GEOS Field Trip - Geology of the Appalachian Mts, MD & WV
Outcrop-scale fold in the Keefer Sandstone near Franklin, WV
April 24, 2014
Prof. Fred Soster and Prof. Scott Wilkerson (along with Prof. Tim Cope) led a departmental field trip on April 24-27, 2014 to study classic outcrops in the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and West Virginia. Specifically, the group visited the Forsythe Quarry near Williamsport, MD to study the deformed carbonates of the overturned forelimb of the South Mountain Anticline. They also visited the classic folded and faulted exposures at Roundtop, Sideling Hill, Cumberland, and Pinto, MD. The group then traveled south to the Franklin, WV area to study the sedimentological and stratigraphic expression of the Taconic and Acadian Orogenies that had been deformed & uplifted during the Alleghanian Orogeny. Along the way, they studied the geomorphic/topographic expressions of wind/water gaps, flatirons, and plunging folds. The trip wrapped up with a transect through the Smoke Holes, WV recreational area to view deformation on the eastern flank of the Wills Mountain Anticline.