Sedimentary Fabrics of Stratified Slope Deposits at a Site near Hoover's Camp, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

An outcrop of stratified slope deposits in Shenandoah National Park is
described in detail. The Pleistocene age deposits are comprised of a mixture of
clay to cobbles defining a series of offlapping wedges. Elongate clasts are
oriented parallel to wedge boundaries except at the toe of the wedge, where
they are oriented nearly vertical. The wedges represent sedimentation by
freeze-thaw of ground ice. Thin layers of pebbly sand separate matrix-rich
wedge deposits, which represent sheetfloods during periods of thaw. Thicker
sand layers and lenses of clay are placed upslope of coarse-grained wedge
fronts. This association represents ponding of water around the solifluction
lobe topography during warm periods. Stratified slope deposits at an outcrop at
a higher elevation lack the sandy sheetflood and pond deposits, whereas
sheetflood fabrics dominate deposits at a lower elevation. These variations are
attributed to differences in temperature at the different elevations.

[Summary provided by the USGS.]