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.
Biography
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
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
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
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 Organizations
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
Citations
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=i7_ZB7gAAAAJ
Science and Products
Preliminary tectonostratigraphic terrane map of the central and southern Appalachians
Horton, J. Wright; Drake, Avery A.; Rankin, D.W.; Dallmeyer, R.D.
E-4 Central Kentucky to the Carolina Trough
E-4 is one of eight Geodynamics transects that cross the Atlantic margin of North America between Georgia and Newfoundland. Five of the transects are in the United States and three are in Canada. Transect E-4, which is 110 km wide and more than 1,100 km long, extends from the stable North American craton just west of the Grenville front near...
Rankin, Douglas W.; Dillon, William P.; Black, D.F.B.; Boyer, S.E.; Daniels, David L.; Goldsmith, R.; Grow, J.A.; Horton, J. Wright; Hutchinson, Deborah R.; Klitgord, Kim D.; McDowell, R.C.; Milton, D.J.; Owens, J.P.; Phillips, Jeffrey D.; Bayer, K.C.; Butler, John R.; Elliott, D.W.; Milici, Robert C.
Geologic map of the Greenville 1 degrees by 2 degrees Quadrangle, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina
Nelson, Arthur E.; Horton, J. Wright; Clarke, James W. Tectonostratigraphic terranes and their Paleozoic boundaries in the central and southern Appalachians
Parts of the central and southern Appalachian orogen appear to have evolved away from Proterozoic North America (Laurentia) and to have been accreted to it during the Paleozoic orogenies that collectively formed the orogen. Identifying each tectonostratigraphic terrane is a necessary step in...
Horton, J. Wright; Drake, A.A.; Rankin, D.W. Preface
No abstract available.
Horton, J. Wright Mélanges and olistostromes in the Appalachians of the United States and mainland Canada; An assessment
There is no completely accepted definition of a mélange, and the papers in this volume reflect this fact. In our regional assessment, the term mélange is principally used for a technically fragmented and mixed body of rock. A different term, olistostrome, is used for a chaotic and mixed rock body that formed by sedimentary processes such as...
Rast, Nicholas; Horton, J. Wright Melanges Olistostromes of the U.S. Appalachians
No abstract available.
Horton, J. Wright; Rast, Nicholas Structure and tectonostratigraphy of the eastern Blue Ridge and western Piedmont
No abstract available
Nelson, A.E.; Horton, J. Wright
Geologic map of the Charlotte 1 degree by 2 degrees Quadrangle, North Carolina and South Carolina
Goldsmith, Richard; Milton, D.J.; Horton, J.W.
Generalized tectonic map of the Greenville 1 degree by 2 degrees Quadrangle, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina
Nelson, A.E.; Horton, J.W.; Clarke, J.W. Mineral resource potential for lithium, kyanite-sillimanite, and barite in the Charlotte 1 degree by 2 degrees Quadrangle, North Carolina and South Carolina
Horton, J. Wright Alleghanian deformation, metamorphism, and granite emplacement in the central Piedmont of the southern Appalachians
Evidence of late Paleozoic (Alleghanian) penetrative deformation, amphilbolite-facies, metamorphism, and syntectonic granite emplacement has been found in an area of the central Piedmont in the southern Appalachians. The High Shoals Granite batholith in the Kings Mountain belt of south-central North Carolina consists of coarse-grained, megacrystic...
Horton, J. Wright; Sutter, J.F.; Stern, T.W.; Milton, D.J.