Collaborative Research: Kinematics and Geochronology of the Gold Hill Shear Zone: Implications for Accretion of the Peri-Gondwanan Carolina Zone in the Southern Appalachians

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0106112 Hibbard0106050 Hames0106091 MillerThe timing and nature of accretion of the Carolina Zone to Laurentia is one of the more significant and least constrained tectonic problems in modern southern Appalachian geology. The original suture has been overprinted and obliterated by subsequent Alleghanian motion along the western margin of the Carolina zone, precluding direct investigation of the suture. The Gold Hill Shear Zone is a prominent feature in the western part of the Carolina Zone and may record features produced by the suturing event that have been preserved due to the distance of the shear zone back from the actual terrane margin. The project involves an integrated structural and geochronologic study of the Gold Hill Shear Zone in an attempt to understanding timing, kinematics and crustal affinities of the original suture and collision of the Carolina Zone with Laurentia. Results will help develop reconstruction of the Appalachians and their exotic terranes.