EAST TENNESSEE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

November 2024 Hybrid Meeting

---

Monday, November 11, 2024
6:00 - 7:30 pm

For those attending in-person this meeting will be held at the following location:
Pellissippi State Community College
Room location is MC-216

Note: ETGS members participating virtually will receive an email with info for attending/logging into the meeting.
 

November Presentation

Detrital zircon and rutile U-Pb geochronology of Cretaceous strata in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain and its implications for heavy mineral sand exploration in western Tennessee
 

By

Authors: William T. Jackson, Jr. (presenter), Joseph Lane, and Barry Shaulis
Geology Supervisor/State Geologist
Tennessee Geological Survey

 

Abstract

Detrital zircon geochronology provides valuable information for determining sediment provenance and characterizing source rock regions. We present detrital zircon and rutile U-Pb geochronology results from the Cretaceous McNairy Sand in western Tennessee and the Ripley Formation in Mississippi and Alabama to reconstruct paleo-drainage systems along the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Results suggest three routing systems with headwater regions in the southern Appalachian thrust belt. Two drainages sourced the southern Appalachian, eastern Blue Ridge, and Inner Piedmont provinces, with one routing sediment to Alabama and eastern Georgia, while a separate drainage system routed sediment to western Tennessee. A central drainage system between the northwestern and southeastern directed drainages sourced material from the southern Appalachian, western Blue Ridge, and Valley and Ridge provinces and supplied sediment to northeastern Mississippi. Alongshore sediment transport from the southeast to the northwest and local reworking during the Late Cretaceous complicates detrital geochronology signatures. Late Cretaceous heavy mineral sand deposits are historically known to be economical viable in northwestern Tennessee and near the Alabama-Georgia state border. We suggest that the abundance of heavy minerals is related to sediment provenance and deposits sourced from the eastern Blue Ridge and Inner Piedmont exhibit increased proportions of heavy minerals important for the critical mineral and rare earth element industries.

 

Biography
 

Education
PhD, Geological Sciences, 2017, University of Alabama
MS, Earth Sciences, 2012, University of Memphis
BS, Geology, 2009, University of Alabama

Employment
2024 - Present Geology Supervisor, TDEC, Division of Mineral and Geologic Resources, Tennessee Geological Survey
2020 - 2024 Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis
2017 - 2020 Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of South Alabama
2015 - 2017 Field Geologist, Geological Survey of Alabama

Interests
I am a field-oriented geoscientist with a focus on tectonic processes and basin analysis. My research involves the integration of sedimentology, stratigraphy, and structural geology with geochronology and thermochronology to understand sediment provenance and the relationships between deformation and deposition. I have focused research interests in (a) comparing the Appalachian Mountain belt to the modern Himalaya-Tibet orogenic system, (b) soft-sediment deformational structures in the Laramide belt of the Rocky Mountains, and (c) the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Research Funding
US Geological Survey (USGS) and National Science Foundation (NSF)

Honors
2018 Stephen E. Laubach Structural Diagenesis Award, Geological Society of America

 

 

Greetings, and welcome to the November 11, 2024 ETGS hybrid meeting.
 

If you attend via Zoom as a courtesy please mute your cell phone or the microphone in your laptop/tablet to minimize background noise and feedback echos. We will also make an effort to mute all participants - at least until the presentation is finished. Please use the chat feature to type any comments or questions you may have. We recommend that you send questions for the speaker to "everyone" so all participants can see the question. In the interest of time, we may hold the Q&A at the end of the presentation.

We will create an in-person and virtual attendance list. It is not always possible to tell who is participating on-line, especially for those joining by phone, so please email etgs@live.com to be listed on the attendance sheet. Let us know exactly how your name should appear on the list. We will add a note explaining the lack of signatures due to remote participation and have an ETGS officer sign as usual.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we try this online format. As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

 

---

---

President
David Carlone

Vice President
Open

Secretary
J. Brad Stephenson

Treasurer
Seaira Stephenson

Webmaster/Social Media Coordinator
Bob Gelinas

 

---

Page updated October 22, 2024