A Resource for Information on the Commonwealth's Geology
Mount Rogers is the highest peak in Virginia, with its summit 1,746 meters above sea level (5,729 ft). The peak is located in the Blue Ridge province in southwestern Virginia on the border between Grayson and Smyth counties. Mount Rogers is underlain by Neoproterozoic rhyolite. The upper reaches of the mountain are cloaked in alpine forests of red […]
This distinctive scallop is the state fossil of Virginia and is the first fossil described from North America in 1687. Chesapecten sp. are commonly found in strata exposed along Coastal Plain cliffs along major rivers in southeastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina. Chesapecten jeffersonius is the index fossil for the Lower Yorktown Formation, and is distinguished by the number […]
When large quantities of magma intrude and solidify in the Earth’s crust they form bodies of intrusive igneous rock known as plutons. The featured image nicely illustrates the edge (geologic contact) of a granitic pluton in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia. The granite is part of the 706 ± 4 million year old […]