This study presents geochemical data produced from the analysis of coal and adjacent rock samples retrieved from coal mining regions in the U.S. to examine mineral matter provenance. Study sites included the North­ ern Appalachian Basin, where the units of interest were the Lower Kittanning Coal bed, the overlying Columbiana Shale, and the underlying paleosol (Allegheny Formation). Additional s...

In this paper, we examine geographic and racial/ethnic differences in heart disease and stroke mortality in the Appalachian region. Initial comparisons are made between national rates for heart disease and stroke mortality and those for the Appalachian region. County-level analyses were performed to examine the relative mortality experience of populations in Appalachian counties compared to oth...

We use lithospheric-scale analog models to study the reactivation of pre-existing heterogeneities under oblique shortening and its relation to the origin of arcuate orogens. Reactivation of inherited rheological heterogeneities is an important mechanism for localization of deformation in compressional settings and consequent initiation of contractional structures during orogenesis. However, the...

Objective. Appalachia – historically a culturally and politically unique region of the United States – has been effectively ignored by contemporary political scientists. Using a unique measure of Appalachian residence, this paper analyzes racial attitudes, religion, and Appalachian opposition to the 2008 presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. Methods. I use regression analysis to assess the ex...

Field activities in the Britannia Range (Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica) highlighted new geological features around the so-called Byrd Glacier discontinuity. Recent field surveys revealed the occurrence of significant amounts of mediumto high-grade metamorphic rocks, intruded by abundant coarse-grained porphyritic granitoids. Most of the granitoids are deformed, with foliation parallel to...

The highly rural region of Appalachia faces considerable socioeconomic disadvantage and health disparities that are recognized risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). The objective of this study was to estimate the rate of IPV-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non-Appalachian United States for 2007-2011 and compare hospitalizations in each region by clinical and sociodemo...

Mass elevation and lee effects markedly influence snow lines and tree lines in high mountain systems. However, their impact on other phenomena or groups of organisms has not yet been quantified. Here we quantitatively studied their influence in the Himalaya-Tibet orogen on the distribution of ground beetles as model organisms, specifically whether the ground beetle distribution increases from t...

Along the western margin of the Taconic orogen in New York and Vermont, undeformed quartz-calcite veins commonly occur in the belt of melange that formed beneath the westward-advancing Taconic Allochthon during the Middle-Late Ordovician Taconic orogeny. The veins have mineral slickenfibers recording either reverse or normal slip. In New York, the reverse-motion veins recording the latest phase...

Devonian granitoid plutons comprise a major part of the bedrock northwestern Maine representing magmatic expression Acadian orogeny in this northern Appalachian orogen. They are petrographically diverse with minerals characteristic both I- and S-type granites, some cases within same intrusion, compositionally zoned. New LA-ICP-MS ages presented here elucidate timing duration magmatism. The earl...

The objective of this study is to analyze patterns of genetic variation at genic expressed sequence tag – simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) and at chloroplast DNAmarkers in populations of American chestnut (Castanea dentata Borkh.) to assist in conservation and breeding efforts. Allelic diversity at EST-SSRs decreased significantly from southwest to northeast along the Appalachian range, sugge...