Evidence for prolonged Paleozoic metamorphism in the Eastern Blue Ridge from U-Pb Geochronology

Direct evidence for the timing of Paleozoic metamorphism is limited in reliability and extent in the southern Appalachians compared to the northern Appalachians. I employed U-Pb geochronology to date amphibolite in the Eastern Blue Ridge of North Carolina to better understand the age of southern Appalachian orogenesis. I collected samples from the Ashe Metamorphic Suite and dated zircon and titanite using LA-ICPMS and ID-TIMS. I found that zircon and titanite ages span approximately 130 million years from the Middle Ordovician through Mississippian. The data indicate that the Eastern Blue Ridge was subjected to prolonged tectonothermal heating throughout much of the Paleozoic, rather than discrete orogenic events punctuated by intervening periods of cooling.Master of Scienc