By: magic-gigapans
Image: Callan Bentley, Mid-Atlantic Geo-Image Collection
License: Creative Commons Non Commercial ⧉

Uploaded: 14 May 2020
Last Updated: 15 May 2020

1.24 gigapixels
70,972 x 17,468 pixels
236.6 in X 58.2 in at 300dpi

Exposed on the northern bank of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal near the downstream end of 'Widewater' (upstream of the Old Anglers Inn access point), these rocks are the result of ancient mountain-building processes. These rocks, the Mather Gorge Formation, were originally deposited as layers of sand and mud in the deep sea, but were then squished and baked and contorted and recrystallized and partially melted around 460 million years ago, during an ancient episode of mountain-building called the Taconian Orogeny. Several structures can be observed here, including granite dikes and other intrusions, folds, and boudinage. As the dark stripe at left shows, this gigapan was shot on a partly cloudy day.