Transect Trip 4: Protomylonite

Multiple anastomosing high strain zones cut through the Blue Ridge basement complex during Paleozoic mountain-building. Ar/Ar cooling ages on muscovite here are 320-340 Ma.

Transect Trip 3: Fresh charnockite

Charnockites are orthopyroxene-bearing granitoids, common in the core of the Blue Ridge Anticlinorium:

Transect Trip 2: charnockite boulders

With a distinctive orange weathering rind:

Transect Trip 1: map talk

Live geoblogging my post-NE/SE GSA field trip: Bill Burton and Chuck Bailey prep the group with a discussion of map patterns in the Blue Ridge…