Purcell Knob

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Purcell Knob
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Purcell Knob
Highest point
Elevation 1,207 ft (368 m) [1]
Prominence 267 ft (81 m) [1]
Coordinates 39°15′29″N77°44′59″W / 39.2581571°N 77.7497153°W / 39.2581571; -77.7497153 Coordinates: 39°15′29″N77°44′59″W / 39.2581571°N 77.7497153°W / 39.2581571; -77.7497153 [2]
Geography
Location Loudoun County Virginia, U.S.
Parent range Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Mountains

Purcell Knob is a spur of the Blue Ridge Mountain in Loudoun County, Virginia. The 1,207 feet (368 m) peak is just northeast of the main ridge at Keyes Gap and southeast of the village of Neersville.

Blue Ridge Mountain mountain in West Virginia, United States of America

Blue Ridge Mountain, also known as Blue Mountain, is the colloquial name of the westernmost ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The Appalachian Trail traverses the entire length of the mountain along its western slope and crest.

Loudoun County, Virginia County in the United States

Loudoun County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2017, the population was estimated at 398,080, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County is part of the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Keyes Gap

Keyes Gap or Keyes' Gap is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain on the border of Loudoun County, Virginia and Jefferson County, West Virginia. The gap is traversed by Virginia State Route 9/West Virginia Route 9. The Appalachian Trail also crosses the gap.

Purcell Knob is notable for exposure of the sericitic phyllite base of the Paleozoic Loudoun Formation in its antiformal syncline. [3]

Phyllite foliated metamorphic rock

Phyllite is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation. It is primarily composed of quartz, sericite mica, and chlorite.

The PaleozoicEra is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. It is the longest of the Phanerozoic eras, lasting from 541 to 251.902 million years ago, and is subdivided into six geologic periods : the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. The Paleozoic comes after the Neoproterozoic Era of the Proterozoic Eon and is followed by the Mesozoic Era.

The Chilhowee Group is a sedimentary body composed of early Cambrian siliciclastic sedimentary rocks which crop out along the eastern margin of the Blue Ridge province in Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. They represent a rift to passive margin sequence, with mostly coarse, feldspathic sandstones and conglomerates in the lower member and shales and phyllite in the upper members.The Chilhowee Group contains four formations; the Loudoun Formation, Weverton Formation, Harpers Formation and Antietam Formation. Another name for the Harpers formations is the Hampton formation, and the Antietam Formation is also known as the Erwin Formation. The Hampton Formation has minor economic importance in the area near the James River Face Wilderness. As of 1982 there were three quarries operating near the James River Face Wilderness. Those quarries produced roofing shale, light weight aggregate, and various materials for brick making. The Antietam Formation also had a minor economic importance, particularly from 1945 up until 1966. There were three quarries producing crushed quartzite, which was used to produce concrete aggregates, road metal and railroad ballast .

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Short Hill Mountain mountain in United States of America

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Between the Hills valley

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Tuscarora Sandstone

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Reedsville Formation

The Ordovician Reedsville Formation is a mapped surficial bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, that extends into the subsurface of Ohio. This rock is a slope-former adjacent to the prominent ridge-forming Bald Eagle sandstone unit in the Appalachian Mountains. It is often abbreviated Or on geologic maps.

Hamilton Group

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The Devonian Mahantango Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It is named for the North branch of the Mahantango Creek in Perry and Juniata counties in Pennsylvania. It is a member of the Hamilton Group, along with the underlying the Marcellus Formation Shale. South of Tuscarora Mountain in south central Pennsylvania, the lower members of this unit were also mapped as the Montebello Formation. Details of the type section and of stratigraphic nomenclature for this unit as used by the U.S. Geological Survey are available on-line at the National Geologic Map Database.

Pocono Formation

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Raven Rocks (rock formation) mountain in United States of America

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Trimble Knob

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Champe Rocks

Champe Rocks are a pair of large crags in Pendleton County in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, USA. Easily visible from West Virginia Route 28, they are situated within the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. They are — along with the nearby and more celebrated Seneca Rocks — the most imposing examples in eastern West Virginia of several formations of the white/gray Tuscarora quartzite and are a popular challenge for rock climbers.

The Weverton Formation is a quartzite geologic formation in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is considered the basal member of the Chilhowee Group. The Weverton Formation dates back to the Cambrian period.

References

  1. 1 2 "Purcell Knob, Virginia". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
  2. "Purcell Knob". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2013-01-25.
  3. "Paleozoic Rocks". U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2013-01-25.