Potential stratigraphic and paleontologic research on basement cover rocks in the Appalachian deep hole

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6876406

Finney, S C; Bergstrom, S M; Harris, A; Jacobson, S R

If the thin-skinned thrusting hypothesis is valid, the Southern Appalachians deep hole will penetrate Cambro-Ordovician cover rocks on the lower plate at 5-8 km depth. Stratigraphic and paleontologic studies on cores and cuttings of these cover rocks will allow the deep hole succession to be correlated with the well-known Valley-and-Ridge Cambro-Ordovician succession to the west. Of utmost significance, however, is the fact that paleontologic evidence may be the definite proof that the drill hole has penetrated the cover rocks of the lower plate, thus verifying the thin-skinned thrusting hypothesis. It has been suggested that the cover rocks are an eastward extension of the Valley-and-Ridge Cambro-Ordovician sequence, the upper part of which is dominated by carbonates, shales, and turbidites in which graptolites conodonts, and chitinozoans are common and have been studied by the authors. The depth and duration of the burial of the cover rocks are likely to have caused some metamorphism of the fossils but identifiable specimens might have been preserved as they are beneath obducted ophiolites in Newfoundland, in the cores of the Ouachitas, and in metamorphosed areas of the European Caledonides. Biostratigraphy will date cover rocks sedimentological and tectonic events, and conodonts and acritarchs may provide useful paleotemperature and maturation data. Microfossils may be obtained from cuttings but cores must be taken for graptolite studies and for obtaining large microfossil samples with good dept control and minimal contamination.

• Research Organization: Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6876406
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Journal Information: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
AGE ESTIMATION
GEOTHERMOMETRY
PALEONTOLOGY
STRATIGRAPHY
CAMBRIAN PERIOD
CORRELATIONS
DRILL CORES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD
PLATE TECTONICS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MOUNTAINS
PALEOZOIC ERA
ROCKS
TECTONICS
580100* - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)
580201 - Geophysics- Seismology & Tectonics- (1980-1989)