Mount Cammerer - Geology

Geology

Mt. Cammerer is composed of Thunderhead sandstone, a type of rock common throughout the Great Smokies. Thunderhead sandstone, part of the Ocoee Supergroup, was formed from precambrian ocean sediments approximately one billion years ago. The Greenbrier Fault, which crosses the mountain's northern and eastern slopes, thrust the Thunderhead sandstone over the Rich Butt sandstone during the Paleozoic era. Approximately 200 million years, the North American and African plates collided in the Appalachian orogeny, thrusting the rock upward.

One of Cammerer's key characteristics is the outcropping of contorted quartzite rock at the summit.