March 2024 In-Person/Virtual Meeting

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Monday, March 11, 2024
6:00 - 7:30 pm

For those attending in-person this meeting will be held at the following location:
Pellissippi State Community College
Ned R. McWherter Technology Building, Room 126

Note: ETGS members participating virtually will receive an email with info for attending/logging into the meeting.

 

March 2024 Presentation

Geologic mapping, whole rock geochemistry, and U-Pb zircon geochronology for terrane characterization and source-to-sink critical mineral framework studies, southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina
 

By

Mark Carter, PG, CPG, USGS Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
 

Abstract

Geologic mapping staff and students from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Virginia and North Carolina state geological surveys, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, are collaboratively collecting bedrock and surficial data in the eastern Piedmont and uppermost coastal plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Leveraging USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program FEDMAP, STATEMAP and EDMAP components, and USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) resources, the primary goals of this work are to: 1) construct a seamless geologic map across the Virginia-North Carolina State Boundary for the USGS National Geologic Map Synthesis; 2) define and characterize accreted terranes in the easternmost Piedmont; and 3) combine our new bedrock framework studies with concurrent stratigraphic and mineralogic analyses of critical heavy mineral deposits in the adjacent uppermost Atlantic Coastal Plain to evaluate existing or develop new source-to-sink models.

Prior to this work, the best available published mapping in this data-poor region included 1:500,000-scale geologic maps of Virginia and North Carolina, which do not edge match along the state line, and several outdated small-scale regional compilations. We augment detailed and reconnaissance bedrock mapping with high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric data acquired by Earth MRI, whole-rock geochemical analyses, and sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe-reverse geometry (SHRIMP-RG) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U-Pb zircon geochronology for primary and detrital zircons of mapped units. In the uppermost coastal plain, our team recently collected core from an unmined part of the Old Hickory heavy mineral sand deposit near Cherry Hill, Dinwiddie County, Virginia to define and date the stratigraphy using cosmogenic nuclides, characterize sedimentary facies and mineralogy of the deposit, and determine its provenance using detrital zircon geochronology.

Biography
 

Mark W. Carter has been a professional geologist since 1996. Mark's expertise is geologic mapping throughout the southern Appalachian crystalline core. He has produced geologic maps and reports in three states (Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia) and from four geologic provinces (Valley and Ridge, Blue Ridge, Piedmont, Coastal Plain). As a USGS Research Geologist, he is currently co-project chief of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program Piedmont and Blue Ridge Project. Mark is mapping in southeastern Virginia for critical mineral framework studies, and in northwestern North Carolina for earthquake hazards.

Greetings, and welcome to the March 11, 2024 ETGS hybrid meeting.
 

If you attend via Zoom as a courtesy please mute your cell phone or the microphone in your laptop/tablet to minimize background noise and feedback echos. We will also make an effort to mute all participants - at least until the presentation is finished. Please use the chat feature to type any comments or questions you may have. We recommend that you send questions for the speaker to "everyone" so all participants can see the question. In the interest of time, we may hold the Q&A at the end of the presentation.

We will create an in-person and virtual attendance list. It is not always possible to tell who is participating on-line, especially for those joining by phone, so please email etgs@live.com to be listed on the attendance sheet. Let us know exactly how your name should appear on the list. We will add a note explaining the lack of signatures due to remote participation and have an ETGS officer sign as usual.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we try this online format. As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

 

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