Geology topics
Maynard L. Dunn
Publications and source records attributed to Maynard L. Dunn.
Mineral resources of the Big Frog Wilderness Study Area and additions, Polk County, Tennessee and Fannin County, Georgia
No abstract available.
Mineral resource potential map of the Cohutta Wilderness and the Hemp Top Roadless Area, northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee
The Cohutta Wilderness and the Hemp Top Roadless Area have minor occurrences of metallic minerals, but no known resource potential for such minerals in the forseeable future, judging by available data, and only a very minor potential for stone for aggregate, road construction, and similar nondimension use. The rocks of the Ducktown massive sulfide district to the northeast do not appear to extend into the study area, and geochemical data derived from samples of rock, soil, and alluvium do not reveal any anomalously high concentrations of trace elements that could be representative of hidden mineral deposits. Sedimentary rocks underlying the metamorphic rocks exposed at the surface have an unknown potential for hydrocarbons in the form of natural gas. No reasonable estimate of the potential can be made until some test drilling is done in the area.
Mineral resources of the Big Frog Wilderness Study Area, Polk County, Tennessee and Fannin County, Georgia
The proposed Big Frog Wilderness is comprised of approximately 1820 hectares (18.2 km 2 ) of mountainous terrain in the Cherokee and Chattahoochee National Forests south of the Ocoee River in Polk County, Tennessee, and Fannin County, Georgia. Rocks of the study area are greenschist-facies metasandstone, meta-arkose, metagraywacke, and dark slate of the Ocoee Supergroup of late Precambrian age. A major thrust fault, correlated with the Greenbrier Fault, separates fine-grained slaty rocks of the Snowbird Group on the northwest side, from coarse clastic sediments and interbedded slates of the Great Smoky Group on the southeast. North- and northeast-trending folds are common in the map area. Minor deposits of Quaternary sand and gravel occur locally in the lower parts of large streams. Semiquantitative spectrographic, atomic absorption, and selected fire assay analyses were done on more than 200 samples of rock, soil, and stream sediment. No significant metal anomalies were found for 31 major, minor, and trace elements. In many places, metasiltstone and metasandstone contain trace amounts of chalcopyrite and sphalerite as microscopic intergrowths with the chief sulfide minerals, pyrite and pyrrhotite. Sulfides make up as much as 5 to 10 percent of some rocks and provide concentrations of Cu, Zn, and As slightly higher than background in samples of rock and soil. Rocks containing these disseminated base-metal sulfides are of insufficient grade to have current economic potential, however. No metallic mineral resources are known within the proposed Big Frog Wilderness. Nonmetallic resources, including slate and phyllite, stone, and sand and gravel are present locally, but are not presently a value because similar resources exist closer to markets outside the study area. These deposits therefore would have only marginal use in the region.
Mineral resources of the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles counties, Virginia and Monroe County, West Virginia
The Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas comprise about 8200 ha of steep wooded slopes in the Jefferson National Forest in west central Virginia and adjacent West Virginia. Mill Creek area contains about 1800 ha and Peters Mountain area about 1600 ha in Giles County, Va. Mountain Lake area contains about 3000 ha in Giles County, a little more than 570 ha in Craig County, Va., and nearly 1230 ha in Monroe County, W. Va. A small part of each study area is privately owned-- about 5 percent of Mill Creek, 20 percent of Mountain Lake and 2 percent of Peters Mountain. The U.S. Forest Service owns the mineral rights on all the Government land except for about 162 ha in the Peters Mountain arca. The three study areas are in the western part of the Valley and Ridge physiographic province and are therefore part of the folded Appalachians, which contain deformed sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age. The same elastic marine and non—marine sedimentary rock formations ranging in age from Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian are exposed throughout the region. Sandstones of the Juniata, Tuscarora, and Keefer Formations form cliffs, ridges and steep dip slopes. The distinctive hematitic sandstone beds of the Rose Hill Formation cover any dip slopes with red sandstone blocks. Other formations are less well exposed and form lower slopes and valleys.