J. Wright Horton, Jr., Ph.D.
Wright is an emeritus Research Geologist in the USGS Florence Bascom Geoscience Center. He has decades of experience in southern and central Appalachian geology, served as co-leader and leader of the USGS Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater Project, is involved in eastern U.S. earthquake studies, and explores terranes and basins beneath the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
Research Interests
Structural geology and tectonics, metamorphic and igneous rocks, impact craters and crater materials, fault zones and fault rocks, Southern and Central Appalachian regional geology and tectonics, pre-Cretaceous terranes and basins beneath the Atlantic Coastal Plain, significance of Mineral, Virginia, earthquake for understanding intraplate earthquakes in eastern North America, geologic mapping, hydrogeology, scientific drilling, geologic interpretation of potential-field geophysics, and multidisciplinary collaborations.
Projects
- Project Leader, USGS Coastal Basement Geology of the Southeastern U.S. Project. 2018-2020
- Task Leader, Central Virginia Seismic Zone Overview and Synthesis task of USGS Geologic Framework for Seismic Hazards in Central Virginia and the Eastern U.S. Project, 2014–2018
- Coastal Basement Task Leader, USGS Geology of Atlantic Watersheds Project, 2008–2014
- Project Leader (2007–2008) and Co-leader (2004–2007), USGS Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater Project
- Cooperating Principal Investigator, ICDP-USGS Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project, 2004–2009
- Co-leader, Crater Materials Science Team, ICDP-USGS Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure Deep Drilling Project, 2004–2009
- Task Co-leader, USGS Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater Project, 2000–2004
- Task Co-leader, Hydrogeologic framework of the Piedmont and Blue Ridge, North Carolina task of USGS Bedrock Regional Aquifer Systematics Study (BRASS) Project, 2000–2005
- Staff Scientist, USGS Office of Eastern Regional Geology (2002)
- Task Leader, Geology of the Washington-Baltimore Urban Area task of USGS Appalachian Regional Geology and Hydrology Project, 1998–2002
- Project Chief, USGS Geology of the Mid-Atlantic Urban Corridor (GOMAC) Project, 1995–98
- Project Chief, USGS Geology of the South-Central Virginia Piedmont Project, 1991–95
- Assistant Branch Chief, USGS Branch of Eastern Regional Geology, 1984–85
- Project Chief, USGS Raleigh Belt and Eastern Slate Belt Project, 1983–91
- Geologic mapping, USGS projects in Charlotte (NC-SC) and Greenville (SC-GA) 1° × 2° quadrangles, 1980-89
Professional Experience
Scientist Emeritus, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, USGS, Reston, VA, 2020-present
Research Geologist, USGS, Reston, VA, 1980–2020
National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate at USGS, Reston, VA, 1978–80
Assistant Professor of Geology, Univ. Southern Maine, 1977–78
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Geology), 1977
M.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Geology), 1974
B.S., Furman University (Geology), 1972
Affiliations and Memberships*
AAAS, Am. Geophysical Union, Carolina Geol. Soc. (President, 1981–82)
Geol. Soc. America (Fellow)
Geol. Soc. Washington (Councilor, 2009–10)
Meteoritical Soc.
SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology)
Sigma Xi
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 85
The 2011 Virginia earthquake: what are scientists learning? The 2011 Virginia earthquake: what are scientists learning?
Nearly 1 year ago, on 23 August, tens of millions of people in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada were startled in the middle of their workday (1:51 P.M. local time) by the sudden onset of moderate to strong ground shaking from a rare magnitude (M) 5.8 earthquake in central Virginia. Treating the shaking as if it were a fire drill, millions of workers in Washington, D. C...
Authors
J. Wright Horton, Robert A. Williams
Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirm a rare terrestrial occurrence of monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Eyreville B drill core in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. The monoclinic tridymite occurs with quartz paramorphs after tridymite and K-feldspar in a microcrystalline groundmass of devitrified glass and Fe-rich smectite. Electron-microprobe...
Authors
John C. Jackson, J. Wright Horton, I-Ming Chou, Harvey E. Belkin
Inside the crater, outside the crater: Stratigraphic details of the margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA Inside the crater, outside the crater: Stratigraphic details of the margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA
Two cores at the outer margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure show significant structural and depositional variations that illuminate its history. Detailed stratigraphy of the Watkins School core reveals that this site is outside the disruption boundary of the crater with respect to its lower part (nonmarine Cretaceous Potomac Formation), but just inside the boundary with respect...
