Luke Davis - NE-SE Geological Soceity of America, Tysons Corner, VA
Jason Dittmer- 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA
Susan Howell and Clark Alexander- NE-SE Geological Soceity of America, Tysons Corner, VA
Michael Kelley - Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX
Michael Kelley - Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX
Susan Langley - 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA
Soren Larsen - 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA
Chuck Trupe - NE-SE Geological Soceity of America, Tysons Corner, VA

Little River, a 600 km2 fifth-order watershed in the piedmont of South Carolina, drains various types of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Granites and biotite schists are the predominant rock types in the basin, but gabbros and amphibolites are also present. Weathering of bedrock is the primary source of solutes, although acid rain, agricultural runoff, and wastewater treatment plant effluent modify the chemical composition. In order to better understand the relationship between rock weathering and fluvial geochemistry, the chemical composition of river water was determined at 33 sample locations throughout the wet summer season of 2003. Similar to the Enoree River Basin studied in 1999 and 2000, silicate-weathering diagrams show that kaolinite is the main weathering product, but gibbsite and smectites may be present as well. This corresponds well with the mineral composition of the ultisols and minor alfisols found in the watershed. Typical of rivers in the piedmont, all samples were oversaturatedwith respect to quartz. Most sample localities exhibited the chemical signature of felsic rocks, but two localities show a higher Ca+Mg ratio, which may reflect the weathering of a gabbro. The Little River and Enoree River basins drain similar rock types and exhibit similar weathering products. Although located in a different climatic zone, these two basins show similar chemical compositions to those in the Orinoco River basin, which drains the Guyana Shield in South America. In the upper reaches of the main channel, the discharge of effluent from a wastewater treatment plan significantly modifies the chemical weathering signature. Downstream dilution reduces this effect.

Jason Dittmer

This paper discusses the modes of representation employed to construct "Russia" within discourses associated with NATO expansion. In particular, this paper focuses solely on one mode of representation, that of Russia as the West. This representation is uncovered as the result of a content analysis of newspaper articles that date from April 17, 1991 to April 19, 2002. Most of the data comes from the pre-September 11, 2001 timeframe when Russia was solidly opposed to NATO expansion.

Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on Cockspur Island, Georgia, a low- lying salt marsh that was built with dredge spoil prior to construction of the Civil War era fort. Shoreline erosion and migration of an oyster-shell bank are altering the island's edge along the north channel of the Savannah River, destroying habitat for indigenous species and threatening historical structures, including the North Pier and Battery Hambright. Dredge spoil accretion, ships' wake and tidal action have caused changes in the shoreline through time. These processes are occurring rapidly, creating an immediate need for accurate information upon which to base management decisions. Aerial imagery from 1982, 1989, 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2000 were scanned, digitized, and georeferenced. Using remote sensing and geographic information systems, these data permitted for: 1) comparison of geographic feature locations from 1982 to 2000, 2) calculation of erosion and migration rates, and 3) determine if seasonal trends exist in these rates. These studies identified the main factors influencing oyster-shell bank migration and shoreline erosion, thereby assisting Fort Pulaski National Park in establishing strategies to prevent further destruction of historical and natural resources.

The natural fire regime, for a particular site, may be one of the most ecologically meaningful variables in fire-dependent landscapes. The natural fire regime is defined as the fire frequency and fire severity actually experienced by vegetation in a particular location. We wanted to map presettlement vegetation fire regimes for fire-dependent longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) communities at Uwharrie National Forest, NC. We generated a predictive model using a topographic approach in a geographic information system (GIS). Soil polygons for USDA Forest Service lands were used as the basic GIS mapping unit. Polygons were cross-classified according to proximity to riparian areas and percent slope and then assigned to one of five topographic fire regime (TFR) classes. Soil polygons were the most easily available digital landscape-scale unit and were believed to be a more meaningful landscape unit than an artificially imposed grid system. TFR classes were comparatively assessed using 209 "witness trees", mapped in a GIS layer from county survey plats (ca. 1700-1800) of the study area. Trees were assigned to one of five vegetation fire regime classes based on species characteristics. The overall measure of agreement between the presettlement vegetation data points and the TFR class model was 94%. This type of topographic classification may be applicable for other regions and provides an easy and inexpensive way to map vegetation fire regimes using existing data. Inclusion of other variables, such as aspect and slope position, may improve results, but may also increase the complexity of the map.

