KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MAP AND CHART SERIES 20 James C. Cobb, State Geologist and Director Series XII, 2000 UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, LEXINGTON

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Covington Newport 275 471 39° ° 39 Burlington 275 Li ck in g GEOLOGIC MAP OF KENTUCKY 71 Independence BOONE Alexandria 75 Scale: 1:1,000,000 6 KENTON CAMPBELL 1 inch equals approximately 16 miles O H I O River 10 0 10 20 30 40 Miles B 71 N Warsaw Bullock Pen Kincaid Lake GALLATIN PENDLETON Lake 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 Kilometers Boltz Lake Williamstown OHIO Brooksville RIV CARROLL Lake Falmouth ER Carrollton JULY 2000 GRANT BRACKEN Maysville Williamstown Greenup Bedford Fork MASON North Vanceburg K GREENUP e TRIMBLE n Owenton Mt Olivet t u South Greenbo c Lake k ROBERTSON y LEWIS EXPLANATION A OWEN Ashland HENRY Fork Catlettsburg OLDHAM HARRISON Flemingsburg River Quaternary; 2 million years ago–present day; clay, sand, and gravel N New Castle La Grange R Cynthiana i Big v Li FLEMING BOYD e ck 64 Quaternary and Tertiary; 1–5 million years ago; gravel and sand r NICHOLAS in y 75 g d Grayson A 71 23 S n a a CARTER n S Tertiary; 30–60 million years ago; clay and sand SCOTT Carlisle R d I iv y 4 er Tertiary and Cretaceous; 60–70 million years ago; sand and clay SHELBY R i 264 Grayson v D Louisville Guist Creek Lake FRANKLIN e W E S T 64 64 Lake r Cretaceous; 85–95 million years ago; gravel and sand Shelbyville Georgetown Paris BOURBON BATH R 5 ELLIOTT N E Jeptha Knob Frankfort V Morehead VIRGINIA I 64 e impact structure Owingsville tl Permian; 245–290 million years ago; peridotite and lamprophyre R it Louisa I 265 ROWAN L WOODFORD 65 Cave Run LAWRENCE Pennsylvanian; 290–325 million years ago; shale, sandstone, and coal Versailles MONTGOMERY Sandy Hook JEFFERSON structure 5 Lake Mississippian; 325–360 million years ago; shale, limestone, and sandstone SPENCER 64 Mt Sterling Fork 38° 38° Taylorsville Lawrenceburg CLARK Taylorsville Versailles Lexington FAYETTE Devonian; 360–410 million years ago; shale and limestone River Lake 4 OHIO Shepherdsville Salt SYSTEM Winchester 23 Brandenburg a ANDERSON Frenchburg is A Silurian; 410–440 million years ago; dolomite and shale BULLITT v Tug Kentucky FAULT West Liberty Paintsville e L L Salt RIVER MENIFEE ic Lake Hawesville SYSTEM MORGAN ki JOHNSON Ordovician; 440–510 million years ago; limestone and shale MEADE Parkway River n Inez Nicholasville POWELL g Grass Green 8 Rolling NELSON KENTUCKY Red Fork Faults S 7 JESSAMINE R Henderson Blue r i Paintsville Stanton Rive SYSTEM v MARTIN Audubon River Bardstown MERCER 75 e FAULT r I Fork P Hardinsburg 65 r arkway Salyersville Parkway Harrodsburg Herrington e Mountain 7 Geological point of interest, indexed to text HARDIN iv HENDERSON HANCOCK T Owensboro Lake R Richmond Dewey Lake O L Campton at bottom of map WASHINGTON U MADISON ESTILL BRECKINRIDGE A Irvine Prestonsburg Morganfield F MAGOFFIN DAVIESS Ke WOLFE 114 Springfield nt N Elizabethtown CREEK ucky Rough River GARRARD PAINT 23 I Lake Danville Dix – R LEE FLOYD L 460 E i N e CREEK Lancaster IN v or vi BOYLE V e th sa ROUGH Natcher IR r Beattyville River Hodgenville MARION PIKE L UNION 2 River Lebanon Berea M Jackson Fork F WEBSTER River id o Calhoun Stanford d BREATHITT rk L le FAULT Pikeville Dixon McLEAN SYSTEM Fork I 80 T R LARUE r LEXINGTON Booneville

