I solve boundary-value problems for an idealized thrust block moving over a detachment surface and ramp, and produce theoretical bed-duplication folds in the thrust block that closely resemble the Powell Valley anticline in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The anticline is narrow and rounded if the translation is small, and broad and flat-topped if the translation is large. The limbs of the anticline are symmetric if drag is zero. Drag along the ramp part of the detachment surface can explain the asymmetry of dips of the two limbs of the Powell Valley anticline, particularly if drag between relatively competent rocks in opposition at the ramp causes an initial anticline to form as the thrust block begins to move, and then drag reduces markedly as relatively soft shales at the base of the block were thrust over competent rocks in the ramp.
Roots of white ash have a better configuration than roots of sugar maple for anchoring shallow colluvium against landsliding on hillslopes along the Ohio River and its tributaries in southwestern Ohio. The landslides are in a shallow layer of colluvium, about one meter thick, overlying shale and limestone bedrock. The sliding hillsides range in slope angle from 16 to 36 degrees and the roots which penetrate shear surfaces are anchored in the weathered bedrock and help to hold landmasses in place. The hillsides are covered by a mesophytic forest, locally known as a ravine community, dominated by white ash, sugar maple and sweet buckeye. Sugar maple is the most common species on the landslides; its roots do not penetrate the soil as deeply as the roots of the white ash.
The Aspen Grove landslide, central Utah, occurred in older landslide debris. The debris is about 6-15 meters thick, and consists of medium- to high-plasticity clays and silty clays. Persistent landslide structures, including toes, hollows, and flank ridges, outline dimly preserved landslide masses in the older debris.
Stylolites in twelve stratigraphic sections of the Salem Limestone, distributed throughout the Illinois Basin, provide clues to their origin and development. Chemical and X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that stylolite seam material contains organic matter and clay minerals too sparse or absent in the host limestone to be considered solely as insoluble residue. Stylolite distribution in various lithofacies suggests that stylolites develop along thin sedimentary layers rich in organic matter and clay minerals. Stylolite density (vertical distribution) mimics the distribution of organic-rich sedimentary layers: sparse but thick in grainstone, and abundant but thin in packstone and wackestone. Many stylolites grade laterally into organic-rich layers, or hummocky seams. Thicknesses of stylolite caps and hummocky seams are approximately equal in the same host rock, but hummocky seams tend to be more laterally continuous. Stylolite density in packstone increases with burial depth, whereas hummocky seam density decreases. Hummocky seam thickness does not change with depth. Stylolite column height in grainstone, which is sparse in hummocky seams, increases with depth, whereas stylolite density does not increase. This list of observations supports the hypothesis that stylolites develop along pre-existing, organic-rich layers, or hummocky seams, rather than nucleating in pure host rock and creating organic-rich seams as accumulations of insoluble residue. Volumetric calculations indicate that the contribution of stylolites to pore-filling cement is 5 to 25 percent throughout the Illinois Basin.
Cambrian sedimentation of the Rome trough in eastern Kentucky was studied using 85 wells supplemented by available cuttings and cores. Most conclusions are based on cross sections, isopach and structure maps, and the environmental interpretation of geophysical logs. Thin section petrology played a supplementary role.
Organic carbon (C) and sulfide sulfur (S) contents of host rocks and ore bodies selected from four manganese carbonate deposits were tested and plots of carbon against sulfur of the type proposed by Berner were used to distinguish depositional environments.
Detailed mineralogic and chemical analyses of well cuttings of Tertiary sediments from two wells, Uruan-1 and Uda-1, on the eastern flank of the Niger delta, have been made in an attempt to investigate clay mineral burial diagenesis.
Stratigraphic, sedimentologic and petrographic studies of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous in northwest Sonora show that deposition of the Bisbee Group occurred at the northern margin of a back-arc marine basin, and of the El Chanate Group and El Charro volcanic complex in a closed continental foreland basin. This study also finds that the Proterozoic-Paleozoic formations in northwest Sonora (Caborca terrane) were not part of the Cretaceous landscape, thus raising doubts about the existence of the Mojave-Sonora megashear.
The depositional style, biostratigraphy and burial history of the Late Early Pliocene, Moruga Group were studied in outcrop and the subsurface, along the south coast of Trinidad to determine its depositional environments, sediment sources, geologic age, and diagenetic history.
Slaty cleavage exposed in the fine-grained metasediments of western Ocoee Gorge, Tennessee is characterized by zones enriched in cleavage-parrallel white mica (P domains), alternating with zones enriched in quartz and feldspar and in which phyllosilicates are bedding-parallel (Q domains). This domainal fabric appears to develop by growth of new mica from mica components carried in a moving fluid. Solid state recrystallization of clays and mica may also have contributed to the development of the fabric, but little, if any, mechanical rotation or passive concentration of mica grains occurred. Both P domain morphology and mineralogical differences between P and Q domain phyllosilicate populations suggest that nucleation and growth of P domains may involve the expulsion of fluids, during diagenesis and low-grade metamorphism.