Heterogeneous layered sequence is dominantly garnetiferous biotite gneiss and porphyroblastic gneiss, migmatitic in part, with subordinate interlayered amphibolite and amphibole gneiss (Ya), pelitic-composition gneiss, calcsilicate gneiss, biotite hornblende-quartz-plagioclase gneiss, and garnetiferous leucogneiss. These lithologies contain amphibolite-facies metamorphic mineral assemblages consistent with rock chemistry. Farrar (1984) reports relict granulite-facies assemblages in some rocks. This unit underlies a wide area that surrounds the State Farm antiform (Poland, 1976; Reilly, 1980; Farrar, 1984) and two subsidiary antiforms to the northeast; the unit includes the Maidens gneiss and portions of the Sabot amphibolite of Poland (1976), the eastern gneiss complex and Boscobel granodiorite gneiss of Bobyarchick (1976), and the Po River Metamorphic Suite of Pavlides (1980). Poland (1976) and Reilly (1980) proposed that the Maidens gneiss and Sabot amphibolite were a Late Precambrian- to Early Paleozoic-age volcanic-sedimentary cover sequence unconformably overlying the State Farm gneiss. Farrar (1984) interpreted relict granulite-facies mineral assemblages to have equilibrated during Grenville-age regional metamorphism; this contributed to his conclusion that the Sabot and Maidens, in addition to the State Farm, are Grenville or pre-Grenville in age. Porphyroblastic garnet-biotite gneiss (Ymd) is intruded by rocks of the Carboniferous-age Falmouth Intrusive Suite (Pavlides, 1980).
Heterogenous layered assemblage correlates with the Chopawamsic Formation and Ta River Metamorphic Suite, on strike to the northeast, and in traceable into the Milton belt in North Carolina (Geologic Map of North Carolina, 1985). Quartzofeldspathic biotite gneiss. Heterogeneous layered sequence consists of salt-and-pepper and segregation layered biotite granite gneiss interlayered with biotite schist; dark-gray to black, fine- to coarse-grained, thin- to thickly-laminated hornblende gneiss and schist; lesser quartz-muscovite schist; and, locally, gray to green, medium-grained, calcareous gneiss and calc-silicate granofels (Tobish and Glover, 1969). This unit includes the upper and lower felsic gneiss units and intermediate volcanic rocks in the Hyco Formation as used by Baird (1989, 1991); and biotite gneiss and interlayered gneiss of Kreisa (1980), correlative with the biotite gneiss unit of Marr (1980a; 1980b). Mineralogy: (quartzofeldspathic rocks), (1) quartz + albite + potassium feldspar + muscovite + chlorite + actinolite + epidote + calcite + magnetite + zircon; (2) quartz + oligoclase + muscovite + biotite + garnet + hornblende + magnetite + epidote + rutile + calcite + zircon; (mafic rocks), (1) quartz + albite + chlorite + epidote + actinolite + titanite + magnetite ilmenite. (2) quartz + oligoclase + andesine + hornblende + microcline + biotite + garnet + cordierite + magnetite + rutile + titanite + scapolite; (pelitic rocks), (1) quartz + albite + muscovite + chlorite + epidote + magnetite-ilmenite; (2) quartz + muscovite + biotite + kyanite + oligoclase + potassium feldspar + epidote + magnetite-ilmenite + garnet; (3) quartz + muscovite + sillimanite + magnetite-ilmenite; (calcareous rocks), (1) quartz + calcite + biotite + epidote + chlorite + tremolite + ilmenite; (2) calcite+ quartz + epidote + hornblende + pyroxene + scapolite. Geophysical signature: felsic rocks are delineated by strike-elongate positive radiometric anomalies (Henika and Johnson, 1980); mafic metavolcanic rocks and metasedimentary units are characterized by closed strike-elongate radiometric lows and closed strike-elongate aeromagnetic highs.
Light-gray, medium grained, segregation-layered gneiss, contains prominent potassium feldspar porphyroblasts. Mineralogy: quartz + biotite + plagioclase + potassium feldspar + muscovite ± hornblende; accessory minerals include epidote, apatite, and opaque minerals.
