ONE space is currently available.
AEG Carolinas Field Course
Pleistocene Paleoseismicity & Landforms
in the Blue Ridge
Sparta Area, NC
Date: Saturday, May 20, 2023
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Field Course Leaders: Arthur Merschat and Mark Carter, United States Geological Survey
Event: Pleistocene paleoseismicity and landforms in the Blue Ridge – Results from integrated field studies of the 9 August 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, North Carolina
Details: Field course starts at 8:30 a.m. with a 90-minute lunch break in downtown Sparta and will end at approximately 5:30 p.m.. Lunch will be on your own at the numerous restaurants along Main Street in downtown Sparta. Field vehicles will be a few participants’ cars.
Location: Field course starts and ends just southeast of Sparta in the gravel parking lot behind VFW Auxiliary Post #7034 at 1193 U.S. 21 in Sparta.
Cost: $20 for AEG members, teachers, and the public; $30 for non-members; free for student members of AEG (student membership of AEG is free)
Registration: Please complete the registration form. Field trip is limited to 20 participants.
Registration deadline: 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Field Trip Waiver: Please sign/date and email your field course waiver to Rick Kolb by May 17, 2023 or bring it with you to the field trip.
Continuing Education Credits: 7 hours for the NCBLG
Field Course Description
The field course will focus on the surface rupture from the 9 August 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, NC and the results of integrated bedrock and surficial geologic mapping, paleoseismic, geomorphologic, and geochronologic studies. The field course will involve walking ~ 1km of the surface rupture (Little River fault). We will then examine several outcrops brittle faults, Pleistocene terrace deposits, possible paleoliquefaction sites, and other geomorphologic sites in Sparta, NC. These stops will help frame our discussions on the connections between seismicity, bedrock geology, geomorphology, and landscape evolution in the Blue Ridge.