BEDROCK GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE BLUESTONE NATIONAL SCENIC RIVER, PIPESTEM AND FLAT TOP, 7.5' QUADRANGLES, SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

A new geologic map of the Bluestone National Scenic River was prepared in cooperation with the National Park Service and the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey. The Bluestone River is a tributary of the New River that has incised a gorge into the Carboniferous sedimentary rock of the Appalachian Plateau in southern West Virginia. Mississippian strata in the region are best recognized by the red color of extensive, stacked paleosols, most typical in the Hinton Formation. Pennsylvania strata are best known as the coal-bearing strata of the southern West Virginia Coalfields. These strata cap the ridges in the western part of the map, and are best recognized by thick, erosion-resistant sandstones. To complete the map, structure contours were constructed for widespread and recognizable rock units, the Princeton Sandstone Member of the Bluestone Formation and the Avis Limestone Member of the Hinton Formation. Structure contour maps define a broad anticline, the Duns, that plunges to the southwest across the map, but the general trend indicates a regional dip to the west, into the Appalachian basin.