Ultraphyllonite origin for slate,mid-Atlantic Piedmont,USA

Structural, petrographic, and geochemical criteria are applied in combination to determine the petrologic origins of slaty rocks in polydeformed metasedimentary terranes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the Peach Bottom slate (PBs), mined over several centuries, is an ultraphyllonite. It occurs within an Alleghanian dextral retraining bend within the Appalachian Piedmont, as a segment of the Pleasant Grove-Huntington Valley shear zone system (>200 km long). The PBs differs markedly from other slates, in that, it contains abundant, micro-scale remnant porphyroclasts of higher-grade minerals. The PBs has major, trace and rare earth element geochemistry and ¹⁴⁷Sm/¹⁴³Nd ratios that are similar to the surrounding pelitic rocks. When compared to average slates, the geochemistry of the PBs exhibits depletion in alkali earth and alkali elements.