The Crabtree Creek pluton: A deformed Mid-Paleozoic( ) stitching pluton on the west flank of the Raleigh metamorphic belt
- Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC (United States). Dept. of Earth Sciences
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States). Dept. of MEAS
Crystalline rocks on the west flank of the Alleghanian-aged Raleigh metamorphic belt are subdivided into four west-dipping lithotectonic terranes in the Falls Lake and north Raleigh areas. The rocks of these terranes are separated from east to west on the basis of bulk rock composition, metamorphic textural characteristics, and discrete structural discontinuities into the Raleigh terrane (RT), Crabtree terrane (CT), Falls Lake melange (FLM), and the volcanogenic Carolina slate belt (CSB). The RT and CT are separated by the dextral shear Nutbush Creek fault zone, while the Falls Lake thrust juxtaposes the CT and FLM. The structural character of the discontinuity separating the FLM and the CSB is unclear, although thrusting has been proposed. The results of geologic mapping in the Raleigh West 7.5[prime] quadrangle for the NC Geological Survey's COGEOMAP project in the Raleigh 1[degree] sheet indicate that only the CSB and CT are exposed west of I-440 between US 70 and I-40. This confirms the mapping results of Horton and others that the melange pinches out in north Raleigh just north of US 70. South of US 70, a large orthogneiss body, the Crabtree Creek composite granitic pluton, occupies the same relative position as the melange, separating mafic and intermediate metavolcanic rocks of the CSB from nonlineated and lineated interlayered schists and gneisses of the CT. The pluton is subdivided into a foliated leucocratic, medium grained muscovite granitic orthogneiss, and a foliated leucocratic to mesocratic medium to coarse grained muscovite [plus minus] biotite granitic orthogneiss containing abundant porphyroclastic disks, rods, and knobs of quartz. Because its lobes locally display intrusive contacts with metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of both terranes, the Crabtree Creek pluton represents an intrusion that stitched the two terranes together.
- OSTI ID:
- 6120738
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9304188-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:4; Conference: 42. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) Southeastern Section meeting, Tallahassee, FL (United States), 1-2 Apr 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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