Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Publications
Appalachian Basin stratigraphy, tectonics, and eustasy from the Blue Ridge to the Allegheny Front, Virginia and West Virginia
This guide is from a two-day field trip in western Virginia and eastern West Virginia held before the 2015 Geological Society of America annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The field trip examines exposures of Paleozoic sedimentary strata in the Appalachian Basin starting in the Blue Ridge physiographic province, going through the Valley and...
Haynes, John T.; Pitts, Alan D.; Doctor, Daniel H.; Diecchio, Richard J.; Blake, Mitchell B. The impact of late Holocene land-use change, climate variability, and sea-level rise on carbon storage in tidal freshwater wetlands on the southeastern United States Coastal Plain
This study examines Holocene impacts of changes in climate, land use, and sea-level rise (SLR) on sediment accretion, carbon accumulation rates (CAR), and vegetation along a transect of tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) to oligohaline marsh along the Waccamaw River, South Carolina (4 sites) and along the Savannah River, Georgia (4 sites)....
Jones, Miriam; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Krauss, K.W.; Noe, Gregory B.
Surficial materials of Massachusetts—A 1:24,000-scale geologic map database
The surficial materials geologic map database defines the distribution of nonlithified earth materials at the land surface in the 189 7.5-minute, 1:24,000-scale quadrangles that cover the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (index map). Across the State, these materials range in thickness from a few feet to more than 500 feet (ft). In some places,...
Stone, Janet Radway; Stone, Byron D.; DiGiacomo-Cohen, Mary L.; Mabee, Stephen B. Ecological changes in the nannoplankton community across a shelf transect during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Warming and other environmental changes during the Paleocene‐Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) led to profound shifts in the composition and structure of nannoplankton assemblages. Here we analyze the nature of these changes in expanded records from the Cambridge‐Dorchester and Mattawoman Creek‐Billingsley Road cores in Maryland. These cores comprise...
León y León, Isabel A.; Bralower, Timothy J.; Self-Trail, Jean M. North Atlantic midlatitude surface-circulation changes through the Plio-Pleistocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation
The North Atlantic Current (NAC) transports warm salty water to high northern latitudes, with important repercussions for ocean circulation and global climate. A southward displacement of the NAC and Subarctic Front, which separate subpolar and subtropical water masses, is widely suggested for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may have acted as a...
Bolton, Clara T.; Bailey, Ian; Friedrich, Oliver; Tachikawa, Kazuyo; de Garidel‐Thoron, Thibault; Vidal, Laurence; Sonzogni, Corinne; Marino, Gianluca; Rohling, Eelco J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Ermini, Magali; Koch, Mirjam; Cooper, Matthew J.; Wilson, Paul A.
The Central African Republic Diamond Database—A geodatabase of archival diamond occurrences and areas of recent artisanal and small-scale diamond mining
The alluvial diamond deposits of the Central African Republic (CAR) are mined almost exclusively by way of informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) methods. ASM sites range in diameter from a few meters to 30 meters or more, and are typically excavated by crews of diggers using hand tools, sieves, and jigs. CAR’s reported annual production...
DeWitt, Jessica D.; Chirico, Peter G.; Bergstresser, Sarah E.; Clark, Inga E. The significance of dinoflagellates in the Miocene Choptank Formation beneath the Midlothian gravels in the southeastern Virginia Piedmont
The Fall Line (formally "Tidewater Fall Line") separates the more resistant igneous, metamorphic, and consolidated sedimentary rocks of the Piedmont from the typically unconsolidated deposits of the Coastal Plain of Virginia. Widespread but now discontinuous patches of a deeply weathered sand and gravel are found west of the Fall Line, capping the...
Edwards, Lucy E.; Weems, Robert E.; Carter, Mark W.; Spears, David; Powars, David S.
PRISM marine sites—The history of PRISM sea surface temperature estimation
For more than three decades, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project has compiled paleoenvironmental data with the goal of reconstructing global conditions during the warm interval in the middle of the Piacenzian Age of the Pliocene Epoch (about 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago). Because...
Robinson, Marci M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Riesselman, Christina R. Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming
The carbon sink potential of peatlands depends on the balance of carbon uptake by plants and microbial decomposition. The rates of both these processes will increase with warming but it remains unclear which will dominate the global peatland response. Here we examine the global relationship between peatland carbon accumulation rates during the...
Gallego-Sala, Angela; Charman, Dan; Brewer, Simon; Page, Sue; Prentice, I. Colin; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Moreton, Steve; Amesbury, Matthew; Beilman, David; Bjorck, Svante; Blyakharchuk, Tatiana; Bochicchio, Christopher; Booth, Robert K; Bunbury, Joan; Camill, Philip; Carless, Donna; Chimner, Rodney A.; Clifford, Michael; Cressey, Elizabeth; Courtney-Mustaphi, Colin; De Vleeschouwer, Francois; de Jong, Rixt; Fialkiawicz-Koziel, Barbara; Finkelstein, Sarah A; Garneau, Michelle; Githumbi, Esther N.; Hribjlan, John; Holmquist, James; Hughes, Paul; Jones, Chris D.; Jones, Miriam; Karofeld, Edgar; Klein, Eric S.; Kokfelt, Ulla; Korhola, Atte; Lacourse, Terri; LeRoux, Gael; Lamentowicz, Mariusz; Large, David ; Lavoie, Martin; Loisel, Julie; MacKay, Helen; MacDonald, Glen M.; Makila, Markku; Magnan, Gabriel; Marchant, R.; Marcisz, Katarzyna; Martinez-Cortizas, Antonio; Massa, Charly; Mathijssen, Paul; Mauquoy, Dmitri; Mighall, Timothy; Mitchell, Fraser J.G.; Moss, Patrick; Nichols, J.; Oksanen, P.O.; Orme, L.; Packalen, Maara S.; Robinson, Stephen; Roland, Thomas P.; Sanderson, Nicole K.; Sannel, A.B.K.; Silva-Sanchez, Noemi; Steinberg, Natasha; Swindles, Graeme T.; Turner, T. Edward; Uglow, Joanna; Valiranta, M.; van Bellen, Simon; van der Linden, Marjolein; Wang, Guoping; Yu, Zicheng; Zaragoza-Castells, Joana; Zhao, Yan Geologic map of the Timberville quadrangle, Virginia
This map of the Timberville 7.5-minute quadrangle in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, Virginia shows the distribution of Paleozoic-age sedimentary rocks in map and cross-section. Surficial deposits including alluvium and colluvium are also shown. The characteristics of each map unit are described and a brief report discusses the stratigraphy,...
Heller, Matthew J.; Orndorff, Randall C.; Hubbard, David A.; Rader, Eugene K.
Divisions of geologic time—Major chronostratigraphic and geochronologic units
IntroductionEffective communication in the geosciences requires a consistent nomenclature for stratigraphic units and, especially, for divisions of geologic time. A geologic time scale is composed of standard stratigraphic divisions based on rock sequences and is calibrated in years.Geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), State...
Geologic map of the Hayfield quadrangle, Frederick County, Virginia
The Hayfield 7.5-minute quadrangle is located within the Valley and Ridge physiographic province of northern Virginia. The quadrangle includes the topographical lowland area of the northern Great Valley to the southeast, the narrow ridge of Little North Mountain along the western edge of the Great Valley, and the broad region of elongated valleys...
Doctor, Daniel H.; Parker, Ronald A.