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Transition from alluvial to deep-water sedimentation in the lower Lynchburg Group (Upper Proterozoic), Virginia

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Basement Tectonics 8

Part of the book series: Proceedings of the International Conferences on Basement Tectonics ((ICBT,volume 2))

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Abstract

Two distinct assemblages of Upper Proterozoic rift-related metamorphic rocks can be delineated in the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge: (1) areally discontinuous, alluvial and shallow-water clastic and volcanic deposits to the north and west; and (2) a more continuous belt of deep-water clastic, mafic and ultramafic rocks to the south and east. An apparently conformable transition between these two assemblages is preserved in the lower Lynchburg Group in central Virginia.

The lower Lynchburg Group is composed of three lithostratigraphic units: (1)a basal unit of very coarsegrained, cross-stratified feldspathic arenite; (2) a middle unit of fine- to very fine-grained, thin-bedded sandstone and laminated argillite; and (3) an upper unit of very coarse-grained, thick-bedded to massive feldspathic sandstone, pebbly sandstone, and dark argillite. The lower Lynchburg Group is interpreted as a retrogradational succession of braided-alluvial through delta-front and slope into deep-water fan deposits. The vertical arrangement and the thick succession of deep-water deposits preserved in the upper unit and above suggest accumulation near the margin of a rapidly subsiding rift basin.

The transition preserved in these rift deposits may have been controlled by a crustal hinge zone, separating slightly thinned continental crust to the north and west from highly thinned crust to the south and east. However, there is no evidence in the northern and central Virginia Blue Ridge for oceanic crust formation during Late Proterozoic extension. The rift succession in this area therefore appears to be para-authochthonous with respect to North America.

Publication of the Orogenic Studies Laboratory, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

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  1. Exxon Production Research Company, P.O. Box 2189, Houston, Texas, 77001, USA

    Frederick Wehr

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  1. Frederick Wehr
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Sciences and Resources Institute, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Mervin J. Bartholomew

  2. Department of Geology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Donald W. Hyndman

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA

    David W. Mogk

  4. Department of Geological Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Robert Mason

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Wehr, F. (1992). Transition from alluvial to deep-water sedimentation in the lower Lynchburg Group (Upper Proterozoic), Virginia. In: Bartholomew, M.J., Hyndman, D.W., Mogk, D.W., Mason, R. (eds) Basement Tectonics 8. Proceedings of the International Conferences on Basement Tectonics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1614-5_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1614-5_28

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