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23 March 2012
Friday fold: a tortured tempestite
Hand sample of folded limestone strata in West Virginia (presumably Devonian in age). Note the rip-up clasts and large grain size at the base of the sample (to the right in the photo). Note the fine-grained, thin-bedded shale laminations towards the top (left) of the sample, too. Together, they tell a story of decreasing energy in the environment of deposition: maybe an ancient storm deposit (a “tempestite,” one of the …