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The Mars Hill Terrane (MHT) is a belt of rocks exposed in the southern Appalachian Mountains, between Roan Mountain, North Carolina and Mars Hill, North Carolina. The terrane is located at the junction between the Western Blue Ridge and the Eastern Blue Ridge Mountains.

The unique lithology, age, and metamorphic history of the MHT suggest an exotic terrane origin, unrelated to either the Laurentian or peri-Gondwanan terranes that make up most of the Appalachian Mountains. Whole-rock Rb-Sr dating suggests an age of 1.8 Ga for the MHT, making it the oldest terrane in the southern Appalachians by 600 million years.

Characteristics

The main outcrops of the Mars Hill Terrane occur in far western North Carolina, between Mars Hill and Roan Mountain. There are additional associated Mesoproterozoic outcrops that may also be a part of the terrane.

The MHT is unique in the southern Appalachians, for several reasons:

1. Lithology. The MHT comprises a more diverse set of rocks than any other basement exposure in the southern Appalachians, including mafics/ultramafics interspersed with granitic gneisses. In contrast:
   • The Western Blue Ridge show no mafics/ultramafics at all. These metasedimentary rocks were likely originally deposited as sedimentary sequences on the margin of Laurentia before the various terrane accretions starting forcing up the Appalachians.
   • The Eastern Blue Ridge Mountains do show some mafic rocks, but always in contact with metasedimentary rocks. This is likely because the Eastern Blue Ridge comprises island arc(s) and their accompanying sedimentary sequences that docked onto Laurentia during the Phanerozoic. Additionally, the Eastern Blue Ridge mafics are rarely migmatitic; the MHT mafics are often migmatitic.
2. Metamorphic Grade. The MHT has been metamorphosed to granulite facies. In contrast, Western and Eastern Blue Ridge rocks rarely experienced metamorphism above amphibolite facies.
3. Age. Whole-rock Rb-Sr dating suggests crystallization from magma at 1.8 Ga. This is significantly earlier than most Western/Eastern Blue Ridge rocks, which are consistently age-dated at less than 750 Ma.

References

1. ^ Merschat, C.E. (1977). "Geologic map and mineral resources summary of the Mars Hill quadrangle, North Carolina". North Carolina Geological Survey, Division of Land Resources, scale 1:24,000.
2. Gulley, G.L. (1982). "The petrology of granulite facies metamorphic rocks on Roan mountain, Western Blue Ridge, NC-TN ". University of North Carolina.
3. Gulley, G.L. (1985). "A Proterozoic granulite-facies terrane on Roan Mountain, western Blue Ridge Belt, North Carolina-Tennessee". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 96: 1428.
4. ^ Monrad, J.R. and, G.L. Gulley (1983). "Age and P-T conditions during metamorphism of granulite-facies gneisses, Roan Mountain, NC-TN, in Lewis, S.E., ed., Geological Investigations in the Blue Ridge of northwestern North Carolina". Carolina Geological Society Field Trip Guidebook. 4: 1–18.
5. ^ Adams, M.G. and, Trupe, C.H. (1997). "Conditions and timing of metamorphism in the Blue Ridge thrust complex, northwestern North Carolina and western Tennessee, in Stewart, K.G., et al., eds., Paleozoic structure, metamorphism, and tectonics of the Blue Ridge of western North Carolina". Carolina Geological Society Field Trip and Annual Meeting: 33–47.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Ownby, S.; et al. (2004). "U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of a portion of the Mars Hill terrane, North Carolina–Tennessee: Constraints on origin, history, and tectonic assembly". Geological Society of America. Memoir 197: 609. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first= (help)
7. Rankin, D. (1975). "The continental margin of eastern North America in the southern Appalachians: The opening and closing of the proto-Atlantic Ocean". American Journal of Science. 275a: 298.

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