12 November 2021
Friday fold: Raven’s Ridge
Posted by Callan Bentley
Happy Friday, all! Two shots today from my friend Joe up in Vermont. He sends these from the Champlain Valley, at a place called Raven’s Ridge.
It looks like an alternating series of sandstones and shales, arched into an anticline, perhaps during the Acadian Orogeny (??). According to the Nature Conservancy’s website, porcupines live in this anticline, which is called “The Oven.” Looks like most of the strata around there are Cambrian in age. If anyone knows more, please clue me in!
A lovely outcrop – thanks for sharing, Joe!
If you have a fold to share for next Friday, beam me a note at [email protected].
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.
I’ve taught a structure lab there.
I don’t know what unit it is, but based on where it is, it’s Cambrian or Ordovician. It’s sandstone and shale, with a limier sandstone further down the hill/stratigraphically beneath it. The folds are Taconian, somewhere structurally above the Champlain thrust.
And yes, porcupines live there.
Yay !
The AGUniverse is back in sync. I’ve been clicking every week looking for a Friday Fold !
Living in Sydney Sandstone, and being under Delta wave public health orders until a couple of weeks ago, the closest I get to folds is crossbedding in the many cuttings and cliffs !
I love this- but personally think we might have to consider renaming it Badger ridge….
Cheers, Carol