West
Virginia's Ridges and Valleys
Welcome to
one of the most beautiful scenic overlooks the Mountain State has
to offer. Most visitors have no idea of the geological events that
took place to form this magnificent site. From this viewpoint, one
can clearly see many of the ridges and valleys that were formed
during the Appalachian Orogeny; which was the mountain forming
event that took place many thousands of years ago.
The
Appalachian Orogeny is responsible for the creation of the
mountains themselves and is not responsible for the topography. The
mountains were once rugged and high, but in time have eroded into
only a small remnant. The ridges represent the edges of the
erosion-resistant strata, and the valleys portray the absence of
the more erodible strata. Evidence for the Appalachian Orogeny
stretches for many hundreds of miles on the surface from Alabama to
New Jersey and can be traced further subsurface to the
southwest.
These mountains are characterized by long, even ridges, with long,
continuous valleys in between, thus they are referred to as the
Ridge and Valley of the Appalachians. The western side of the Ridge
and Valley region is marked by steep escarpments. From a great
enough altitude, they almost look like corduroy, except that the
widths of the valleys are somewhat variable and ridges sometimes
meet in a vee. These formations are the remnants of an ancient
fold-and-thrust belt. Here the strata have been folded westward,
and forced over massive thrust faults.
In order to claim
this earthcache, please send me an email with the answers to the
following questions:
1. What is the name of the valley in which you are looking?
2. According to the diagram, which zone is this area located?
3. Name two states that have evidence of Appalachian Orogeny?
4. What is the altitude of this overlook?
Although earth cache regulations prohibit the requirement of a
photo, please feel free to post a picture in you log, and thanks
for visiting my earthcache!
