Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The Midway Mills basin in central Virginia is one of the westernmost Mesozoic sedimentary basins formed by continental extension during Pangaean rifting in eastern North America. Structural and stratigraphic data were gathered to better understand the geometry and history of the Midway Mills basin. The basin is developed across the Paleozoic Bowens Creek/Mountain Run fault zones that form the boundary between the Western Piedmont and eastern Blue Ridge. This small basin is a 10 km2 half-graben structure bounded in the west by a segmented normal fault. The eastern boundary, previously interpreted as a shallow displacement normal fault, is an unconformable contact with prerift Paleozoic metamorphic rock. Strata within the basin are tilted perpendicular to the western boundary fault with variable dips throughout the basin towards the faulted margin, likely due to post depositional fracturing. This trend suggests syndepositional faulting. The strata are primarily high-energy arkosic clongomerates, lithic arenites, feldspathic arenites, and siltstones. We extrapolated through petrographic analysis and simple basin modeling that the Midway Mills basin was originally contiguous with the Scottsville basin. This means a previously much larger basin that what we see today. We have interpreted the greenstone outlier to the northwest of Midway Mills to be an intercalated basalt flow as part of the Candler Formation.
Date Awarded
2013
Department
Geology
Advisor 1
Christopher M. Bailey
Recommended Citation
Rosenthal, Jacob, "Geology of the Mesozoic midway Mills Basin and Mayo Creek, Virginia Piedmont" (2013). Geology Senior Theses. William & Mary. Paper 297.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/geologyseniors/297
