Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Publications
Proterozoic to Cenozoic geology above, within and beneath the Blue Ridge Composite Thrust Sheet as exposed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Peaks of Otter region, central Virginia Blue Ridge: Guidebook for the 43rd Annual Virginia Geological Field Conference
No abstract available.
Carter, Mark W.; Southworth, C. Scott; Aleinikoff, John N. Igneous activity, metamorphism, and deformation in the Mount Rogers area of SW Virginia and NW North Carolina: A geologic record of Precambrian tectonic evolution of the southern Blue Ridge Province
Mesoproterozoic basement in the vicinity of Mount Rogers is characterized by considerable lithologic variability, including major map units composed of gneiss, amphibolite, migmatite, meta-quartz monzodiorite and various types of granitoid. SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology and field mapping indicate that basement units define four types of occurrences,...
Tollo, Richard P.; Aleinikoff, John N.; Mundil, Roland; Southworth, C. Scott; Cosca, Michael A.; Rankin, Douglas W.; Rubin, Allison E.; Kentner, Adrienne; Parendo, Christopher A.; Ray, Molly S. A major light rare-earth element (LREE) resource in the Khanneshin carbonatite complex, southern Afghanistan
The rapid rise in world demand for the rare-earth elements (REEs) has expanded the search for new REE resources. We document two types of light rare-earth element (LREE)-enriched rocks in the Khanneshin carbonatite complex of southern Afghanistan: type 1 concordant seams of khanneshite-(Ce), synchysite-(Ce), and parisite-(Ce) within banded barite-...
Tucker, Robert D.; Belkin, Harvey E.; Schulz, Klaus J.; Peters, Stephen G.; Horton, Forrest; Buttleman, Kim; Scott, Emily R. Ages of pre-rift basement and synrift rocks along the conjugate rift and transform margins of the Argintine Precordillera and Laurentia
New geochronologic data from basement rocks support the interpretation that the Argentine Precordillera (Cuyania) terrane was rifted from the Ouachita embayment of the Iapetan margin of Laurentia. New data from the Ozark dome show a range of ages in two groups at 1466 ± 3 to 1462 ± 1 Ma and 1323 ± 2 to 1317 ± 2 Ma, consistent with existing data...
Thomas, William A.; Tucker, Robert D.; Astini, Ricardo A.; Denison, Rodger E. Antarctic and Southern Ocean influences on Late Pliocene global cooling
The influence of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean on Late Pliocene global climate reconstructions has remained ambiguous due to a lack of well-dated Antarctic-proximal, paleoenvironmental records. Here we present ice sheet, sea-surface temperature, and sea ice reconstructions from the ANDRILL AND-1B sediment core recovered from beneath the Ross...
McKay, Robert; Naish, Tim; Carter, Lionel; Riesselman, Christina; Dunbar, Robert; Sjunneskog, Charlotte; Winter, Diane; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Warren, Courtney; Pagani, Mark; Schouten, Stefan; Willmott, Veronica; Levy, Richard; DeConto, Robert; Powell, Ross D. Assessing confidence in Pliocene sea surface temperatures to evaluate predictive models
In light of mounting empirical evidence that planetary warming is well underway, the climate research community looks to palaeoclimate research for a ground-truthing measure with which to test the accuracy of future climate simulations. Model experiments that attempt to simulate climates of the past serve to identify both similarities and...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Haywood, Alan M.; Hill, Daniel J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Stoll, Danielle K.; Chan, Wing-Le; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Chandler, Mark A.; Rosenbloom, Nan A.; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.; Bragg, Fran J.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Riesselman, Christina R. Calcareous nannofossil assemblage changes across the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum: Evidence from a shelf setting
Biotic response of calcareous nannoplankton to abrupt warming across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary reflects a primary response to climatically induced parameters including increased continental runoff of freshwater, global acidification of seawater, high sedimentation rates, and calcareous nannoplankton assemblage turnover. We identify...
Self-Trail, Jean M.; Powars, David S.; Watkins, David K.; Wandless, Gregory A. Deep Arctic Ocean warming during the last glacial cycle
In the Arctic Ocean, the cold and relatively fresh water beneath the sea ice is separated from the underlying warmer and saltier Atlantic Layer by a halocline. Ongoing sea ice loss and warming in the Arctic Ocean have demonstrated the instability of the halocline, with implications for further sea ice loss. The stability of the halocline through...
Cronin, T. M.; Dwyer, G.S.; Farmer, J.; Bauch, H.A.; Spielhagen, R.F.; Jakobsson, M.; Nilsson, J.; Briggs, W.M.; Stepanova, A. Dinocyst taphonomy, impact craters, cyst ghosts, and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM)
Dinocysts recovered from sediments related to the Chesapeake Bay impact structure in Virginia and the earliest Eocene suboxic environment in Maryland show strange and intriguing details of preservation. Features such as curled processes, opaque debris, breakage, microborings and cyst ghosts, among others, invite speculation about catastrophic...
Edwards, Lucy E. Fold-to-fault progression of a major thrust zone revealed in horses of the North Mountain fault zone, Virginia and West Virginia, USA
The method of emplacement and sequential deformation of major thrust zones may be deciphered by detailed geologic mapping of these important structures. Thrust fault zones may have added complexity when horse blocks are contained within them. However, these horses can be an important indicator of the fault development holding information on fault-...
Orndorff, Randall C. Fragilariopsis diatom evolution in Pliocene and Pleistocene Antarctic shelf sediments
The late Pliocene – early Pleistocene sediment record in the AND-1B core from the McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, Antarctica, displays a rich diversity and high abundance of diatoms, including several new morphologies within the genus Fragilariopsis. These new morphologies exhibit similarities to the extinct late Miocene/early Pliocene species...
Sjunneskog, Charlotte; Riesselman, Christina; Winter, Diane; Scherer, Reed Sequential development of platform to off-platform facies of the great American carbonate bank in the central Appalachians: chapter 15
In the central Appalachians, carbonate deposition of the great American carbonate bank began during the Early Cambrian with the creation of initial ramp facies of the Vintage Formation and lower members of the Tomstown Formation. Vertical stacking of bioturbated subtidal ramp deposits (Bolivar Heights Member) and dolomitized microbial boundtsone (...
Brezinski, David K.; Taylor, John F.; Repetski, John E.