4 June 2014
Faults in the Tonoloway Formation, Corridor H
Posted by Callan Bentley
Here’s something fun:
Click to enlarge
Those strata are Silurian-aged Tonoloway Formation carbonates. There are plenty of dessication cracks to be seen, as well as salt casts, among the layers exposed. But more eye-catching at this distance is the faulting that disrupts the high-contrast layers…
Both (apparent) normal and reverse faults can be seen in this road cut. Exciting stuff!
We visited it two weeks ago on “Border to Beltway’s” penultimate field day.
Alan Pitts GigaPanned this outcrop two years ago, if you’d like to explore it on your own:
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.