Milestones at This Cache
The coordinates will bring you to an overlook. At this overlook, you will be looking at one of the most interesting and unique landforms in the Eastern United States. Welcome to Sequatchie Valley. This valley starts just South of Grassy Cove and extends all the way to Northeastern Alabama. The valley floor averages 5 miles in width and lies about 1000ft below the Plateau.
There are 2 main arguments as to how this beautiful valley was created. The first group insists that this is a RIFT VALLEY. Rift valleys are very rare, the most famous being the Great Rift Valley in Africa and part of the Middle East. The second group insists that the valley is an anticline.
What is a rift valley?
Rift valleys are produced by tensional tectonic forces which occur at divergent plate boundaries. Rift valleys typically appear as a downdropped graben (a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults) between a pair of faults. Rift valleys are often deep and the margins (edge) of the rifts are commonly uplifted.
Below is a picture of a graben (Courtesy of USGS)
What is anticline?
Any fold whose form is CONVEX upward is an anticline. Some 300 million years ago, the African Plate collided with the North American Plate creating the Appalachian Mountains as well as the geology you see in front of you. The second group insists that the Sequatchie anticline was formed during this period. The Sequatchie River has spent millions of years eroding the soft rock of this “anticline” to form this impressive valley you see before you. Below is a picture of how this group feels the valley was formed by erosion. (Image courtesy of Scott G. Kuntzelman, Illinois State University.)
To claim this Earthcache, you must complete 2 tasks:
(1) You must upload a picture of you with your GPS at the posted coordinates with the valley in the background.
(2) Email me (DON'T POST IN YOUR LOG) which group you side with and why. If you don’t side with either please tell me how you think it was formed.
ANY LOG WITHOUT THE REQUIREMENTS BEING MET WILL BE DELETED!
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