University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Doi
Abstract
Thrust faults related to the orogenic events that formed the Appalachians dominate the Blue Ridge province in western North Carolina, but no clear extensional faults have beenidentified. We discovered the first documented pre-Alleghanian normal fault within the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge, the Grassy Creek fault (GCf). The GCf may be associated with synorogenic or pre-collisional extension and may also explain the exhumation of an eclogite facies terrane within the Ashe Metamorphic Suite.A set of topographic lineaments in western North Carolina cut the Paleozoic structures and do not correspond with the well-documented geologic history of the southern Appalachians. One of these lineaments corresponds to the Boone fault, which likely accommodates Miocene uplift of the southern Appalachians. We performed fracture and paleostress analyses along lineaments north of the Boone fault, which indicate that they are likely fracture controlled and related to the same deformation event responsible for the Boone fault.Master of Scienc
