Old Rag Granite

They are pictured here so take a moment to familiarize yourself with these special plants so you can be on the lookout for them.

Old rag granite. As the magma cools interlocking crystals of feldspar quartz and mica form. Granites can be predominantly white pink or gray in color depending on their mineralogy the word granite comes from the latin granum a grain in reference to the coarse grained structure of such a completely crystalline rock. Geologic unit mapped in virginia. Virginia s old rag mountain is named for old rag granite the form of very hard and resistant crystallized magma that underlies the elevation.

Harpers antietam and overlying limestone formations old rag granite probably was buried beneath several. Old rag is host to many rare and endangered plants that live in the harsh rocky environment of the granite boulders. Old rag mountain loop is a 10 2 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near syria virginia that features a river and is rated as difficult. Old rag granite furcron 1934.

Strictly speaking granite is an. This old rag granite was created over a billion years ago that makes old rag about 900 million years older than the west s rocky mountains. Around and underneath granite boulders throughout the scramble. Granite ˈ ɡ r æ n ɪ t is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture.

The mountain itself is underlain by the old rag granite a coarse grained alkali feldspar granite that crystallized 1 060 ma during the grenville orogeny. Old rag old rocks. Massive volumes of granitic rock intruded the earth s crust during the long lived grenville orogeny which ultimately formed the supercontinent of rodinia. These plants are particularly susceptible to trampling.

Leucocratic coarse grained foliated alkali feldspar blue quartz granite contains accessory biotite muscovite garnet magnetite and zircon. Old rag itself is formed of old rag granite one of the oldest rocks in the park. Old rag mountain is underlain by old rag granite named for its ubiquitous exposure on the mountain formed during the grenville orogeny about a billion years ago. Old rag granite was formed in the grenville orogeny around 1 2 billion years ago as a pluton a molten mass of igneous rock that cools below the surface of the earth.

While going through the boulder scramble keep your eyes open for the blue blazes as sometimes they are in the strangest places. Dated at 1115 ma u pb zircon. About 400 million years after the grenville orogeny during the catoctin formation deposition of basaltic magma occurred during the formation of the iapetus ocean forming a layer of greenstone over the granite. Granite is a plutonic or igneous intrusive rock that forms by the slow cooling of trapped magma.

20 miles n old rag mountain 3. Old rag has some of virginia s more interesting geology.