State Farm Gneiss (Brown, 1937). Leucocratic to mesocratic, medium- to coarse-grained, massive to moderately layered, locally migmatitic gneiss ranges in composition from granodiorite to tonalite. Quartzofeldspathic segregations and discordant pegmatites are common; leucocratic biotite-garnet quartz-plagioclase gneiss, metagabbro, and thin pelitic schist interlayers are minor constituents (Poland, 1976; Reilly, 1980; Farrar, 1984). Mineralogy: quartz + plagioclase + microcline + biotite + garnet + hornblende ± clinopyroxene; titanite is a ubiquitous accessory; other accessory minerals include magnetite and zircon. Farrar (1984) reports that the least deformed portions of the State Farm contain relict granulite-facies mineral assemblages. Geophysical signature: characterized by negative magnetic and positive radiometric anomalies. The age of the State Farm is reported as 1031±94 Ma (Rb- Sr whole-rock; Glover and others, 1982). The titanium-rich chemistry of the State Farm, as indicated by the abundance of titanite, is also characteristic of Grenville-age gneisses in the Virginia Blue Ridge.
Ta River Metamorphic Suite, (undivided). Layered sequence consists dominantly of greenish-gray to black, medium- to coarse-grained, poorly to well-lineated, massive to well-layered amphibolite and amphibole-bearing gneiss and schist; includes interlayered ferruginous quartzite, and minor biotite gneiss, felsic volcanic rocks, gabbro and granite. Amphibolitic rocks commonly contain quartz-epidote lenses and veins. Porportion of biotite gneiss and schist in creases from northeast to southwest along strike, as does grade of regional metamorphism. Mineralogy: (horn blende, tremolite-actinolite, and cummingtonite) + quartz + calcic oligoclase ± epidote ± biotite ± garnet. Geophysical signature: linear positive and negative magnetic and radiometric anomalies. Pavlides (1981) correlated the Ta River with the Chopawamsic and James Run Formations, and considered the Ta to be a more oceanward facies of a Chopawamsic island arc sequence, on the basis of geologic and geochemical factors. The Quantico Formation generally overlies the boundary between the Chopawamsic and the Ta, obscuring the contact relationships.
Sandstone, very fine- to coarse-grained, reddish-brown to gray, micaceous, minor conglomerate beds. Siltstone, reddish-brown to gray, micaceous. Shale, reddish-brown, greenish-gray, gray, yellowish-brown, laminated, fossiliferous. Upward-fining sequences, discontinuous vertically and horizontally.
Mylonite. Includes protomylonite, mylonite, ultramylonite, and cataclastic rocks. Lithology highly variable, depending on the nature of the parent rock, and on intensive parameters and history of deformation. In most mapped belts of mylonite and cataclastic rock (my), tectonized rocks anastomose around lenses of less-deformed or undeformed rock. In the Blue Ridge, some of these lenses are large enough to show at 1:500,000 scale. In many places mylonitic and cataclastic rocks are gradational into less deformed or undeformed adjacent rocks, and location of contacts between tectonized rocks (my) and adjacent units is approximate or arbitrary. These boundaries are indicated on the map by color-color joins with superimposed shear pattern. Most mapped belts of mylonite represent fault zones with multiple movement histories. In the Blue Ridge, Paleozoic age contractional deformation fabrics are superimposed on Late Precambrian extensional fabrics (Simpson and Kalaghan, 1989; Bailey and Simpson, 1993). Many Piedmont mylonite zones contain dextral-transpressional kinematic indicators that formed during Late Paleozoic collision al tectonics (Bobyarchick and Glover, 1979; Gates and others, 1986). Paleozoic and older faults were reactivated in many places to form extensional faults during the Mesozoic (Bobyarchick and Glover, 1979).
Poorly sorted clay, sand, and rounded pebbles and cobbles, deeply weathered
Chopawamsic Formation, undivided, (Pavlides, 1981). Includes laterally discontinuous lenses and tongues of metamorphosed felsic, intermediate, and mafic volcanic flows and volcanoclastic rocks, with interlayered quartzite, quartzose graywacke, schist, and phyllite. Volcanic flows are locally highly vesicular; fragmental breccia and tuff are common. Felsic flows are typically light-gray aphanitic rocks with phenocrysts of quartz and feldspar; intermediate flows are dark-green amphibole-bearing rocks with fine-grained quartz-feldspar matrix; greenstone metabasalts contain blue green amphibole, chlorite, albitic plagioclase, and quartz. Geophysical signature: linear strike-elongate pattern of elevated magnetic anomalies. The Chopawamsic is correlated with the James Run Formation in Maryland; the James Run has been dated at 570 to 530 Ma (U-Pb zircon; Tilton and others 1970). The Chopawamsic is unconformably overlain by the Late Ordovician Arvonia and Quantico Formations. Pavlides (1981 and subsequent works) has made the interpretation on the basis of geologic and geochemical data that the Chopawamsic and related plutons represent an ancient is land-arc sequence.
