Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The Atlantic Coastal Plain covers parts of ten states on or near the East Coast of the United States of America, running from New Jersey south to Florida and as far west as Alabama. The Paleocene-aged Aquia Formation is located in the northern section of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and includes coastal portions of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. It has been suggested, but not indisputably concluded, that some of the clasts from the base of Aquia Formation originated from rocks and other sediment found west of the portion of the Virginia Coastal Plain (Drobnyk, 1965). This research focuses on the clasts in the base of the Aquia Formation and compliments the work by Reyher (2009). The most important clasts to the research that will be done appear to be vein quartz and quartzite. These clasts range in roundness/sphericity and clarity, where larger clasts tend to be more spherical and rounded and smaller clasts are often subrounded to subangular (Drobnyk, 1965). Quartz clasts in the Aquia Formation often have inclusions. Grains with higher clarity have gaseous or liquid inclusions, and more translucent and opaque grains are very abundant and contain traces of various minerals. Feldspar, calcite, muscovite, biotite, and heavy minerals are all found in trace amounts in the Aquia Formation as well (Drobnyk, 1965).
Date Awarded
2010
Department
Geology
Advisor 1
Rick Berquist
Recommended Citation
Yamoah, Chris, "A Statistical Comparison of Size and Composition of Clasts from Different Locations within the Aqui Formation, Richmond, VA metropolitan area" (2010). Geology Senior Theses. William & Mary. Paper 245.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/geologyseniors/245
