1992 Appalachian Tectonic Studies Group Field Trip

Fold-thrust belts in the Great (Kittatinny) Valley and Southwest Highlands, NJ.

Gregory Herman and Donald Monteverde, New Jersey Geological Survey

The 1992 ATSG was run in the Kittattiny Valley and Southwest part of the NJ Highlands
where Lower Paleozoic carbonate, slate and graywacke rocks crop out and record at least two
phases of Paleozoic mountain building . In New Jersey, Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate rocks
were folded during the Middle- to Late Ordovician Taconic orogeny resulting in overtuned,
tight folds occupying SE hinterland regions in the current Highlands province, and more
upright and open folds in the NW foreland regions of the current Great Valley and Valley and
Ridge provinces. These folds were cored by Late Proterozoic granite and gneiss. The Taconic
event resulted in an early (S1) phase of penetrative solution cleavage in carbonate rocks and
slaty and spaced cleavage in clastic rocks.  The ensuing Late Paleozoic Alleghanian orogeny
resulted in a system of basement-cored thrust faults that cut and transported earlier folds
northwestward. A second (S2) phase of penetrative cleavage accompanied this late-stage
deformation that is best developed in the Martinsburg  Formation and Jacksonburg Limestone.

A series of manuscripts and abstracts were published during the 1990's that detail these events.
Those accessible directly from the world-wide-web include:

Herman, G. C., Monteverde, D. H., Schlische, R. W., and Pitcher, D. M., 1997, Foreland crustal
structure of the New York recess, northeastern United States: Geological Society of America
Bulletin, v. 109, no. 8, p. 955-977. PDF

Herman, G. C., and Monteverde, D. H., 1989, Tectonic framework of Paleozoic rocks of
northwestern New Jersey; Bedrock structure and balanced cross sections of the Valley and Ridge
province and southwest Highlands area: in Grossman, I. G., ed., Paleozoic Geology of the Kittatinny
Valley and Southwest Highlands Area, N.J., Sixth Annual Meeting of the Geological Association
of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J., p. 1-57.

Others include:

Herman, G. C., 1992, Deep crustal structure and seismic expression of the central Appalachian
orogenic belt: Geology, Vol. 20, No. 3, p. 275-278.

Herman, G. C., Houghton, H. F.,Monteverde, D. H., Volkert, R.A., Drake, A. A., Jr. and Parker,
R. A., 1991, Interpretive cross sections of the New Jersey Valley and Ridge, Highlands, and Newark
Basin: Geological Society America Abstracts with Programs, v. 23, no. 1, p. 83.

Herman G. C., and Monteverde, D. H., 1988, The Jenny Jump - Crooked Swamp structural front
of northern New Jersey; Alleghanian overthrusting of a Taconic Foreland: Geological Society America
Abstracts with Programs, v. 20, no.1, p. 26.