The Stratigraphy, Petrology, and Depositional Environments of the Maryville Limestone (Middle Cambrian) in the Vicinity of Powell and Oak Ridge, Tennessee

The Maryville Limestone (Middle Cambrian) is part of the nearly 600 meter thick Conasauga Group, which crops out along a series of northeasterly trending strike belts in the Valley and Ridge Province of the southern Appalachians. The interlayered limestone, shale, and dolostone comprising the conasauga result from the interfingering of the Conasauga Shale to the west and northwest and the Honaker Dolomite to the east and southeast. Apart from detailed lithologic and paleoenvironmental work concerning Conasauga strata in southwestern Virginia and northeasternmost Tennessee, few studies have examined the Maryville in detail in east Tennessee. In the study area, a total of 330 m of section were measured and described at three localities (Clinton Highway, Joy 2,and GW 129). Although the base of the Maryville is unexposed at Clinton Highway (77.24 m), both the Joy 2 (142.48 m) and the GW 129 (107.23 m) localities record a complete Maryville sequence. These sections were analyzed in order to establish a paleoevnvironmental model for the Maryville near the transition of this interval into the Conasauga Shale. The 12 lithologies recognized within the stratigraphic sections reflect the interaction between contemporaneous shallo�-water carbonate ramp environments and a siliciclastic-dominated intrashelf basin. Deposition