Soren Larsen

Abstract
The federal Empowerment Zones program, passed by Congress under the Clinton administration in 1993, was designed to promote socioeconomic development in impoverished urban and rural areas by stimulating job creation and the formation of grassroots groups to represent low-income residents. The program's overarching philosophy of empowerment directed each community to engage in comprehensive negotiations to identify unique needs and assets, set relevant development goals, and create benchmarks to allocate federal dollars to target areas. Each zone has witnessed a tremendous upsurge in the number and activity of interest groups vying for some $40 million in secured federal funding through a locally administered allocation process. As might be expected, the very presence of such a large amount of funding opens thorny and long suppressed issues of ethnicity and class in public discourse. However, because planning and implementation occurs in the context of a newly defined "zone" of activity, these questions ultimately invoke a broader cultural politics over regional development and, in particular, the types of places that deserve funding and support. This case study concentrates on the contested meanings ascribed to place in the Southwest Georgia United Empowerment Zone (SWGAUEZ). The analysis shows how locality itself has become the focal point anchoring broader debates over the spatial dimensions of race, class, and economic development in the zone.

EXTENT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ALLEGHANIAN FAULTING NEAR THE GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN WINDOW, NORTHWESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

ADAMS, Mark G., Department of Geology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608 and Unimin Corporation, Harris Mining Company Rd., Spruce Pine, NC 28777; TRUPE, Charles H., Department of Geology & Geography, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro GA 30460

Geologic mapping in the vicinity of the Grandfather Mountain window reveals data for evaluating the extent and significance of deformation in the Blue Ridge of western North Carolina. Around the Grandfather Mountain window, the Fries, Fork Ridge, and Linville Falls faults and their associated shear zones merge, resulting in a deformation zone greater than a kilometer thick. Late Paleozoic deformation in this area is dominated by northwest-directed thrust faulting accompanied by widespread greenschist-facies mylonitization which overprints (or obliterates) older fabrics and assemblages in basement and cover rocks. Macro- and micro-scale kinematic indicators and evidence of operative deformation mechanisms document shear sense and conditions of deformation. The Alleghanian age of the deformation has been historically inferred by structural/stratigraphic evidence and confirmed by isotopic analyses of mylonites and sheared intrusive rocks. Along the western margin of the window, Grenville-age basement gneisses and Neoproterozoic eastern Blue Ridge rocks (Ashe Metamorphic Suite ­ AMS) record greenschist facies, retrograde metamorphism overprinting kyanite-grade assemblages for several hundred meters into the hanging wall. On the northwestern side of the window, basement gneisses and Neoproterozoic intrusive rocks (Crossnore and Bakersville Suites) are strongly sheared from the Linville Falls­Fork Ridge-Fries faults to the Stone Mountain fault along the edge of the Mountain City window. Locally, these deformed rocks show evidence of a sequence of ductile-brittle-ductile-brittle overprinting deformation. The alternating styles of deformation exhibited in these rocks indicate a change in strain rate or a change in effective confining pressure during deformation caused by either an increase in fluid pressure or movement into relatively shallower crustal levels. Northeast of the window, the Alleghanian Fries fault appears to have cut through structurally higher levels and has overthrust rock units and structures that are exposed west of the window. As a result, the same sequence of structural features and lithotectonic units exposed on the southwestern side of the Grandfather Mountain window is not repeated on the northeastern side.