OPPORTUNISTIC GEOLOGY - STAYING ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE HYDROSEEDER

Since 1997, during STATEMAP field activities, we have encountered new outcrops exposed by logging activity, highway construction, and stream erosion. One might expect the effective lifetime of such exposures to be directly related to their proximity to civilization. This is not always the case. Spectacular geology exposed by Corridor H highway construction in West Virginia appears destined to remain visible for the foreseeable future. Benches have been seeded to crown vetch but no further landscape activities appear imminent. On the other hand, an example of post-Tertiary faulting exposed along a one-lane, unimproved road in Highland County, Virginia has recently been buried with topsoil and seeded. This outcrop went without reclamation for approximately two years. A spillway washout at Brushy Fork Dam in Pendleton County, West Virginia associated with Hurricane Fran provided six months of unparalleled access to Upper Devonian Foreknobs strata. Fresh exposures of Upper Devonian Hampshire along U. S. 33 in Rockingham County, Virginia were hydroseeded within days of completion of road widening. Unfortunately, the dark green coloration of the seeding mixture was a perfect mask for the dark green basalt dike present in the outcrop. Because of the unpredictable amount of time new bedrock exposures may be available, our standard practice is to stop at any new outcrop whenever it presents itself. We come prepared to measure and describe stratigraphic sections, take geochemical and paleontological samples, and, most importantly, create a photographic record.