COCORP seismic reflection data have shown that the early Paleozoic shelf in the southern Appalachians has been overthrust by a thin sheet of crystalline rocks. The profiles extend from southeastern Tennessee to the Carolina slate belt in Georgia and show that the thrust sheet attains a maximum thickness of 15 km along this traverse. Sedimentary rocks which are interpreted as shelf sediments extend beneath the Blue Ridge and Inner Piedmont. Their discovery suggests an expansion of hydrocarbon exploration of the eastern thrust belt and perhaps other similar thrust belts. Near the Inner Piedmont-Charlotte belt boundary a transition in reflection character of the sediment layers and deep crust suggests that a major crustal transition was present in this area during the early aleozoic. Preliminary field data and palinspastic reconstructions imply this transition marks the boundary between continental and oceanic crust of the early Paleozoic. Further profiling to be conducted in the winter of 1979-80 may provide important new information on the nature and extent of the overthrusting.

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