Group picture near Pikeville road cut (TA Seth, Danny, Heather, Holly, Nassir, PROFESSOR Kendall, Molly, Tony, Audrey)
Appalachain Outcrops Field Trip
Kentucky-Virginia
Sequence Stratigraphy (GEOL325)
Spring 2001
(by Nassir S. Alnaji)
(March 30 – April 1, 2001)
Group picture near Pikeville road cut (TA
Seth, Danny, Heather, Holly, Nassir, PROFESSOR Kendall, Molly, Tony,
Audrey)
Introduction
(Our van!
no, I didn't take this shot!!)
Tectonic History
The Appalachians Mountains tectonic history was dominated by 3 major events
Day 1 (Friday, 3-30-2001)
Stop 1-A: Tennessee, Route 75; 16 miles
off Jellico
Facies: Orthoquartz (sandstone); sheets like features
Time: Base of Pennsylvanian
Description:
Sandstone representing back barrier islands or offshore bars reworked on landside
by tides. Some pebbles are forming as well which indicate that we might be
near a river source.
One mile up road we can see cut-and-fill features: sheets uniform in size with
cross-beds, which might indicate a flood delta depositional environment.
Two miles ahead are shales that represent lagoonal environment.
Now we are moving down through time to the Mississippian.
Stop 1-B: (10 miles ahead of stop 1 on Route 75).
Limestones in oolitic layers (shoaling upward cycles). The limestones represent quiet environment (deeper waters) overlain by oolite, which is reworked by waves.
Five miles ahead (past Jellico) we can see Devonian shales (black shales).
Stop 1-C: (Route 627 on road to Winchester)
During the Ordovician, epeiric sea (shallow) covered the shelf in this region and deposited the Cincinnati Group. In the margins of this shelf, we can see interior beds in deeper water (about 20 m), which are represented here by muds, and sorted carbonate with storms re-working the bottom. The diversity of the fauna indicate that we are in a normal (not too saline) open marine setting.
Half miles ahead are shale layers which indicate deepening with extensive layers full of shell fragments (bryozoans, brachiopods, mollusks).
Stop 1-D: (highway 64)
Here is the Silurian shales (epeiric sea) with stromatoporids which quickly are dominant reef builders, and persisted as such for over 100 million years. They are absent in the fossil record between the Early Carboniferous and the Late Permian.
Stayed in 
after having
dinner at LaFinca Mexican restaurant.
(8:00 AM; 3-31-2001) (Nice weather; still comfortable)
Stop 2-A: Kentucky, I-64; 1 mile east
of Days Inn hotel (Morehead in NE Kentucky)
Time/Formation: Mississippian/Borden formation.
Description:
Submarine fans thinning and thickening locally which represent deep water sands with some shales (indication that we are definitely dealing with fans deposited in deep water) and thickening upward sandstone. Mutti suggested that thinning and thickening is a result of switching: if fan is moving toward us, they thicken; if fan is moving away from us (furthest from us), they thin. There are sharp contacts with shale and lack of coal layers.
We can see evidence of organisms manifested by burrowing.
Stop 2-B
Shales are overlying sandstone ½ mile ahead. Three miles ahead we moved up
section toward the shore with finer sediments coursing upward.
Stop 2-C (one mile ahead on I-64)
Here we don't see continuity of bodies with siltstones and shallowing sequences
(15 m deep) and reworking of bodies and evidence of cut-and-fill and vertical
and horizontal burrowing.
Stop 2-D
Upper most Mississippian oolitic inter-bedding with shales and sometimes they
are filling channel incisions underlined by shallowing upward dolomitized limestones.
The burrowing indicates deeper waters and incision during a lowering of sea
level; and then deepening (shales and oolites) and open marine environment (about
5 m).
Stop 2-E (one mile ahead; in Weigh Station parking
lot)
Here we can see channel fills and a chocolate color unit has a uniform color
with cut-and-fill. Lime mud is is topped by oolite. A quarter mile ahead is
Upper Mississippian pro-delta sediments which are wide-spread thin uniform units
(silt + sand). Just ahead, we can sea the wash over sands of back burial islands
as sheets thickening downward overlying black shales. One mile ahead, we notice
bird's eye features in lime mud, which indicate dissication, as a result water
drying out (probably tidal flat environment). There is micritic lime mud with
some burrowing and algal stromatolite, which indicate supratidal-intertidal
region. At the base of the channel, cross-bedding oolitic bank and some quarts
which indicate an area near beach (high energy) or little deeper.
Now is time for LUNCH (at our best-American roast beef Arby's restaurant; I received the wrong order; well, I guess it was due to my bad pronunciation!!).
Stop 2-F (Luise Cut; Route 23E off I-64)
Age: Pennsylvanian
We are in the fluvial portion of a delta where we can see indication of channel
levees; channels with point bars and filled with coal layers; some channels
are abandoned and filled with shales and sands. These shales represent fine
sediments (mud) in the flood plain.
Stop 2-G (Pikeville road cut)
This is a spectacular road cut exposing layers indicating many different environments.
At the bottom we can see alternating shales and uniform sands thin beds which
indicate pro delta (or fill of a bay) overlain by shales indicating a bay being
filled up. On top of the shales are sand layers (clinoforms) indicating distributary
mouth bars (dmb) overlain by levees; coal layers are on top of the levee sands.
The upper layers are cycles of pro-delta, bay, and dmb.
The next short stop is between Jenkins and Pikeville where the Allegany formation
is exposed (sand in distributary mouth bar rapid deposition)
Dinner at 
Day 3 (Sunday, 4-01-2001)
(8:00 AM; 4-01-2001) (Extremely cold, rainy, and windy weather)
Stop 3-A: Virginia, Route 58; near Lebanon;
Nolichucky formation.
Siltstone and lime mud representing overlain by oolitic layers representing
lowering of base level and ribbons indicating higher base level (below wave
base) layers.
Stop 3-B (closer to Lebanon-VA; Route 58)
Outcrop: Ordovician margins; Rockdell formation (http://www.wooster.edu/geology/hdgd/Kate.html)
Rocks full of chrinoid (similar to starfish) fragments (grain stones) which
are made up of porous calcite plates form shoals and banks indicating higher
energy setting within wave base or inter-tidal. Down the section, we notice
bryozoans, Red Algae, trilobites, corals, stromatoporids, etc. in the lime
mud and cavities developed through burrowing or replacement or fractures of
the mounds. These cavities are full of marine sediments (stromatoporids).
Toward the shelf margin (edge) are reef like fossils.
Stop 3-C (back to Nolichucky formation)
Tidal flats sediments with deeper water sediments up section (10-15 m below
wave base) with shally carbonates. Stromatolite mounds (shallow marine; within
photic zone) capped with oolites (lowering of base level).
Conclusion
(Field trip cinema crew: Tony & Audrey)
Great field trip. Learned a lot; enjoyed the company of my classmates; and I got to drive the department van!