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Mark W Carter

Mark W. Carter is a Research Geologist at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center.

Mark Wayne Carter has been a professional geologist for 22 years.  After an education at Old Dominion University (B.S.) and University of Tennessee, Knoxville (M.S.), Mark began his career in 1996 with the North Carolina Geological Survey in Asheville, mapping throughout the Blue Ridge and parts of the Chauga belt in western North Carolina.  In 2004, Mark moved to the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources in Charlottesville, expanding his mapping experience with several projects in the eastern Piedmont and inner Coastal Plain provinces near Richmond, as well as in the Virginia Blue Ridge.  Mark came on board with the US Geological Survey in 2009 as a team member of the Eastern Geology and Paleoclimate Science Center, Appalachian Blue Ridge Project, mapping along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.  In 2011, Mark served as local USGS coordinator for USGS response following the Mineral, Virginia earthquake, and has been Project Chief for the USGS National Cooperative Mapping Program project "Geologic Framework for Seismic Hazards in Central Virginia and eastern US: Targeted Geologic Mapping and Synthesis" since 2014 and is transitioning in 2018 to mapping in the eastern Piedmont in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina for critical minerals and aggregate resources.  

Science and Products

Filter Total Items: 20

Implementation plan of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program strategy — Appalachian Piedmont and Blue Ridge Provinces

The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program is publishing a strategic plan titled “Renewing the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program as the Nation’s Authoritative Source for Modern Geologic Knowledge.” The plan provides a vision, mission, and goals for the program for the years 2020–30:Vision: create an integrated, three-dimensional, digital geologic map of the United States.Mission
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Preliminary geologic map of the Cherry Hill quadrangle, Dinwiddie, Sussex, and Greensville Counties, Virginia

The Cherry Hill 7.5-minute quadrangle straddles the Coastal Plain and Piedmont Provinces along the Tidewater Fall Line. Rocks of the eastern Piedmont Roanoke Rapids terrane crop out in the western part of the quadrangle and consist of greenschist- to amphibolite-facies Neoproterozoic felsic to intermediate metavolcanic rocks, some of which contain flattened quartz phenocrysts and are locally isocl
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Stop 3 – The Petersburg “Granite” redefined: Recognition and implications of Silurian to Devonian rocks in central-eastern Virginia

Introduction Although the Petersburg Granite had long been in practical use as a building stone since the 1830s (Watson, 1906; 1907; 1910; Darton, 1911; Steidtmann, 1945), it was first formally defined as a geologic unit by Anna Jonas on the 1928 geologic map of Virginia. Anna Jonas defined this unit as a Precambrian coarse-grained porphyritic biotite granite that was intruded by finer grained gra
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

The liquefaction record of past earthquakes in the Central Virginia Seismic Zone, Eastern United States

Following the 2011 moment magnitude, MM 5.7 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, we conducted a search for paleoliquefaction features and found 41 sand dikes, sand sills, and soft‐sediment deformation features at 24 sites exposed in cutbanks along several rivers: (1) the South Anna River, where paleoliquefaction features were found in the epicentral area of the Mineral earthquake and farther downstream
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

River terrace evidence of tectonic processes in the eastern North American plate interior, South Anna River, Virginia

We show that long-recognized seismicity in the central Virginia seismic zone of the eastern North American intraplate setting arises primarily from tectonic processes predicted by new, fully coupled plate tectonic geodynamic models. The study leverages much new geophysical and geologic data following the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake that ruptured a steeply dipping, northwest-verging reverse
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Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Foreward: Geology Field Trips in and around the U.S. Capital

The first annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) was held in 1888 in Ithaca, New York (Fairchild, 1932), but official Sections of GSA formed much later. During the spring of 1949, a symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee, on mineral resources of the southeastern United States became the catalyst for the creation of the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America (King,
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Geochronologic age constraints on tectonostratigraphic units of the central Virginia Piedmont, USA

New geologic mapping coupled with uranium-lead (U-Pb) zircon geochronology (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe-reverse geometry [SHRIMP-RG] and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry [LA-ICP-MS]) analyses of 10 samples, provides new constraints on the tectonostratigraphic framework of the central Virginia Piedmont. Detrital zircon analysis confirms that the Silurian-Devo

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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Bascom ARgon Dating (BARD) Laboratory

Paleoliquefaction field reconnaissance in eastern North Carolina—Is there evidence for large magnitude earthquakes between the central Virginia seismic zone and Charleston seismic zone?