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards, David S. Powars, J. Wright Horton,, Gregory Gohn, Jean Self-Trail, R. J. Litwin
Ordovician volcanic-arc terrane in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and Virginia: SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology, field relations, and tectonic significance Ordovician volcanic-arc terrane in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and Virginia: SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology, field relations, and tectonic significance
U-Pb zircon geochronology and field relations provide insights into metavolcanic and associated rocks in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and northern Virginia. Ordovician ages were determined for volcanic-arc rocks of the James Run Formation (Churchville Gneiss Member, 458 ± 4 Ma; Carroll Gneiss Member, 462 ± 4 Ma), Relay Felsite (458 ± 4 Ma), Chopawamsic Formation (453 ± 4...
Authors
J. Wright Horton,, John N. Aleinikoff, Avery A. Drake, C. Mark Fanning
New York-Alabama lineament: A buried right-slip fault bordering the Appalachians and mid-continent North America New York-Alabama lineament: A buried right-slip fault bordering the Appalachians and mid-continent North America
The New York-Alabama (NY-AL) lineament, recognized in 1978, is a magnetic anomaly that delineates a fundamental though historically enigmatic crustal boundary in eastern North America that is deeply buried beneath the Appalachian basin. Data not in the original aeromagnetic data set, particularly the lack of any information available at the time to constrain the southern continuation of...
Authors
M.G. Steltenpohl, I. Zietz, J. Wright Horton,, D. L. Daniels
Petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of deep gravelly sands in the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure Petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of deep gravelly sands in the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
The ICDP–USGS Eyreville drill cores in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure reached a total depth of 1766 m and comprise (from the bottom upwards) basement-derived schists and granites/pegmatites, impact breccias, mostly poorly lithified gravelly sand and crystalline blocks, a granitic slab, sedimentary breccias, and postimpact sediments. The gravelly sand and crystalline block section...
Authors
Katerina Bartosova, Susanne Gier, J. Wright Horton, Christian Koeberl, Dieter Mader, Henning Dypvik
The Sudbury impact layer in the paleoproterozoiciron ranges of northern Michigan, USA The Sudbury impact layer in the paleoproterozoiciron ranges of northern Michigan, USA
A layer of breccia that contains fragments of impact ejecta has been found at 10 sites in the Paleoproterozoic iron ranges of northern Michigan, in the Lake Superior region of the United States. Radiometric age constraints from events predating and postdating deposition of the breccia are ca. 1875 Ma and 1830 Ma. The major bolide impact that occurred at 1850 Ma at Sudbury, Ontario, 500...
Authors
W.F. Cannon, K. J. Schulz, J. Wright Horton, David A. King
Petrographic and geochemical comparisons between the lower crystalline basement-derived section and the granite megablock and amphibolite megablock of the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA Petrographic and geochemical comparisons between the lower crystalline basement-derived section and the granite megablock and amphibolite megablock of the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA
The Eyreville B core from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA, contains a lower basement-derived section (1551.19 m to 1766.32 m deep) and two megablocks of dominantly (1) amphibolite (1376.38 m to 1389.35 m deep) and (2) granite (1095.74 m to 1371.11 m deep), which are separated by an impactite succession. Metasedimentary rocks (muscovite-quartz-plagioclase-biotite...
Authors
Gabrielle N. Townsend, Roger L. Gibson, J. Wright Horton, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Ralf T. Schmitt, Katerina Bartosova
Silicate glasses and sulfide melts in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA Silicate glasses and sulfide melts in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA
Optical and electron-beam petrography of melt-rich suevite and melt-rock clasts from selected samples from the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, reveal a variety of silicate glasses and coexisting sulfur-rich melts, now quenched to various sulfi de minerals (??iron). The glasses show a wide variety of textures, fl ow banding, compositions, devitrifi cation, and hydration...
Authors
H. E. Belkin, J. Wright Horton
High-resolution seismic-reflection images across the ICDP-USGS Eyreville deep drilling site, Chesapeake Bay impact structure High-resolution seismic-reflection images across the ICDP-USGS Eyreville deep drilling site, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) acquired two 1.4-km-long, high-resolution (~5 m vertical resolution) seismic-reflection lines in 2006 that cross near the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)–USGS Eyreville deep drilling site located above the late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure in Virginia, USA. Five-meter spacing of seismic sources and geophones...
