Current Research

My research interests center around unraveling the tectonic evolution of the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge physiographic province. My focus is along the terrane boundary between the outboard margin of the western Blue Ridge (native Laurentian metamorphic allochthon) and the eastern Blue Ridge (Paleozoic accreted (?) terranes) immediately adjacent to this boundary. The Allatoona Fault in northern Georgia exists as the local expression of the eastern and western Blue Ridge boundary and is a late (in the kinematic sequence) thrust fault emplacing a higher-grade volcanic-arc terrane (Pumpkinvine Creek Formation) in the hanging wall above lower grade metasedimentary rocks (western Blue Ridge-Talladega belt) in the footwall. The western and eastern Blue Ridge terranes have different tectonometamorphic histories, but due to Alleghanian thrusting, they are now adjacent to one another. I am involved in multiple projects aimed at resolving the different tectonic histories of these terranes and how they ended up adjacent to one another. Detailed field mapping combined with petrology, geochemistry (Rb/Sr, U/Pb, Sm/Nd, Ar/Ar geochronology and major, trace, and REE chemistry for tectonic discrimination), and modeling is used to help resolve a variety of problems.

Research Interests

• Structural Geology/Tectonics
• Geochemistry/Geochronology

Selected Publications

• Holm, Christopher S., and Das, Reshmi, in prep, Structural and geochemical evolution of the Mulberry Rock Gneiss and associated granitoids: An enigmatic piece of crust at the eastern/western Blue Ridge boundary in the southern Appalachians, , .


• Holm, Christopher S., and Das, Reshmi, in prep, Evidence for extensional accretionary orogenesis in a collisional orogenic belt: The Paleozoic Pumpkinvine Creek Formation and related units in the southernmost Appalachians, GSA Memoirs - Special volume for the 17th International Basement Tectonics Association Conference 4-D Framework of Continental Crust, .


• Tull, James F., and Holm, Christopher S., 2005, Structural evolution of a major Appalachian salient-recess junction: Consequences of oblique collisional convergence across a continental margin transform fault, GSA Bulletin, vol. 117, no. 3/4, p. 482-499.


• Holm, Christopher S., and Das, Reshmi, 2005, Geodynamic Evolution of the Pumpkinvine Creek Formation and associated rock assemblages: Structural, petrologic, and geochemical evidence of a Paleozoic accreted arc terrane in the southern Appalachians, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 37, no.2.


• Holm, Christopher S., and Tull, James F., 2004, Structural evolution of a major Appalachian salient-recess junction, 32nd International Geological Congress, Florence, Italy, August 2004.


• Tull, James F. and Holm, Christopher S., 2004, Oblique Collisional Convergence Across a Former Continental Margin Transform Fault: Structural Evolution Along a Major Inflection in Appalachian Orogenic Curvature, International Basement Tectonics Association Program with Abstracts, Oak Ridge, TN.


• Holm, Christopher S. and Das, Reshmi, 2004, Characterization of Eastern Blue Ridge Arc Terrane(s) Immediately Adjacent to the Terrane Bounding Allatoona Fault of the Georgia Appalachians, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol 36, No. 2.


• Holm, Christopher S. and Tull, James F., 2004, Structural Evolution Along a Major Appalachian Salient-Recess Junction Resulting from Oblique Collisional Convergence Across a Continental Margin Transform Fault: Part 2- Kinematic and Mechanical Explanation, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol 36, No. 2.


• Tull, James F., and Holm, Christopher S., 2004, Structural Evolution Along a Major Appalachian Salient-Recess Junction Resulting from Oblique Collisional Convergence Across a Continental Margin Transform Fault: Part 1- Geologic Setting, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol 36, No. 2.


• Das, R., Holm, C., Odom, A.L., 2002, The Age of the Tres Piedras Granite, New Mexico, USA: Evidence for Large-scale Isotopic Homogenization, EGS-AGU-EGU Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2002 - Submitted.


• Holm, Christopher S., 2002, The Nature of the Talladega Belt/ Eastern Blue Ridge Boundary at the Mulberry Rock Gneiss Structural Recess, Abstract Volume of the GSA Penrose Conference, "Three-Dimensional Flow, Fabric Development and Strain in Deformed Rocks and Significance for Mountain Building Processes- New Approaches".


• Holm, C.S., and Tull, J.F., 2002, Problematic Correlations in the Frontal Metamorphic Allochthon of the Southern Appalachians: Structural and Stratigraphic Solutions, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 34, No. 6.


• Holm, C.S., and Farmer, Mike, R., 2002, Detailed Geologic Mapping of the Eastern/ Western Blue Ridge Terrane Bounding Allatoona Fault of Northwestern Georgia, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 34, No. 2.


• Holm, Christopher S., 2001, The Structure and Stratigraphy of the Mulberry Rock Gneiss Structural Recess of Northwestern Georgia, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 33, No. 6.


• Holm, Christopher S., 2001, The Mulberry Rock Gneiss Structural Recess of Northwestern Georgia: Grenville Basement or Paleozoic Intrusion?, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 33, No. 2.


• Holm, C.S., Stern, J.C., Whitman, M.E., Doran, N.A. Kish, S.A., Balsillie, J.H., 2000, The Case of the Disappearing Lake: A GIS Study of Lake Jackson, Leon County Florida, GSA, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 32, No. 2.

Teaching Assistant

Florida State University

• GLY1000, Dynamic Earth
• GLY2010, Physical Geology
• GLY3400, Structural Geology
• GLY4751, Field Camp

Research Assistant

Collaborative Research-Acadian vs. Taconian Tectonism in the Southern Appalachian Western Blue Ridge- Implications for Models of Terrane Accretion