29 August 2015

Mystery structure: please help identify / interpret

Posted by Callan Bentley

I have a mystery for you today:

IMG_3516

IMG_3519

IMG_3520

These are samples of Tonoloway Formation carbonate (not sure if it’s limestone or dolostone in retrospect), with bedding more or less horizontal in these images, and a few petite stylolites running orthogonal to that. The top sample has a gentle fold 2/5ths of the way across. All of the samples are from the same site in West Virginia, along Corridor H.

I’m wondering about the closely-spaced vertical (bedding-perpendicular) lines. Have any of my readers observed these before? What are they? How do they form?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can share.