Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Field Trip Guidebooks Series, Volume 167.
The southern Appalachian orogen contains most of the subdivisions that characterize a classic collisional orogen: A foreland fold-and-thrust belt (Cumberland Plateau and Valley and Ridge), high-grade metamorphic core (central to eastern Blue Ridge and western Piedmont), and a plutonic/volcanic belt (Charlotte belt and Carolina slate belt). In addition, a younger Alleghanian high-grade metamorphic core is present on the eastern edge of the Piedmont (Kiokee-Raleigh belt).