|
 This page is a stub, being used to capture information about a particular subject, in preparation for development of a formal article. Please note that some of the data, perhaps much of, or even all of the data, presented here is derived from secondary and tertiary sources. The intent is to eventually tie everything to an "original" or primary source, or at least to something that can be accepted as a surrogate for such a source. See Category:Stub Warnings For Southwest Virginia Project for a list of articles with stub warnings.
___________________________________________________________
Stuff
The underlying rocks, and geologic structure that we see today in Southwest Virginia is the result of a series of events related to the movement of large chunks of the earths surface over the last billion years or so. Periodically, these chunks collided with each other, resulting in mountain formation (known as "orogenies") along their leading edges. At other times, the chunks would pull away from each, in a process referred to as "rifting". We know a great deal about these ancient occurrences, mostly because they have left behind traces in the form of the rock records studied by geologists. The story is complex, and many faceted, but need not be recounted here in detail for our purposes. Those interested in the details of these events are referred to the web sources shown below.
Web Sources
- Paleo Earth
- Jamestown RI Geologic History focused on Jamestown, but covers the broad picture very well
- Formational History of the Northern Appalachians focused on New England, but a particular good, succinct summary of events worldwide, and in North America in particular]
- Geology of Virginia Moderately detailed treatment specific to Virginia, but a bit hard to sort out broad patterns. Use Formational History of the Northern Appalachians for the broad patterns, and this site to get the specifics of Virginia.
- NOVA. Nice site that shows lots of rock pictures, and makes many points very, sometimes humerously
|
