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

983 megapixels
37,152 x 26,452 pixels
123.8 in X 88.2 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), this antiform is the result of ancient mountain-building processes. A fold that goes up in the middle is called an 'antiform,' and if there is stratigraphic coherence to it (i.e., the youngest is on top), then we call it an 'anticline.' 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. As the dark stripe down the middle shows, this GigaPan was shot on a partly cloudy day.