Road Log Knoxville - New Prospect Mine - Thorn Hill Section - Dandridge - Shady Grove - and Return to Knoxville

Abstract This trip crosses a wide-expanse of typical Valley and Ridge geology and topography before reaching the gentler structure of the Powell River anticline with its numerous zinc and lead occurrences. The largest of these, the New Prospect mine, is Stop 3. Here the mineralization occurs in Maynardville Limestone along fault and shear zones rather than in collapse breccias. Stop 4 will be at the famous Thorn Hill section where the roadcut for highway US-25E traverses strata from lower Cambrian to lower Mississippian in age. Selected sites will be examined. The remainder of this trip will cover the area northeast and southeast of the Mascot-Jefferson City district, concentrating on the post-Knox unconformity and its solution features. Stop 5, just south of Dandridge along Douglas Lake, provides a look at a quartz sand-filled depression in the erosion surface. At Stop 6, west of Dandridge at the Shady Grove area, two large, relic sinks filled with blocks of dolomite and chert will be seen. This karst development is believed related to the development of the large breccia bodies which are common to the upper Knox dolomite and which are ore hosts in the mineralized districts.