Warren Point Sandstone on Lookout Mountain

Habte G. Churnet, R. E. Bergenback, D. Gaines, J. Eaker, B. Hartman

Lookout Mountain is an upland that is separated from the remainder of the Cumberland Plateau by Lookout Valley. The Warren Point Sandstone, a formation of the Lower Pennsylvanian Series, crops out on Lookout Mountain. The Warren Point is a conglomeratic coarse-grained quartzarenite. Erosion along joints exposes blocks of quartzarenite, which present excellent three-dimensional views of sedimentary structures at Point Park (Tennessee) and Cloudland Canyon State Park (Georgia). Sedimentary structures at these outcrops are dominated by large-scale (0.2-1.5 m in amplitude) cross-beds (trough and planar tabular) interstratified with low-angle planar-laminated beds, channel beds, and minor intraformational, recumbently folded foresets. We found no evidence to support that the W rren Point represents a barrier-sand deposit as suggested by others. Rather, type and association of sedimentary structures, unimodal paleocurrent direction, and total lack of fossils other than that of plants indicate that the Warren Point at these outcrops may represent braided stream deposits as recently suggested from a study of this formation at other localities.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91043©1986 AAPG Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-18, 1986.