Gray to black, graphitic, pyritic phyllite and slate (northern Piedmont); metamorphic grade increases to the southwest to produce porphyroblastic staurolite-, kyanite-, and garnet-biotite muscovite schists. Locally the unit contains felsic metatuff, metagraywacke, and micaceous quartzite interbeds; thickness has been estimated at as much as 3000 feet (Pavlides, 1980). Mineralogy: quartz + muscovite + biotite ± garnet ± staurolite ± kyanite + opaque minerals; chlorite is a common secondary mineral. Geophysical signature: strike-elongated positive linear magnetic and radiometric anomalies. The unit was originally named Quantico Slate by Darton (1894), and modified to Quantico Formation by Pavlides (1980). An Ordovician age for the Quantico is indicated by fossils collected by Watson and Powell (1911) and more recently by Pavlides and others (1980). The Quantico unconformably overlies older units in the northeastern Pied mont, and is correlated with the Arvonia Formation to the southwest.
Gray to white, medium-grained, massive to layered granite and granite gneiss range in composition from granite to quartz diorite. Quartz diorite dikes and sills are locally abundant. Mineralogy: quartz + potassium feldspar + plagioclase + biotite + epidote + muscovite ± clinopyroxene + hornblende. This unit intrudes biotite gneiss unit (Cbg).
Sandstone, fine-to coarse-grained, reddish-brown to gray, arkosic in places, micaceous, displays channel-type primary features. Siltstone light- to dark-gray, micaceous. Shale, light- to dark-gray, carbonaceous, micaceous, fossiliferous. Coal, bituminous, banded, moderate- to well-developed, fine- to medium-cleat, partings and inclusions of shale, siltstone, and sandstone; high methane concentrations recorded in the Richmond and Taylorsville basins. This lithologic unit occurs in the Richmond, Taylorsville, Farmville, Briery Creek, and Danville basins.
Angular to subangular pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of mixed lithologies in a reddish-brown matrix of indurated medium- to coarse-grained sandstone.
Melanocratic, fine- to coarse-grained, weakly to strongly foliated, irregularly layered amphibole-rich gneiss and schist. Mineralogy: hornblende + clinopyroxene + plagioclase + magnetite + biotite ± scapolite ± garnet ± quartz ± epidote. Geophysical signature: narrow, strike-elongate, positive magnetic anomaly. Lenses and layers of amphibolite and amphibole gneiss are interlayered with porphyroblastic garnet-biotite gneiss (Ymd). The mafic rocks constitute 50 percent or more of the section in a zone about 0.62 mile wide surrounding outcrop areas of State Farm gneiss (Ysf); farther away from the State Farm contact, lenses and layers of amphibolite and amphibole gneiss are more widely scattered, but are laterally persistent and outline map-scale structures (Marr, 1985). Amphibolite and interlayered biotite gneiss adjacent to the State Farm gneiss were named the Sabot amphibolite by Poland (1976), who characterized the formation as a tabular sheet 0.7 to 1.0 km thick. He and Goodwin (1970) interpreted these amphibolites as metamorphosed mafic volcanic or pyroclastic rocks. Glover and others (1989 and references therein) report a low-angle regional discordance between the base of the Sabot and the compositional layering in the underlying State Farm Gneiss.
Leucocratic to mesocratic, medium- to coarse-grained layered gneiss contains interlayered biotite-rich and quartzofeldspathic zones, locally migmatitic; includes lesser amounts of biotite schist, muscovite schist, and thin lenticular amphibolite bodies. Mineralogy: biotite + muscovite + plagioclase + potassium feldspar + garnet ± hornblende.
Falls Run Granite Gneiss (Pavlides, 1980). Pink to white, coarse-grained, strongly-foliated hornblende-biotite granite to monzonite gneiss. Mineralogy: microcline + plagioclase + quartz + biotite + muscovite ± hornblende; apatite, epidote, titanite, and magnetite-ilmenite are accessories; myrmekite is common. The Falls Run has been dated at 410 Ma (U-Pb zircon and Rb-Sr whole-rock; Pavlides and others, 1982); the gneiss intrudes Ta River Metamorphic Suite (Cta) and the Holly Corners Gneiss (CZh).
