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Geologists
From Page A1
geologic map of part of Rappahannock County. This cliff was one small piece of this giant jigsaw puzzle.
The project is part of an ongoing study of the geology of .Shenandoah National Park and surrounding areas, financed by a grant from the U. S. Geological Survey. The gi ant is for the mapping of the Washington, Va., USGS topographic quadrangle which includes Sperryville, Washington, and much of the surrounding area.
Dr. Tolio already has completed mapping the Chester Gap and Old Rag quadrangles and parts of Madison County. The students are summer interns; I am a volunteer trying to brush up on my decades-old geology degrees.
There was silence for a few moments as the five of us studied the rock specimens. Like most rocks in the area, it was granitic, made up of quartz, light-colored feldspar, and some darker minerals. But in the details the rocks varied widely.
“It’s coarse-grained and strongly foliated,” said one of the students. “It’s not the same stuff as the last place.” She went on describing the rock. We all nodded.
She held a Brunton geologic compass next to the outcrop to measure the direction of the foliation. This gives important information on the underground structure of the rock, whether it formed before or after other rocks, and how it fits into the still incomplete picture of the overall geology.
This was only our first week working in the area, so we had more questions than answers. We recorded our findings, and marked the spot on the topographic map, one more dot in the geologic jigsaw puzzle.
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