FIELD AND PETROGRAPHIC STUDY OF GREAT SMOKY GROUP STRATA EXPOSED ON FORT MOUNTAIN ALONG HIGHWAY 52, MURRAY AND GILMER COUNTIES, GA

Associated with the Cartersville Fault contact of the Western Blue Ridge metamorphic province and the easternmost Valley and Ridge fold-and-thrust-belt province, Fort Mountain (GA) has geologic exposures mapped previously at a regional scale. Fort Mountain gneiss basement rock has been brought to the surface along Cartersville thrust fault slivers. Additional units that are tectonically emplaced include the Wilhite Formation of the Walden Creek Group and undifferentiated Great Smoky Group units. More detailed field observations and petrographic analyses of the Great Smoky Group exposed along Highway 52 and service roads in the upper plate of Cartersville thrust fault will provide a more precise understanding of the units exposed there.