Swift Run Formation (VAZsr;0)

State	Virginia
Name	Swift Run Formation
Geologic age	Proterozoic Z
Original map label	Zsr
Comments	Blue Ridge Anticlinorium, Central. From expanded explanation (ref. VA002): Swift Run Formation (Jonas and Stose, 1939; King, 1950; Gathright, 1976). Heterogeneous assemblage includes: pebbly to cobbly quartzite and feldspathic metaconglomerate; gray, grayish-pink, or grayish-green, feldspathic quartzite and metasandstone, locally crossbedded; greenish-gray, silvery quartz-sericite-chlorite sandy schist; and, greenish-gray to grayish-red-purple chlorite-sericite tuffaceous phyllite and slate. In Loudoun County, contains pinkish-gray and yellowish-gray to light brownish-gray, fine-grained dolomitic marble (Southworth, 1991). Individual lithologies are laterally discontinuous; formation ranges up to 350 feet in total thickness, but is locally very thin or absent (Gathright, 1976). The Swift Run was originally defined on the northwest limb of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium (Stose and Stose, 1946), where the unit rests unconformably on Grenville-age rocks, and is overlain conformably by the Catoctin Formation; the upper contact is mapped at the bottom of the lowest massive metabasalt. In places Swift Run lithologies are interbedded with Catoctin metabasalts, and the contact between the two units is gradational (Gathright, 1976). Swift Run metasedimentary rocks on the northwest limb have been interpreted as deposited in alluvial fan, floodplain, and lacustrine environments (Schwab, 1986); these are interbedded with metamorphosed tuffaceous and volcanoclastic units (Gathright, 1976; Bartholomew, 1977). Although the Swift Run has been interpreted as a thin western equivalent of the Lynchburg Group in the southeastern Blue Ridge (Stose and Stose, 1946; Brown, 1970), some workers have correlated the Swift Run with discontinuous lenses of feldspathic sandstone interbedded with felsic metatuff that occur immediately below the Catoctin on the southeast limb of the anticlinorium (Nelson, 1962; Conley, 1978; 1989; Wehr, 1985). On the Geologic Map of Virginia (1993), the Swift Run is terminated along an east-west-trending normal fault just west of Leesburg, and is not mapped farther southwest on the southeast limb of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium.
Primary rock type	phyllite
Secondary rock type	sandstone
Other rock types	meta-conglomerate; schist; quartzite; slate
Lithologic constituents	Minor Metamorphic > Schist Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metaclastic > Metaconglomeratemeta-conglomerate Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metaclastic > Metasandstone Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metaclastic > Phyllite Incidental Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metaclastic > Slate Metamorphic > Metasedimentary > Metaclastic > Quartzite
Map references	Digital Representation of the 1993 Geologic Map of Virginia", 2003, CD ROM (ISO-9660) contains image file, expanded explanation in pdf, and ESRI shapefiles, viewing software not included. This is a digital version of "Geologic Map of Virginia" published in 1993. Available from: https://www.dmme.virginia.gov/commerce/ [https://www.dmme.virginia.gov/commerce/]
Unit references	Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, 1993, Geologic Map of Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, scale 1:500,000 Digital Representation of the 1993 Geologic Map of Virginia", 2003, CD ROM (ISO-9660) contains image file, expanded explanation in pdf, and ESRI shapefiles, viewing software not included. This is a digital version of "Geologic Map of Virginia" published in 1993. Available from: https://www.dmme.virginia.gov/commerce/ [https://www.dmme.virginia.gov/commerce/]
Geographic coverage	Albemarle - Fauquier - Greene - Loudoun - Nelson - Page - Rappahannock - Warren