Fault
I've traveled this stretch of the William H. Natcher (formerly Green River) Parkway south of Owensboro at least a thousand times over the course of my life, but I never noticed this until I drove from Owensboro to Bowling Green last fall. I went back over the weekend to get a picture. This is probably the most easily recognizable, most text-book fault I've ever seen.
Faults are divided into three types. This is a "normal fault." The mass of rock on the right at some point slid about five feet down a slope relative to the mass of rock on the left. Normal faults are related to tectonic extension, i.e. rifting. The land stretched. The internet tells me that this particular fault is part of the Rough Creek Fault System, which itself is the easternmost portion of the New Madrid Fault System. New Madrid was the result of the rift that ultimately split up the Rodinia supercontinent 750 million years ago. The faults were reactivated fairly recently, probably no longer than 62,000 years ago.
Fault
I've traveled this stretch of the William H. Natcher (formerly Green River) Parkway south of Owensboro at least a thousand times over the course of my life, but I never noticed this until I drove from Owensboro to Bowling Green last fall. I went back over the weekend to get a picture. This is probably the most easily recognizable, most text-book fault I've ever seen.
Faults are divided into three types. This is a "normal fault." The mass of rock on the right at some point slid about five feet down a slope relative to the mass of rock on the left. Normal faults are related to tectonic extension, i.e. rifting. The land stretched. The internet tells me that this particular fault is part of the Rough Creek Fault System, which itself is the easternmost portion of the New Madrid Fault System. New Madrid was the result of the rift that ultimately split up the Rodinia supercontinent 750 million years ago. The faults were reactivated fairly recently, probably no longer than 62,000 years ago.