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| Geology
and Paleontology |
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| Geological
Features of the Mid-Atlantic Region |
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I have always been interested in the
interrelationship between flora, fauna,
and geology. The serpentine barrens of
Maryland and Pennsylvania have high concentrations
of toxic metals like chromium and nickel
that support rather unique and rare wildflowers,
moths and butterflies, and reptiles. Soldiers
Delight, Baltimore, County, Maryland
and the State
Line Serpentine Barrens along the
Pennsylvania - Maryland border are underlain
by serpentinite, a quartz-poor, magnesium
silicate rock composed of the mineral
serpentine. These areas were a source
of decorative building stone that you
can see in buildings in West Chester,
Pennsylvania as well as a major chromite
producer in the 19th century. Brucite
and kammererite from the Wood's Chrome
Mine are unrivaled and exhibited in museum
collections all over the world.
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| There are
other geological features that I would recommend.
The steepest and most spectacular Fall
Line rapids of any river in the eastern
USA can be seen at Great
Falls just 15 miles west of Washington,
DC. Here, the Potomac River cascades over
a series of 20-foot falls. Six terrace
levels represent the remnants of old
flood plains cut by the Potomac and now
provide exposures of Piedmont bedrock as
well as interesting landforms like potholes,
pinnacles, and islands. A fun place to visit
is Ringing
Rocks County Park, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
If you hit a rock in the diabase boulder
field, it will emit a distinct tone due
to the iron content of the diabase. One
of the best examples of a tightly folded
syncline is exposed at the roadcut where
Interstate 68 cuts through Sideling
Hill in the Valley and Ridge province
of western Maryland. The valley floors of
Virginia's Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley
are composed of limestone, which forms caves
through dissolution by weak carbonic acid
solution and underground streams. Virginia
caves well worth the visit include Luray,
Skyline,
and Shenandoah
Caverns. One of the largest and best examples
of an igneous sill is the 300-meter thick
Palisades along the western shore of the
Hudson River west and north of New York.
A sill is a subsurface igneous body that
parallels the structure of the surrounding
rock. Other interesting geological features
in the region can be found at Appalachian
Highlands, Building
Stones of Washington DC, Geologic Attractions Along the C&O Canal, Geologic Features of the Philadelphia Region, Geologic Provinces of the USA, Geological Evolution of VA, Geology of VA, Ken Lazara's Geology, MD's
Geologic Features, NY Geology, NYC
- NJ Geological Transect, PA's
Trail of Geology, and Tour of Park Geology. |
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