ANATOMY OF SELECT FLUVIAL DEPOSITS IN THE MAUCH CHUNK GROUP, SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, USA

1 online resource (134 pages) : PDF

2017

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The Mauch Chunk Group has been interpreted as a product of multiple transgressions and regressions (Miller and Eriksson, 2000; Beuthin and Blake, 2004). An outcrop containing the upper Hinton Formation and Princeton Formation, the middle two formations of the Mauch Chunk Group, occurs along US-460 in Princeton, West Virginia, 2.6 kilometers east of the Interstate 77 Princeton exit. In order to understand the sedimentology and depositional history at those outcrops, sedimentologic logs were compiled, facies were identified and bundled into facies associations, photographic panoramas with line drawing overlays were constructed, and rock samples were taken. From the logged sections and facies architecture, a depositional history was interpreted. That history was supplemented with a provenance study where the samples were analyzed with a scanning electron microprobe to document oxide weight percentages. The upper Hinton Formation and the Princeton Formation were deposited through a combination of autocyclic and allocyclic processes. The mineralogy does not conclusively tie the sandstone deposits to the same source; however, mineral identifications did indicate the provenance to be an area with both igneous and metamorphic rocks. The presence of growth faulting indicates that the location of the cross-bedded sandstone that comprises the Princeton Formation at the US-460 outcrop may have been influenced by syn-depositional tectonism.

masters theses

Environmental geology

M.S.

Fluvial Deposits
Hinton Formation
Mauch Chunk
Princeton Formation
Sedimentology
Stratigraphy

Earth Sciences

Diemer, John

Hippensteel, Scott
Bobyarchick, Andy

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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McCreary_uncc_0694N_11473

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1779