10 May 2013
Friday fold: New Market / Lincolnshire formation contact, Staunton, Virginia
Posted by Callan Bentley
Happy Friday! Here’s a view of the folded contact between the (older, lower) New Market Formation, and the (younger, upper) Lincolnshire Formation, as exposed in Staunton, Virginia:
The contact has been folded, pretty intensely:
The New Market Formation is massive, light-colored, and exhibits fenestral texture here. The Lincolnshire is darker, more thinly-bedded, and is chock full of fossil invertebrates.
Explore it for yourself in this M.A.G.I.C. GigaPan:
A closer look at the folds is next…
And now, some close-ups showing the fossils in the Lincolnshire Formation:
Mostly bryozoans, as far as I can tell…
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.