Tectonic Evolution of the western part of the Pine Mountain window And adjacent inner Piedmont Province

Abstract

Eleven years have passed since the landmark southern Piedmont field trip of the Alabama Geological Society was led by Bentley and Neathery (1970). Their work is a watershed in our understanding of the internal structural geometry and lithostratigraphy of the Piedmont Province south of the Brevard Zone. Subsequent mapping has varied in detail but not in concept from the pattern presented in their guidebook (Bentley and Neathery, 1970). Renewed interest in the southern Alabama Piedmont has been sparked by the controversies related to interpretation of the COCORP Southeastern Appalachian transect as demonstrating that the entire Inner Piedmont is allochthonous with respect to the North