Date of Graduation
Summer 2021
Degree
Master of Science in Geospatial Sciences
Department
Geography, Geology, and Planning
Committee Chair
Matthew McKay
Abstract
The Alabama Blue Ridge (USA) of the southern Appalachians contains metamorphic rocks and structures associated with island arc accretion and continent-continent collision that record the Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies. The western Blue Ridge is underlain by Cambrian to Mississippian, clastic and carbonate, low-grade, greenschist facies metamorphic Talladega belt that formed outboard from the Alabama promontory or along the Laurentian margin. The eastern Blue Ridge contains the Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, lithologically diverse, high grade, middle to upper amphibolite facies Ashland Supergroup. Geologic mapping of the Clairmont Springs 7.5- minute quadrangle unveils tectonic relationships between the eastern and western Blue Ridge and U-Pb zircon geochronology constrains the timing of metamorphism of strata and Neoacadian-Alleghenian thrust fault development; and unveils new information on the relationship between the Appalachian foreland and hinterland. A complex partitioning of deformation model is proposed to account for out-of-sequence fault movement and Taconic to Alleghenian metamorphic ages.
Keywords
Alabama Blue Ridge, Neoacadian orogeny, geologic mapping, zircon geochronology, metamorphism, southern Appalachians
Subject Categories
Geochemistry | Geology | Tectonics and Structure
Copyright
© Adelie Ionescu
Recommended Citation
Ionescu, Adelie, "Geology of the Clairmont Springs 7.5-Minute Quadrangle and Geochronology of the Alabama Blue Ridge" (2021). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 3677.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/3677
Open Access