Authors
David S. Powars, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark R. Goldman, Gregory Gohn, J. Wright Horton,, Lucy E. Edwards, Michael J. Rymer, G. Gandhok
Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes
Asteroid and comet impact events are known to cause profound disruption to surface ecosystems. The aseptic collection of samples throughout a 1.76-km-deep set of cores recovered from the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure has allowed the study of the subsurface biosphere in a region disrupted by an impactor. Microbiological enumerations suggest the presence of three...
Authors
Charles S. Cockell, Aaron L. Gronstal, Mary A. Voytek, Julie D. Kirshtein, Kai Finster, Ward E. Sanford, Mihaela Glamoclija, Gregroy S. Gohn, David S. Powars, J. Wright Horton
Pre-impact tectonothermal evolution of the crystalline basement-derived rocks in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure Pre-impact tectonothermal evolution of the crystalline basement-derived rocks in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
Pre-impact crystalline rocks of the lowermost 215 m of the Eyreville B drill core from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure consist of a sequence of pelitic mica schists with subsidiary metagraywackes or felsic metavolcanic rocks, amphibolite, and calc-silicate rock that is intruded by muscovite (??biotite, garnet) granite and granite pegmatite. The schists are commonly graphitic and...
Authors
R.L. Gibson, G.N. Townsend, J. Wright Horton, W.U. Reimold
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 85
The 2011 Virginia earthquake: what are scientists learning? The 2011 Virginia earthquake: what are scientists learning?
Nearly 1 year ago, on 23 August, tens of millions of people in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada were startled in the middle of their workday (1:51 P.M. local time) by the sudden onset of moderate to strong ground shaking from a rare magnitude (M) 5.8 earthquake in central Virginia. Treating the shaking as if it were a fire drill, millions of workers in Washington, D. C...
Authors
J. Wright Horton, Robert A. Williams
Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirm a rare terrestrial occurrence of monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Eyreville B drill core in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. The monoclinic tridymite occurs with quartz paramorphs after tridymite and K-feldspar in a microcrystalline groundmass of devitrified glass and Fe-rich smectite. Electron-microprobe...
Authors
John C. Jackson, J. Wright Horton, I-Ming Chou, Harvey E. Belkin
Inside the crater, outside the crater: Stratigraphic details of the margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA Inside the crater, outside the crater: Stratigraphic details of the margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA
Two cores at the outer margin of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure show significant structural and depositional variations that illuminate its history. Detailed stratigraphy of the Watkins School core reveals that this site is outside the disruption boundary of the crater with respect to its lower part (nonmarine Cretaceous Potomac Formation), but just inside the boundary with respect...
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards, David S. Powars, J. Wright Horton,, Gregory Gohn, Jean Self-Trail, R. J. Litwin
Ordovician volcanic-arc terrane in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and Virginia: SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology, field relations, and tectonic significance Ordovician volcanic-arc terrane in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and Virginia: SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology, field relations, and tectonic significance
U-Pb zircon geochronology and field relations provide insights into metavolcanic and associated rocks in the Central Appalachian Piedmont of Maryland and northern Virginia. Ordovician ages were determined for volcanic-arc rocks of the James Run Formation (Churchville Gneiss Member, 458 ± 4 Ma; Carroll Gneiss Member, 462 ± 4 Ma), Relay Felsite (458 ± 4 Ma), Chopawamsic Formation (453 ± 4...
Authors
J. Wright Horton,, John N. Aleinikoff, Avery A. Drake, C. Mark Fanning
New York-Alabama lineament: A buried right-slip fault bordering the Appalachians and mid-continent North America New York-Alabama lineament: A buried right-slip fault bordering the Appalachians and mid-continent North America
The New York-Alabama (NY-AL) lineament, recognized in 1978, is a magnetic anomaly that delineates a fundamental though historically enigmatic crustal boundary in eastern North America that is deeply buried beneath the Appalachian basin. Data not in the original aeromagnetic data set, particularly the lack of any information available at the time to constrain the southern continuation of...
