This week, I’m on a road trip, traveling through West Virginia. The soundtrack for this trip, of course, has to include humming John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”... 🎶
Now, let’s visit two geologically interesting locales in the Mountain State!
Sharon Lyon
Editor, GeoLifestyle
Seneca Rocks, West Virginia
Steve Heap/ Shutterstock.com
Seneca Rocks, located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, is one of the state’s best-known landmarks. The massive outcrop rises nearly 900 feet above the headwaters of the Potomac River. The landform consists of a North Peak and a South Peak, with a central notch in between.
Geology of the area:
The peaks are formed by the Silurian-age (440 Ma) Tuscarora Sandstone (also called Tuscarora quartzite), a fine- to coarse-grained quartz arenite.
The sand grains are cemented by silica, making the rock very hard and durable.
Located in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Appalachians, the Tuscarora Formation is 150–200 feet thick. It forms many ridge crests in the province because of its durability.
Sedimentary structures, such as cross-beds and trace fossils, indicate a shoreline or shallow marine depositional environment for the Tuscarora.
The sand formed as part of an apron of sediment along the edge of the Iapetus Ocean, shed from ancestral mountains that were uplifted during the Taconic Orogeny in the Ordovician period.
The Iapetus Ocean slowly closed, and the underlying rocks were uplifted and folded during the Alleghenian Orogeny at the end of the Paleozoic.
Near Seneca Rocks, the Tuscarora is exposed on the west flank of one of these folds—the Wills Mountain anticline—with dips nearly vertical and in some places overturned.
A kilometer or more of overlying strata have eroded since the end of the Paleozoic Era, leaving the vertical fin of sandstone at Seneca Rocks exposed to the elements.
Climbing: Seneca Rocks has 375 major mapped climbing routes. Many vertical cracks in the rocks offer excellent jamming (wedging hands and feet inside). The South Peak is the only peak inaccessible to climbers—except by technical experts—on the east coast of the United States.
Located in the middle of the town of Berkeley Springs, you can find the warm springs that comprise the country’s first spa in one of the smallest state parks in the United States.
History meets geology: Native Americans frequented the warm spring waters at Berkeley Springs long before Europeans arrived.
A map drawn by Thomas Jefferson’s father in 1747 is the first document to note the springs, labeling them “Medicine Springs.”
George Washington first visited in 1748 and made the springs a favorite getaway through the 1760s. In 1776, Washington and his family and friends drew up a plat of 134 lots, named the streets, and incorporated the “Town of Bath.”
The waters flow at a constant 74 degrees Fahrenheit from the base of Warm Springs Ridge and have gushed at a rate of 1,000–2,000 gallons per minute for as long as the flow has been measured.
The springs’ warm temperature is caused by a combination of the water’s depth within the aquifer and the time the water spends underground. The water moves along fractures in the Oriskany Sandstone and associated carbonate rocks, heating with depth and acquiring the minerals found at the springs.
Magnesium carbonate, sulphates, and nitrates are the predominant minerals giving the water its trademark alkalinity and hardness.
Trip tips:
Wade into the stone pools in the quaint state park or simply walk alongside them. You may drink and fill your water bottles for free at the public tap.
We stayed at The Country Inn of Berkeley Springs, a charming historic spot at the edge of the springs. Originally built in the 1840s, the hotel burned in 1898. Town members rebuilt it in the 1930s, and the owners added a dining room, spa, and new rooms in the 1980s.
Within easy driving distance of the hotel, you can enjoy dinner on the patio of the Canary Grill.
Silica Mining in West Virginia
Quartz crystals and a gastropod mold found within the Devonian Oriskany Sandstone at U.S. Silica, Berkeley Springs
One of the highest-quality silica sandstones lies near Berkeley Springs. The area is known for its glass sand mining.
Geology: The early Devonian (400–345 million years old) Oriskany Sandstone, the source of the silica, is a quartz-rich arenite. Although the Oriskany is not as durable as the Tuscarora Sandstone of Seneca Rocks, it forms many smaller ridges in the eastern Panhandle.
The sand of the Oriskany was deposited in the Appalachian Basin, between the craton to the west and an island arc highland to the east. It forms a consistent blanket, 100–150 feet thick, throughout the region. Close observation reveals crossbedding and thin layers containing fossil molds.
Some of the largest gas fields in West Virginia produce from the Oriskany Sandstone.
History: In 1893, pioneer Henry Harrison Hunter mined and processed his first sand sample by hand near Berkeley Springs. He entered this sand sample in the Chicago World’s Fair and won a blue ribbon and the medal of excellence for the sand’s purity.
In 1929, the Berkeley plant was constructed north of town, the largest and most advanced silica facility of its time. It was built to produce sand for glass manufacturing.
In 1987, the U.S. Silica Co. acquired the facility and renovated and upgraded its production capabilities. The plant serves end markets such as glass, building products, foundry, chemicals, and fillers.
Trip tips:
You can tour the facility by special arrangement, or you can view the plant along both sides of Rt. 522, north of town.
The plant employs about 200 people at its mine, processing plant, laboratory, and corporate headquarters in Berkeley Springs.
AAPG is thrilled to announce that Tom Wilker will take on the role of executive director at the Association beginning 5 May.
Wilker has had an impressive career in the private sector, including former leadership roles at Devon Energy, Burlington Resources, The Carlyle Group, Wood Mackenzie, EP Energy, and PetroSkills Oil and Gas Training.
He is also the president and founder of his own energy consultancy, Curator Upstream Solutions based in The Woodlands, Texas and is a Texas State Licensed Geophysicist.
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