12 December 2012
Fault in the Boulder Batholith
Posted by Callan
Last week, we took a closer look at the xenoliths (MME’s?) in the Boulder Batholith. Here is a look at a fracture, perhaps a small fault, in that same outcrop.
There are no marker units by which we could detect offset here, so we can’t say for sure it’s a fault. But definitely weathering has been strongly enchanced along the trace of this planar feature.
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.
james lemann said on 12 December 2012
I have found that some of the faults on earth may have been caused by some type of wave from a supernova that hit earth sometime around 250 million years ago. What would you say is the age of this structure?
Callan said on 12 December 2012
Hi James,
The Boulder Batholith is Cretaceous in age, like all the major western North American batholiths. So this fracture / putative fault must be younger than that.
When you say “I have found that,” do you mean “I have heard that,” or “I have concluded that”? I’m a little confused – since I can’t for the life of me figure out how a supernova triggers faulting in rocks in another solar system (or perhaps another galaxy). Maybe you could explain your logic (or the logic of whoever told you this idea) about supernovae being capable of making faults.
Callan