Granite gneiss (Pavlides, 1990). Fine- to medium grained, light-gray to white granite to tonalite gneiss; composed of biotite, oligoclase, quartz, and porphyroblastic microcline, with accessory muscovite, epidote, titanite, and magnetite; hornblende occurs locally within diffuse compositional layering. Inclusions of biotite gneiss and amphibolite are present locally. Unit occurs as irregular lenticular to tabular masses within porphyroblastic biotite gneiss (Ymd).
Light-gray, medium- to coarse grained, foliated. Includes biotite-muscovite granite, granodiorite, tonalite, and granitic pegmatite; contains xenoliths of biotite gneiss, amphibolite, and felsic metavolcanic rocks. Mineralogy: plagioclase + quartz + microcline; common accessories include biotite, muscovite, epidote, zircon, apatite, garnet, magnetite, and pyrite (Bourland and Glover, 1979). Geophysical signature: diffuse magnetic lows and radiometric highs. The pluton was originally named Columbia Granite by Jonas (1928); this name was objected to by later workers because of the relatively small percentage of true granite present. The pluton includes the southeastern portion of the granodiorite unit of Smith and others (1964). Granitic rocks in the Carysbrook area of Fluvanna County are here considered part of a separate Carysbrook pluton, following the usage of Stose and Stose (1948). The Columbia includes, in part, the Hatcher complex of Brown (1969). Bourland and Glover (1979) refer to the pluton as the Columbia metagranite. Given the heterogeneous nature of the pluton, multiple intrusive phases are likely present. Tonalite in the eastern part of the pluton has yielded ages of 590+/-80 Ma, (Rb-Sr whole-rock; Fullagar, 1971). Mose and Nagel (1982) report a Rb-Sr whole-rock age for the Columbia of 454±9 Ma. Because samples for this age are described as coming from the western portion of the Columbia, it is possible that the rocks dated were taken from what is herein mapped as the Carysbrook pluton (grc).
Light-gray, fine- to medium grained quartzite and quartzose muscovite schist. Mineralogy: quartz + muscovite + plagioclase ± microcline. This lithology occurs as thin discontinuous lenses at the base of the Quantico; thin diopsidic calcsilicate layers are also found locally in the lower part of the Quantico (Pavlides, 1980).
Fine Creek Mills granite (Poland, 1976; Reilly, 1980). Light-gray, medium- to coarse-grained, homogenous, foliated, flow-banded granite. Mineralogy: microcline + plagioclase + quartz + biotite; accessory minerals include apatite, garnet, fluorite, and zircon. The Fine Creek Mills intrudes the State Farm Gneiss (Ysf).
Light-gray to white, medium-grained, foliated felsite ranges in composition from rhyolite to dacite. Mineralogy: quartz + perthitic microcline + muscovite + biotite; beta-form quartz phenocrysts are characteristic.
Dark greenish-gray, fine- to medium-grained, foliated, lineated, amphibole-bearing gneiss and schist. Also includes tuffaceous volcaniclastic rocks. Mineralogy: amphibole + acicular actinolite + epidote + chlorite + titanite + plagioclase + magnetite.
Light- to dark-gray to pink, fine- to coarse-grained, equigranular to porphyritic, foliated to nonfoliated, ranges from granite to granodiorite in composition; multiple intrusive phases are present. The granite contains xenoliths of biotite gneiss and amphibolite. Mineralogy: quartz + sodic plagioclase + potassium feldspar + biotite ± hornblende; accessory minerals include ilmenite, magnetite, pyrite, zircon, apatite, titanite, muscovite, and fluorite (Goodwin, 1970; Daniels and Onuschak, 1974; Wright and others, 1975). Current mapping restricts the Petersburg Granite to a contiguous unit that crops out in the Cities of Richmond and Petersburg; this roughly corresponds to one of four discrete plutons mapped as Petersburg Granite on the 1963 Geologic Map of Virginia. Samples from within this pluton were dated at 330±8 Ma (U-Pb zircon; Wright, and others, 1975). The northwestern edge of the pluton is mylonitized along the Hylas fault zone (Bobyarchick and Glover, 1979).
Pegmatite (Goochland pegmatite district of Pegau, 1932). Leucocratic, coarse- to very-coarse-grained granite pegmatite. Mineralogy includes microcline, albite, quartz, muscovite, biotite, garnet, tourmaline, sillimanite, and graphite; rutile, ilmenite, and zircon are present locally (Pegau, 1932). Pegmatite occurs as lenticular bodies intruding porphyroblastic garnet-biotite gneiss (Ymd).