The Fall of 2018 brought eleven Geoscience students and three faculty to the Central Appalachians in West Virginia and Virginia: Allegheny Plateau to the Blue Ridge. The first night was spent in Seneca Rocks, WV. Day two was spent concentrating on rocks and structure exposed in a transect across the Wills Mountain anticline, finishing with a hike to the top of Seneca Rocks. On day three the group drove to Spruce Knob, the highest point along the Allegheny Front in WV. for an overview and comparison of the Allegheny Plateau with the Valley and Ridge province. From there they descended to the Sinks of Gandy where they had the opportunity to go underground and investigate a natural cave system. After driving eastward through the Valley and Ridge and stopping at various points of interest along the way they ended the day in Proterozoic crystalline rocks in Front Royal, Virginia. Day four was spent exploring the Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks that make up the Blue Ridge province which include crystalline basement of North America formed around 1.1 billion years ago, and rocks that filled a Neoproterozoic rift basin 600-700 million years ago. On the return home, day five, the students and faculty examined complex folding at Roundtop Hill including the famous Devils Eyebrow anticline, and made a final stop at the Sidling Hill Syncline roadcut in Maryland.

October 4, 2018