In June 2016, approximately 64 kilometers (km) of riverbank were examined along the Tar and Neuse Rivers near Tarboro and Kinston, North Carolina, for evidence of liquefaction-forming earthquakes. The study area is in the vicinity of the Grainger’s fault zone in eastern North Carolina. The Grainger’s fault zone is a fault zone in the inner Coastal Plain Province that has well-documented Paleogene
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Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Geology of the Cornwall Quadrangle, Virginia

No abstract available. 
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

The Appalachian Geo-STEM Camp: Learning about geology through experiential adventure recreation

The inaugural Appalachian Geo-STEM Camp (AGC) was a partnership between West Virginia University (WVU), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES). Designed to engage high school students in geoscience-oriented Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) activities through adventure-based outdoor recreation, the inaugural AGC took pl
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Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Geology of the Mineral and Lake Anna West Quadrangles, Virginia

This map product is a cooperator series publication and, as such, does not have a specific abstract. Geologic mapping for this map product was completed between 2014 and 2017, with most of the field work occurring between January 2016 and May 2017. Numerous foot traverses were completed along creeks and roads throughout the field area; the shore of Lake Anna was accessed by kayak to provide addit
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Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

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 highest hilltops. Near the community of Midlothian
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
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Image of the Blue Ridge taken from the top of Stone Mountain

Piedmont and Blue Ridge Project

The Piedmont and Blue Ridge Project is a geologic mapping project supported by the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program. The Piedmont Blue Ridge Project aims to understand the geologic framework and tectonic evolution of terranes and basins in the Appalachian Piedmont and Blue Ridge, and their significance for water, mineral and energy resources, natural hazards, and engineering...
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
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Piedmont and Blue Ridge Project

The Piedmont and Blue Ridge Project is a geologic mapping project supported by the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program. The Piedmont Blue Ridge Project aims to understand the geologic framework and tectonic evolution of terranes and basins in the Appalachian Piedmont and Blue Ridge, and their significance for water, mineral and energy resources, natural hazards, and engineering...
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Graphite schist from the Roanoke Rapids terrane in southeastern Virginia.

Piedmont Geology Along the Southeastern Fall Zone, Virginia and North Carolina

This task within the USGS NCGMP Piedmont-Blue Ridge Project aims to fill the void in geologic map coverage along the Fall Zone in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, and forge strong cooperative ties within the NCGMP by combining resources across all three Program components by supporting DMME and NCGS STATEMAP and UNC–W EDMAP components with targeted geologic mapping and...
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Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
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Piedmont Geology Along the Southeastern Fall Zone, Virginia and North Carolina

This task within the USGS NCGMP Piedmont-Blue Ridge Project aims to fill the void in geologic map coverage along the Fall Zone in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, and forge strong cooperative ties within the NCGMP by combining resources across all three Program components by supporting DMME and NCGS STATEMAP and UNC–W EDMAP components with targeted geologic mapping and...
Learn More
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Location of the epicenter of the 23 August 2011 earthquake in Louisa County in relation to major metropolitan center locations

Geologic Framework for Seismic Hazards in Central Virginia

The Central Virginia seismic zone (CVSZ) comprises an area of ~13,000 km2 in the central Virginia Piedmont; seismicity in this zone is relatively frequent, but generally mild in magnitude. The August 2011 event was the largest temblor recorded in the CVSZ since the development of modern seismic monitoring and highlighted how little we actually know about the CVSZ, including: 1) the regional...
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Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
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Geologic Framework for Seismic Hazards in Central Virginia

The Central Virginia seismic zone (CVSZ) comprises an area of ~13,000 km2 in the central Virginia Piedmont; seismicity in this zone is relatively frequent, but generally mild in magnitude. The August 2011 event was the largest temblor recorded in the CVSZ since the development of modern seismic monitoring and highlighted how little we actually know about the CVSZ, including: 1) the regional...
Learn More

GIS and Data Tables for Focus Areas for Potential Domestic Nonfuel Sources of Rare Earth Elements

In response to Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) coordinated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to identify 35 nonfuel minerals or mineral materials considered critical to the economic and national security of the United States (U.S.). Acquiring information on possible domestic sources of these critical minerals is the basis of the USGS Earth Mappi
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

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