For me, Thanksgiving meant an opportunity for geologizing. The little lady and I headed down to western North Carolina to spend the holiday with her family, stopping along the way to visit with our friend Rob Greenberg in Chapel Hill. Rob took us out on a morning of geologizing, visiting various metavolcanic rocks in the Piedmont province. It was a nice sampling of what North Carolina has to offer geological visitors.

Pyrophyllite-rich metarhyolite at Eno River State Park:


Crystal-lithic meta-tuff alongside the road:


Greenstone (meta-basalt) with amygdules rich in chlorite and epidote:


More information on each of these rock units here. Many thanks to Rob for taking the three hours to show us these outcrops (and one more, which I will discuss in a different post).

Labels: igneous, metamorphism, north carolina, piedmont, volcano