COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Evolution of the Southern Appalachians: Contributions from Ion Microprobe Dating of Zircon, Blue Ridge and Inner Piedmont, TN-NC-SC-GA

9814800哈奇阿巴拉契亚山脉的记录是造山运动的一个典型例子，目前的共识是，它们的存在归功于古生代期间北美大陆和岛弧碎片的增生。 然而，该范围演变的关键方面仍然是谜或有争议的，特别是各种事件的实际时间。 这个项目由田纳西大学和范德比尔特大学的工作人员进行，目的是利用新技术为事件提供新的时间限制，这些新技术有可能从具有复杂高温生长期的地区产生年龄数据。 这些叠印不能用常规技术解决，但新的离子探针测年锆石晶体上的叠印似乎是成功的。 预计这些新数据将回答或限制南阿巴拉契亚山脉的几个主要不确定性。

9814800HatcherThe Appalachians record is a classic example of mountain building, and there is present agreement that they owe this existence to accretion of fragments of continents and island arcs to North America during the Paleozoic. However, critical aspects of the evolution of the range remain enigmatic or controversial, especially the actual timing of various events. This project, conducted by workers at the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University, aims to provide new timing constraints for events using new techniques that have the potential of producing age data from regions having complex, high-temperature growth episodes. These overprints can not be resolved with conventional techniques, but new ion probes dating of overgrowths on zircon crystal appear to be successful. These new data are expected to answer or constrain several major uncertainties in the Southern Appalachians.