Integrating Structural and Stratigraphic Field Data to Build a Tectonic Model for the Mid-Atlantic Appalachian Orogenic Cycle

Abstract The chapter describes a semester-long project that explores how stratigraphic, structural, and tectonic principles have produced the regional geology of western Virginia and eastern West Virginia. During four all-day field trips, upper-level geoscience majors visit outcrops along two transects running from the Blue Ridge Province in the east, across the Valley and Ridge province, to the Allegheny Front in the west. On each field trip, students work in two or three person teams to collect stratigraphic and structural data that provide information about regional Appalachian tectonics. Students use this field data to draft cross-sections that highlight plutonic, volcanic, metamorphic, and in particular the stratigraphic sequence and structural deformation that characterize the tectonic history of the Mid-Atlantic region over the past billion years. Example cross-section and outcrop-scale exercises highlight specific components of the project. Students complete the project with a tectonic synthesis of the region that interprets depositional and deformation features within the context of theoretical models.