Field Investigations of Potential Terrane Boundaries in the Eastern Piedmont of North and South Carolina

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A fundamental goal of much ongoing research in Appalachian tectonics is to determine the history of terrane accretion in the central and eastern parts of the orogen. The recent discovery of Acado-Baltic trilobites in the Carolina slate belt in central South Carolina clearly indicates that this part of the Piedmont is an exotic terrane that was accreted to North America subsequent to the Middle Cambrian. Recent studies have indicated major differences in stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and tectonothermal history between the Ablemarle area in south-central North Carolina and the Columbia area in central South Carolina, suggesting the presence of an important terrane boundary between Ablemarle and Columbia. The purpose of this project is to accurately locate and determine the nature of the boundary between the North and South Carolina sequences. This will be accomplished by a program of geologic mapping, map compilation, and petrological studies in the area between the two well studied sequences. This study should substantially improve our knowledge of the history of terrane accretion in the southern Appalachians as well as facilitate the correlation of exotic terranes in the circum-Atlantic region. This study will provide a model for subsequent studies in other older orogenic belts.