South Goucher Metapyroxenite is here named as a unit within the lower part of the Hammett Grove Meta-igneous Suite (new name), a dismembered ophiolite in the northwestern Piedmont of SC. Coarsely to very coarsely crystalline metapyroxenite is composed mainly of pale green magnesio-hornblende, chlorite, actinolite, epidote, and relict diopside as well as minor amounts of clinozoisite, opaques, and titanite. Unit represents, in part, the cumulate ultramafites of the idealized ophiolite sequence. Presumed to underlie North Goucher Metagabbro and overlie Pacolet Soapstone (both new names). No real thicknesses of the Hammett Grove units are known, but exposed South Goucher at type locality is 1 m, and mapping shows a maximum exposed thickness of 30 m for the suite. Author suggests that the Hammett Grove Suite is not only allochthonous, but a thrust slice or klippe of Kings Mountain belt derivation, and documents a middle Paleozoic accretionary event.

Source: GNU records (USGS DDS-6; Reston GNULEX).