Evidence of a major steeply dipping normal fault is provided by recent field studies in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of North Carolina. The fault extends N. 20° E. from near Clinton in the southeastern part of the state more than 100 miles through Weldon, N.C., and possibly northward into Virginia. The fault is in the crystalline basement rock, which is downthrown to the west. In northern North Carolina the fault marks the west boundary of the Coastal Plain sediments along the "fall zone."

Linear structural features caused by, or related to, faulting of the basement rock beneath sediments of the Coastal Plain also are discussed, as are the stratigraphic features of these sediments. It is suggested that these linear features are evidence of faults in the basement rock and that the blocks between faults were tilted eastward.

The presence beneath the Coastal Plain of sediments similar to deposits of Triassic age found in the Deep River basin to the west indicate that faulting was active during late Paleozoic time. Displacement of beds in the Tertiary formations and the presence of isolated sedimentary basins suggest that faulting continued intermittently until middle or late Cenozoic time. The amount of displacement of the basement rock that occurred prior to the deposition of the Coastal Plain sediments has been obscured by erosion, which planed down the uplifted blocks, and by subsequent deposition.

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