Donald Brandreth Potter, Jr. Home
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Donald Brandreth Potter, Jr.
Professor of Geology
Sn201
bpotter@sewanee.edu
(931) 598-1479
Research Interests
- Primary research interest is in documenting the Cumberland Overthrust that is
recorded in folds, faults, amd related structures in the Pennsylvanian shales,
coals, and coarse clastic rocks of the Southern Cumberland Plateau.The upper third
of the Plateau moved westward over older rocks during the Alleghanian Orogeny.
Present work with Sewanee geology students is concentrated in Fiery Gizzard and
along several of the coves opening towards Interstate 24.
-Other local research includes landslides and rockfalls, including the 1994
Dotson Point rockfall. I am also researching the history of the geological sciences
at Sewanee, and I am at work on a book about the geological history of the Cumberland
Plateau for interested hikers and laypeople. Research outside the southeast
is on deformation of the Vishnu Schist in the western Grand Canyon.