The Churchland Plutonic Suite is a large granite body located in central North Carolina. Granites here date to the late Paleozoic as the supercontinent Pangea was in its compressional stage. This formation is also known as a post-metamorphic, Alleghanian-age granite plutons. Magma generation was related to shear zone melt during the late Alleghenian Orogeny.
Geology The Churchland Plutonic suite is located in central North Carolina. It dates back to ~282± 6 Ma, which places it at the end of the Artinskian. It is related to other intrusive suites in the area; namely the Landis, Mooresville, York, Clover, and the Rolesville plutons associated with the Charlotte Belt.
The granitic rocks are classified as biotite monzogranite, typically porphyritic, but with fine-grained phases. It also has a weak flow foliation structure. Other minerals include: epidote, potassium feldspar, muscovite, plagioclase feldspar, and quartz.
Geological context The Churchland Plutonic Suite's formation is tied to the late Alleghenian Orogeny. Magma generation was long (~45 Ma) and slow (~2 cubic kilometers, 1.2 cubic miles per million years). These intrusions formed a southwest to northeast trend line covering . Magma formed by juxtaposition of high temperature rocks against lower-temperature melting rocks, decompression, fluxing, or a combination of these as a result of either transpressional arching or faulting. This happened most often at shear zones. There is no evidence of magma being erupted at the surface.
References