GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE ATLANTA 1-DEGREE X 30-MINUTE QUADRANGLE, GEORGIA, V. 3.0

The Atlanta quadrangle, roughly centered on the City of Atlanta, spans from the Valley and Ridge province in its northwestern corner across the Blue Ridge and into the inner Piedmont. The Brevard zone crosses the quadrangle diagonally. The Blue Ridge in western Georgia and Alabama consists of a pile of nappes made up of folded thrust sheets. In the Villa Rica nappe Chilhowee Group rocks are both above and below the core of Great Smoky Group rocks. Southwest of the Brevard zone is the Atlanta nappe, which preserves a klippe of Lake Russell allochthon, Carolina superterrane, at Soapstone Ridge. Carolina superterrane rocks (Paulding Complex) are also found northwest of the Brevard. Mylonites along the S.E. edge of the Brevard zone dip under the Atlanta nappe. These mylonites also dip under the N.E. end of the nappe, where they belong to the Dacula shear zone. East of the Atlanta nappe the Lithonia Gneiss consists of a granitoid phase and the Mount Arabia Migmatite. The migmatite occurs mostly around the edges of the granitoid phase and was probably formed when the Ordovician granitoid phase intruded Stonewall biotite gneiss, which occurs around the edges of the Lithonia and locally as roof pendants on/in the granitoid phase. Atop the Lithonia, the Stonewall Gneiss and units of the Allatoona allochthon are the aluminous schist and Chattahoochee Palisades Quartzite of the Sandy Springs Group. The Lithonia, its country rock, the Stonewall Gneiss, and overlying Sandy Springs rocks constitute a mantled gneiss dome assemblage. The aluminous schist and quartzite are interpreted to have been deposited unconformably upon the Lithonia and the other units and were metamorphosed with the Lithonia and thrust across it. Sandy Springs Group rocks emerge from beneath the Brevard and form an outcrop belt along its N.W. side. Northwest of the Sandy Springs outcrop belt the Allatoona allochthon occupies the upper synformal limb of the Villa Rica nappe and is arched over the Dog River window to expose western Blue Ridge rocks of the Great Smoky and Chilhowee Groups. Northwest of the Allatoona allochthon Great Smoky Group and Chilhowee Group rocks emerge from beneath the allochthon and are part of the Talladega belt. Ordovician granitoids have intruded the Great Smoky rocks, providing evidence that the Emuckfaw/Lay Dam/Bill Arp rocks are older than Ordovician.