a o OHIO Leitchfield olin d u

g N ew h

a y Pond McKee Fishtrap Lake

te LINCOLN S r a y ROCKCASTLE OWSLEY

CRITTENDEN a o w Hartford Parkw GRAYSON u KNOTT k JACKSON r Lake Linville t TAYLOR h a P Hindman 23 HART Campbellsville CASEY PERRY Marion Madisonville Nolin Lake Mt Vernon Buckhorn 119 Liberty Lake ky G Green Green River LIVINGSTON R tuc reen BUTLER Lake Carr Fork Lake i en Greensburg v K e Hazard River HOPKINS r Munfordville Wood Creek OHIO MUHLENBERG Morgantown EDMONSON Lake Fork Jenkins RIVER Cumberland CLAY LETCHER CALDWELL Western Greenville arkway GREEN River LAUREL e P SYSTEM River 65 Manchester n Hyden Brownsville 3 oo Whitesburg Smithland FAULT PULASKI 80 B LYON Lake ADAIR Daniel Paducah River Beshear London Eddyville Cave City PE Lake FAULT BALLARD Princeton NNYRILE P Columbia McCRACKEN Malone a LESLIE River rk WARREN ay Somerset 24 see w kw 10 37° 37° es ay Ba Par RUSSELL nn rren nd Laurel River Te erla mb Lake Creek Glasgow Cu Wickliffe East Jamestown Mayfield CHRISTIAN Fork Bowling River Edmonton Corbin Green Lake KNOX OVERTHRUST West BARREN Bardwell Cumberland VIRGINIA Pennyrile METCALFE TODD LOGAN Barbourville Fork Cadiz Barren River River WHITLEY CARLISLE Hopkinsville Lake d Harlan Benton Clarks n MOUNTAIN A a Monticello M I S S O U R I Russellville rl 75 MARSHALL e 9 Parkway 24 b HARLAN ALLEN m nd Elkton u Burkesville erla Pineville 65 C WAYNE Cumb Creek Mayfield TRIGG McCREARY River n HICKMAN Scottsville CLINTON Williamsburg io Franklin b

River MONROE O Whitley City BELL Clinton e GRAVES River CUMBERLAND s SIMPSON a CALLOWAY Albany h Red Tompkinsville PINE rc u Middlesboro P Kentucky RIVER Murray Lake Hickman 5 Lake Barkley Dale Hollow B 1 Lake Middlesboro MISSISSIPPI FULTON impact structure TENN E S SEE

