CLIFFS, GORGES, AND WATERFALLS Clifty Falls State Park in Jefferson County, Indiana, is home to 1,519 acres of rugged, cliff-lined gorges and waterfalls. The distinctive landscape of Clifty Falls and the many other falls in the park is a leg- acy of the Pleistocene Ice Age glaciers that began 2.6 million years ago. Glacial drainage influenced the erosion of Clifty Canyon to expose the 444- to 359- million-year-old rocks that line the gorge. Today, waterfalls continue to erode the canyon and shape the landscape.
E B Ancient Life O E L B O Fossils in the park strata L N A reflect life in the geologic G I W A H N past. Brachiopods, horn C I I G corals, and bryozoans are M A S E BE among the most common K LO A L IE fossils in the park. Fossil E R Brachiopod A E S INDIANA collecting in the park T OHIO ILLINOIS W HIT is prohibited, however. E
SU Please take nothing but BLOBE MIAMI SUBLOBE photographs, leave noth- ing but footprints! G RY WISCONSIN LA B DA CI OUN L AL IA C A L G Y R DA UN BO & Water Survey. IN NS CO Y IS CK - W U Horn Coral Bryozoan E NT PR KE
Hoffman Falls Tunnel Falls The four main waterfalls of Water from Deans Branch Clifty Falls State Park cascades over a limestone occur at the surface, or ledge before entering contact, that separates Clifty Creek Canyon 83 Power of Erosion the soft limey shales of the feet below, making Tunnel The Southern Hills and Lowlands region is noted for its THE GEOLOGIC STORY Dillsboro Formation from Falls the tallest waterfall beautiful hills and valleys–a landscape created by erosion. the overlying limestone in the park. An abandoned The limestone and shale walls of Clifty Canyon were carved of Clifty Falls State Park beds of the Saluda railway tunnel is located back when glacial meltwater drained south towards the pres- Member. At Hoffman Falls, to the south of the falls. ent-day Ohio River. The canyon ranges from 120 to 300 feet in water sprays down to the depth and features waterfalls and a rugged hiking terrain. stony beds 78 feet below.
Indiana Geological & Water Survey | Indiana University 1001 E 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405-2208 812.855.7636 | [email protected] | igws.indiana.edu Photos provided by the Ind. Dept. of Natural Resources and Indiana Geological North Origin of the Rocks deposited. These Silurian-age shales and limestone, To SR 62 Gate To Madison Maps: Indiana Geological & Water Survey. which overlie the Ordovician formations, are exposed 62 The rock layers exposed in the falls and cliffs of Clifty
in the uppermost set of cliffs along Clifty Canyon. B Falls State Park were formed layer by layer long before i g
At the southern end of the park, the Brassfield Lime- C
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Camping Area Picnic Area stone appears in outcrop; but at the northern end, the The story of these rocks begins 444–359 million years C Clifty Little Clifty Entrance Station Picnic Shelter Brassfield is absent due to erosion, and the Salamonie reek Falls ago, when Indiana was covered by a shallow sea. The Nature Center Playground Dolomite rests directly on the Saluda Member. The Clifty carbonates and shales of Clifty Falls tell the story of a Falls Parking ADA Accessible uppermost member of the Salamonie Dolomite is 8 Restroom 6 Trail Number shifting ocean in the southern hemisphere. Lookout exposed in the canyon and forms the uppermost set 2 Point L 0 1/2 mile i did not exist tt Rocks at Madison accumulated during the Ordovi- of cliffs. le Tunnel C 0 1/2 kilometer li Hickory Falls cian (older) and Silurian periods. here and major y 6
C Grove r streams flowed e During this time, inflows of muddy Laurel Member Fossils e k nch 40 to 45 ft ra water pulsed into the intracontinen- northward. Mod- s B Park Oce an Fossils represent life in the geologic De Dolomite tal sea and were deposited in the Salamonie Osgood Member 20 ft ern-day Clifty Creek SILURIAN past. Because life was constantly Brassÿeld Limestone 0 to 3 ft Oak Grove rock record as shale. Beds of fos- was near a drainage Youth Tent Saluda Member of the changing in the shifting paleoen- siliferous limestone are interlayered Whitewater Formation divide between the Area Cragmont 35 to 40 ft vironments, different rock units Old Ohio River and the in these shale deposits; when the throughout the park contain different 5 Old Kentucky River. With 9 seas cleared, animal life flourished types of fossils. All of the strata in the on the bottom of the limy sea. The global cooling, glacial ice park contain fossils, but they are most 8 Ho man Falls sequence of shale and limestone, sheets advanced into Indiana Baby Beech abundant in the Dillsboro Formation. Clifty formed through environmental and began to shift the direc- Canyon h nc The most plentiful and noticeable fos- a 10 4 r shifts in the ocean, is called the Dill- Dillsboro Formation tion of drainage. Glaciers more Nature B sils in the park are bryozoans, corals, Preserve 2 man 270 ft exposed Ho 3 ORDOVICIAN than once reached the Madison sboro Formation and can be found brachiopods, and crinoids. Snails, in the lowest slopes of the park. area, leaving behind a deposit clams, trilobites, and cephalopods Poplar Grove NORTH called till that covers the top of the can also be observed. Fossil collect- B Overlying the Dillsboro is the i g Salamonie Dolomite. C l 9 Saluda Member, also of late Ordo- ing in the park is prohibited, however. i y C The vast mass of ice blocked the north- r vician age. The Saluda is composed Please take nothing but photographs, e e
k of thick beds of limestone and dolo- leave nothing but footprints! ward-flowing streams and filled the Old Ken-tucky k e e 2 r stone with ripple marks and mud River with several hundred feet of sed-iment. New C
d Dolostone Shale e Limestone Carving the Canyon k cracks. These sedimentary features river valleys were quickly cut and meltwater began o
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C indicate that deposition took place and Waterfalls to flow southeast towards Louis-ville. As the ice e
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t Nature i South in a very shallow sea. The rock beds melted, the new pattern of drainage became L Chert Limey Shale The rugged, cliff-lined gorge and 1 Center Clifty Inn Gate in this unit are thicker than other cascading waterfalls are the primary integrated into the present-day route of the Ohio rocks in the park, making them more resistant to River. Observation attractions of Clifty Falls State Park. While the rocks Tower To Madison weathering. The Saluda forms the crest of Clifty Falls, that make up these cliffs are millions of years old, As Big Clifty Creek descended from the uplands to 56 Little Clifty Falls, Tunnel Falls, and Hoffman Falls, the present topography is far younger. After tectonic the newly formed Ohio River Valley, the soft shales To Louisville as well as the overhangs along some of the lower set of shifts that moved Indiana to its present-day loca- and thin limestones of the Dillsboro were scoured cliffs within the canyon. tion, weathering and mass wasting began to sculpt from under the Saluda Member to form a waterfall. continue to widen Clifty Canyon by removing rocks After the Ordovician rocks were deposited, a tempo- the land. Despite its small size, Big Clifty Creek has a great and soil from the valley walls and transporting it rary drop in sea level caused erosion and weathering. During the Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million–12,000 deal of eroding power in a short distance. The falls down to the Ohio River. Today, the terrain of Clifty As the seas rose again, more clay and limy mud was years ago), the drainage of streams and rivers was progressively eroded back from the Ohio River to Falls State Park continues to be shaped by geologic much different than today. The Ohio River Valley their present location. Weathering and mass wasting processes.