Authors
M.G. Steltenpohl, I. Zietz, J. Wright Horton,, D. L. Daniels
Petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of deep gravelly sands in the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure Petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of deep gravelly sands in the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
The ICDP–USGS Eyreville drill cores in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure reached a total depth of 1766 m and comprise (from the bottom upwards) basement-derived schists and granites/pegmatites, impact breccias, mostly poorly lithified gravelly sand and crystalline blocks, a granitic slab, sedimentary breccias, and postimpact sediments. The gravelly sand and crystalline block section...
Authors
Katerina Bartosova, Susanne Gier, J. Wright Horton, Christian Koeberl, Dieter Mader, Henning Dypvik
The Sudbury impact layer in the paleoproterozoiciron ranges of northern Michigan, USA The Sudbury impact layer in the paleoproterozoiciron ranges of northern Michigan, USA
A layer of breccia that contains fragments of impact ejecta has been found at 10 sites in the Paleoproterozoic iron ranges of northern Michigan, in the Lake Superior region of the United States. Radiometric age constraints from events predating and postdating deposition of the breccia are ca. 1875 Ma and 1830 Ma. The major bolide impact that occurred at 1850 Ma at Sudbury, Ontario, 500...
Authors
W.F. Cannon, K. J. Schulz, J. Wright Horton, David A. King
Petrographic and geochemical comparisons between the lower crystalline basement-derived section and the granite megablock and amphibolite megablock of the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA Petrographic and geochemical comparisons between the lower crystalline basement-derived section and the granite megablock and amphibolite megablock of the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, USA
The Eyreville B core from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA, contains a lower basement-derived section (1551.19 m to 1766.32 m deep) and two megablocks of dominantly (1) amphibolite (1376.38 m to 1389.35 m deep) and (2) granite (1095.74 m to 1371.11 m deep), which are separated by an impactite succession. Metasedimentary rocks (muscovite-quartz-plagioclase-biotite...
Authors
Gabrielle N. Townsend, Roger L. Gibson, J. Wright Horton, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Ralf T. Schmitt, Katerina Bartosova
Silicate glasses and sulfide melts in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA Silicate glasses and sulfide melts in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, Virginia, USA
Optical and electron-beam petrography of melt-rich suevite and melt-rock clasts from selected samples from the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure, reveal a variety of silicate glasses and coexisting sulfur-rich melts, now quenched to various sulfi de minerals (??iron). The glasses show a wide variety of textures, fl ow banding, compositions, devitrifi cation, and hydration...
Authors
H. E. Belkin, J. Wright Horton
High-resolution seismic-reflection images across the ICDP-USGS Eyreville deep drilling site, Chesapeake Bay impact structure High-resolution seismic-reflection images across the ICDP-USGS Eyreville deep drilling site, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) acquired two 1.4-km-long, high-resolution (~5 m vertical resolution) seismic-reflection lines in 2006 that cross near the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)–USGS Eyreville deep drilling site located above the late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure in Virginia, USA. Five-meter spacing of seismic sources and geophones...
Authors
David S. Powars, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark R. Goldman, Gregory Gohn, J. Wright Horton,, Lucy E. Edwards, Michael J. Rymer, G. Gandhok
Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes Microbial abundance in the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Relationship to lithology and impact processes
Asteroid and comet impact events are known to cause profound disruption to surface ecosystems. The aseptic collection of samples throughout a 1.76-km-deep set of cores recovered from the deep subsurface of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure has allowed the study of the subsurface biosphere in a region disrupted by an impactor. Microbiological enumerations suggest the presence of three...
Authors
Charles S. Cockell, Aaron L. Gronstal, Mary A. Voytek, Julie D. Kirshtein, Kai Finster, Ward E. Sanford, Mihaela Glamoclija, Gregroy S. Gohn, David S. Powars, J. Wright Horton
Pre-impact tectonothermal evolution of the crystalline basement-derived rocks in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure Pre-impact tectonothermal evolution of the crystalline basement-derived rocks in the ICDP-USGS Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
Pre-impact crystalline rocks of the lowermost 215 m of the Eyreville B drill core from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure consist of a sequence of pelitic mica schists with subsidiary metagraywackes or felsic metavolcanic rocks, amphibolite, and calc-silicate rock that is intruded by muscovite (??biotite, garnet) granite and granite pegmatite. The schists are commonly graphitic and...
Authors
R.L. Gibson, G.N. Townsend, J. Wright Horton, W.U. Reimold
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government