A natural outcrop of the Neoproterozoic Skippers granite exposed in the eastern Piedmont, Greenville County, Virginia. The exposure, at the edge of a clearcut, is composed of more-erosionally resistant core stones that are elevated above the soil. William & Mary geologist Ace Yuan atop the largest core stone. Photo by B.E. Owens.
Finding bedrock outcrop in the Piedmont of Southside Virginia can be challenging. Much of the terrain is covered by soil and saprolite, and geologists interested in this region must search high and low for outcrop. The image above illustrates a ‘good’ natural outcrop in the Piedmont, likely the result of a relatively resistant rock that is only weakly fractured. These are core stones of unweathered bedrock that are separated by …
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Simplified geologic map of the Skippers pluton near Emporia, Virginia. The pluton is covered, in part, by Cenozoic sediments of the Coastal Plain, and intrudes older metamorphic rocks.