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EXPLANATION SELECTED FEATURES This map shows the geologic age of rocks and sediments at the 1 New Madrid Earthquakes. During the winter of of corals and other marine animals in the limestones Bone Lick and currently are in museum collections 9 Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Cumberland Generalized geologic cross sections surface in Kentucky. Sedimentary rocks, deposited from about 465 1811–1812, a series of great earthquakes, with estimated have made the Falls a world-famous fossil site. Outcrops throughout the world and at Jefferson’s home, Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the eastern United to 290 million years ago during the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, magnitudes of 7.8 to 8.3, originated in southeastern along the north bank of the river are now part of an Monticello. States south of Niagara Falls. The drop ranges from 55 Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian Periods, crop out across the state. Missouri along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Their Indiana state park. to 65 feet. Water in the Cumberland River flows across A A The rocks mainly consist of shale, limestone, sandstone, and siltstone. a hard, well-cemented, conglomeratic sandstone that Illinois Basin Appalachian Basin magnitudes are considered the largest for recorded 7 Palisades of the Kentucky River. Following regional Mississippi Cincinnati (Eastern Kentucky Coal As shown in the cross sections, these surface rocks are underlain by Impact Structures. Circular structures consisting of overhangs a softer, less resistant sandstone, which is (Western Kentucky Coal earthquakes in the conterminous United States. Quakes 5 uplifts during the late Tertiary and Quaternary Periods, Field) Arch Field) Embayment Kentucky River Fault System Lexington Fault System Rough Creek Fault System older unexposed rocks of Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician of lesser magnitude continue to occur in the seismic an intensely deformed central core ringed by concentric less than 5 million years ago, the meandering Kentucky more easily eroded. Cumberland Falls apparently has Fault Tabb System age. zone, which remains a potential source of damaging faults occur at the surface in central and southeastern River entrenched its course into the bedrock of central retreated upstream about 45 miles from the border of Small bodies of igneous rocks were intruded into the state’s earthquakes for Kentucky and other states in the region. Kentucky. Jeptha Knob in Shelby County and the Kentucky. The river cut downward into resistant the Cumberland Escarpment. Sandstones in the falls bedrock about 270 million years ago during the Permian Period. Middlesboro Basin in Bell County probably were formed limestone and dolomite of the High Bridge Group, are of Pennsylvanian age, but are older than the They crop out in Elliott County of northeastern Kentucky, and in 2 Deepest Well. Thousands of wells have been drilled in by the impact of meteorites. The origin of the Versailles forming palisades, the picturesque rock cliffs along Pennsylvanian sandstone in the Red River Gorge Crittenden and Livingston Counties of western Kentucky. Kentucky in the search for oil and gas, some successfully. Structure in Woodford County is more problematic. most of the river’s course between Boonesborough and Geological Area. The deepest well in the state was drilled by the Exxon The Jeptha Knob structure was formed about 440 million Frankfort. The Middle Ordovician High Bridge limestone Cumberland River Younger unconsolidated sediments were deposited during the Corporation in 1977 on the Duncan farm in Webster years ago, and the Middlesboro Basin was formed at and dolomite, about 465 million years old, are the oldest Appalachian Basin Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary Periods, from about 95 million Cumberland B B County. It had a total depth of 15,200 feet and bottomed some time since 300 million years ago. rocks at the surface in Kentucky and are well exposed Falls (Eastern Kentucky Coal years ago to the present time. They cover far western Kentucky and Field) in the Eau Claire Formation of Cambrian age, which is along U.S. Highway 68, where it crosses the river. hard sandstone Cincinnati Arch Pine Mountain Overthrust Fault Lexington Fault System occur across the state in stream valleys and, locally, on uplands. about 520 million years old. The well, which was not Jeptha Knob impact Kentucky River Fault System The sediments commonly are composed of clay, silt, sand, and structure Cross sections are commercially productive, has been plugged and 8 Red River Gorge Geological Area and Natural Bridge less resistant diagrammatic; gravel. In northern Kentucky, Quaternary sediments include glacial abandoned. faults sandstone deposits laid down within the last million years during the Ice Age. State Resort Park. The concentration of natural arches not to scale in the Red River Gorge Geological Area of the Daniel The present distribution of rocks and sediments at the surface in 3 Mammoth Cave National Park. The Mammoth Cave–Flint Ridge Cave System within the national park Boone National Forest and the adjoining Natural Bridge EXPLANATION Kentucky mainly reflects uplift and downwarping of major structural State Resort Park is unique in the eastern United States. features and subsequent episodes of erosion. Subsidence in the is the longest cave system in the world, with more than 64 Pine Mountain. About 320 million years ago, rock Quaternary Mississippian Ordovician 360 miles of explored and mapped passages. Caves, More than 150 arches have been catalogued by the U.S. 10 Appalachian Basin and Illinois Basin has preserved younger coal- Forest Service. The geological area and state park are strata in eastern North America were shoved to the Tertiary Devonian Cambrian bearing rocks of Pennsylvanian age in eastern and western Kentucky, sinkholes, and underground streams in the park and northwest by a collision between the African and North Cretaceous Silurian Precambrian across south-central Kentucky were formed by the in the intricately dissected Cumberland (Pottsville) respectively. These younger rocks were eroded from the uplifted Escarpment where the effects of weathering, erosion, American continental plates. Northwest thrust faulting Pennsylvanian Cincinnati Arch in central Kentucky, a process that eventually dissolution of Mississippian limestones. Big Bone Lick State Park. Early European explorers and mass wasting (downslope transport of rock material formed a series of linear mountains, including Pine uncovered Ordovician deposits, the oldest exposed rocks in the state. 6 Mountain, a 125-mile-long, sandstone-capped ridge 4 Falls of the Ohio. Resistant fossil-rich limestones of found the bones of many large mammals around salty by gravity) have created geomorphic conditions, For information on obtaining copies Vertical and lateral movements along faults have displaced strata in principally narrow sandstone ridges, particularly suitable that extends from Jellico, Tenn., to Elkhorn City, Ky. parts of Kentucky. Much younger Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary Devonian and Silurian age formed a series of rapids in springs in northern Kentucky. In 1807, President Thomas Compiled from Noger, M.C., 1988, Geologic of this map and other Kentucky Jefferson commissioned Captain William Clark to for the formation of arches. They are mainly developed Movement along the Pine Mountain Overthrust Fault map of Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey, Geological Survey maps and sediments were deposited in the downwarped Mississippi Embayment the Ohio River at the present site of Louisville. The scale 1:500,000. rapids interrupted early boat travel along the river and excavate bones from the site for scientific study. Skeletal in resistant sandstones of Pennsylvanian age, about 320 has brought rocks of Late Devonian, Mississippian, and publications call: of far western Kentucky, a northern extension of the Gulf Coastal million years old. Early Pennsylvanian age to the surface in the northwest Cartography by Terry Hounshell Plain. led to the establishment of communities on adjacent remains of both modern and Ice Age mammals, including View the KGS World Wide Web site Publication Sales office river banks in Kentucky and Indiana. Abundant remains mammoths and mastodons, were recovered from Big face of the mountain. Text by Garland R. Dever Jr. at www.uky.edu/KGS/ (859) 257-3896