Particle size analysis results from the VA-Clarke-03 core, Cherry Hill quadrangle, Dinwiddie County, Virginia

The dataset documents results from particle size analysis conducted on a suite of sediment samples from the VA-Clarke-03 core, Cherry Hill quadrangle, Dinwiddie county, Virginia [36.931926, -77.566802]. The 44-foot-long core was collected on 05/16/2023 using the North Carolina Geological Survey Geoprobe. The core was collected from sands and gravels of the uppermost coastal plain that host the Old Hickory heavy mineral deposit. Because host sediments are non-fossiliferous, there is little consensus as to their age, stratigraphic position, or nomenclature. Current mapping assigns host sands and gravels to two units in the upper part of the Pliocene to Pleistocene Chesapeake Group.

In the lab, the core was analyzed using the USGS GeoTek multi-sensor core logger system housed in the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Reston, VA. After Geotek analysis (Carter and others, 2024), sediment samples were collected from the core for particle size analysis, detrital zircon analysis, and 26Al/10Be cosmogenic burial dating.  Particle size analysis was conducted using the Beckman Coulter LS 13 320 XR analyzer housed in the Bascom Laser Diffraction Sedimentology Laboratory in Reston, VA.

This work is a collaboration with the Virginia Department of Energy, Geology and Mineral Resources Program and the North Carolina Geological Survey through the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain Working Group, and the USGS Earth MRI Program.

Citation: Carter, M., Seidenstein, J., Farrell, K., Nelson, M., Rodysill, J., Odom, W., Holm-Denoma, C., Occhi, M., and Hawkins, D., 2024, Using the U.S. Geological Survey Geotek Multi-Sensor Core Logger System to analyze and preserve core from the Old Hickory Heavy Mineral deposit, southeastern Virginia: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 56, No. 2, doi: 10.1130/abs/2024SE-398116