and click any of these images to … Read more

Friday fold: the folded xenoliths of Duck Creek

by

On Duck Creek (Ellendale, NC quadrangle), you can see folded xenoliths within the Toluca Granite (383 Ma, 378 Ma, or 368 Ma, depending on which mineral you ask). The granite there contains xenoliths that contain pre-exisiting fabrics and structures, and we stopped at Duck Creek on the pre-GSA-Charlotte field trip I took to the Neoacadian … Read more