15 November 2012
Posted by Callan
Quartzite, shattered and healed and shattered again and again and again. It’s cataclasite, seen in the North Carolina Piedmont and inferred to be Mesozoic in age due to its brittle style of deformation.
Callan Bentley is an assistant professor of geology at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia. He is particularly interested in structural geology and the evolution of the Appalachian mountain belt. Callan draws cartoons and writes for EARTH magazine. He lives in the Fort Valley of Virginia.
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Matt Kuchta said on 15 November 2012
such a fun name – am I right in assuming the name shares the same etymology as “cataclysm?” And nice Emriver mech pencil for scale
Lockwood said on 15 November 2012
That “cata” prefix is a fun one… catalyst is another eg. And “clast” means “broken.”
Is the quartzite or deformation Mesozoic?
Callan said on 16 November 2012
The deformation is Mesozoic. I’m not sure of the age of the quartzite – could be a Mesozoic vein, or a metasedimentary unit that is part of the Neoacadian story.