STOP 1

Upturned metamorphic foliation on the northwest flank of the Wetumpka impact crater.

STOP 1 Northwest Flank of the Impact Structure

Rocks exposed here are coarse- to medium-grained biotite-garnet-feldspathic schist and gneiss (metagraywacke), quartz-graphic-muscovite schist and graphitic-muscovite schist that make up most of the rim of the Wetumpka impact crater and the surrounding basement rock. A light colored granitic rock is found occasionally on the eastern side of the structure. The general strike orientation of the metamorphic rocks of the northern Alabama Piedmont is northeast and the dip is to the southeast. At Stop 1, the rocks have a pronounced northwest dip (60 NW) and a northerly strike (N 16 E) orientations that are contrary to the general trend. Around the rim, the strike directions follow the circular trend of the crater and the foliations dip outwardly from the center.