A Resource for Information on the Commonwealth's Geology
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 […]
Yorktown became a famous locale in 1781 after the surrender of the British troops which effectively ended the Revolutionary War. British forces in and around Yorktown dug a number of defensive earthworks that were sieged by American and French troops over a three-week period prior to the surrender on October 19th, 1781. In the early 21st […]
Many of the highest peaks in Shenandoah National Park (including Hawksbill, Stony Man, and Hightop Mountain, just to name a few) are underlain by distinctive bluish-green rocks that were once ancient lava flows (Virginia is for Lavas!), and are part of a geologic unit known as the Catoctin Formation. From the presidential retreat at Camp David to Jefferson’s […]