"The mountains of the Sequatchie country are part of one of
the large physiographic provinces of the eastern United States
known as the Appalachian Plateau, which extends from southern New
York into central Alabama. This province is known, south of West
Virginia as the Cumberland Plateau. The Cumberland Plateau is a
broad, relatively flat-topped tableland capped with hard resistant
rock which has protected the softer underlying strata from erosion.
The most striking geological feature of the plateau is the
Sequatchie anticline, an elongated upfold of rock into which nature
has eroded an impressive valley. ... Only the portion of the trough
within Tennessee is known as the Sequatchie Valley, the valley
drained by the river of the same name. Within this long depression,
extending halfway across Tennessee from the river's mouth near the
Alabama line, the valley floor averages some five miles in width
and lies about one thousand feet below the height of the plateau,
which is marked by sheer slopes".
Despite the rumors, Sequatchie Valley is not a rift valley.
In fact, it more closely relates to a compressional geologic
structure, the Sequatchie Valley anticline.
At the crest of the Sequatchie Valley anticline (an upward
fold), Pennsylvanian sandstone was breached by erosion. (This
sandstone serves as a resistant cap rock for the plateaus in the
Chattanooga area.) The valley was formed by extensive weathering of
the underlying Ordovician, Silurian, and Mississippian limestone,
which occupies a structurally higher than normal position at the
core of the anticline.
These blocks show steps in the formation of the Sequatchie
Valley. Unfolded rocks (A) were subsequently warped and displaced
by a thrust fault (B). A stream first eroded through the sandstone
"cap" (C) and later into underlying limestone (D). Presently, a
wide stream valley containing numerous sinkholes has developed on
the limestone exposed along the axis of the folded rocks
(E)
Earthcache Requirements are as follows.
You will need a canoe or non-motorized flotation to get this
earthcache.
Email me the elevation and the approximate width of the Sequatchie
River at the point of coordinates.
Email me a description of the Sequatchie Valley in your own words.
What is unique about it?
Upload a picture of you in the area.