Went To An Old Outcrop

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I went to an outcrop today that I hunted as a kid. Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes I gave up due to the heat and decided, instead, to visit some family.

Most of the stuff I saw was the usual junk, so the only thing that I brought home was a Bryzoa.

Prasopora simulatrix(diameter about 3 cm)

The place was littered with bivalves and brachiopods.

unknown bivalve

This is a pic of bentonite(volcanic ash) that defines the contact of the Tyrone Lm, and the younger Lexington Lm. It is associated with the Taconic Orogeny. There are 3 major ash falls in the Tyrone Lm., and the depositional environments changed radically after Tyrone time.

Close up of the bentonite

The bentonitic shales provide an impermeable barrier to ground water. Which in turn leads to a lot of karst activity(caves and sink holes) in this area.

After giving up, I decided to snap a few pics of the scenery.

A field of immature tobacco

Stone fences line just about every country road in the Bluegrass, but unfortunately, they are now in disrepair.

While in my hometown, I visited some family members graves, and snapped this pic.

Grave of some brave hometown boys that died for the Confederacy at Perryville(down the road). notice the CC Campbell succumbed in '77, the others perished on the field of battle in Oct '62.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I forgot the pic of the Thoroughbreds.

[Guest bmorefossil]

its a nice looking place, at least you found something in 30min.

[MikeD]

Reminds me of my younger days. I really miss those fences (both kinds). And I learned something new. I never knew about the ash falls (although it makes sense when you think about it).

[Guest solius symbiosus]

^^Unfortunately, a lot of the stone fences are in disrepair(as evident by only one side of the road). There are not many masons capable of that kind of work anymore.

Regarding the ash falls: I'm thinking that the orogenic activity is why the facie relationships are so complex in North America during Ordovician times.

[Auspex]

Thanks for the lesson in Lithography 101; given man's short attention span, it's nice to be reminded that things have been very different. Thanks also for the travelog; the contrast between stone walls in disrepair and mountain-building really exposes our temporal perspective.

[MikeD]

^^Unfortunately, a lot of the stone fences are in disrepair(as evident by only one side of the road). There are not many masons capable of that kind of work anymore.

If I had stayed in the area, I might have become one of those masons. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of limestone structures. I carefully disected and reassembled small sections of a few fences and discovered there were multiple methods of building them. Also repaired a few. I have seen a root cellar with a self supporting dome, a 20 foot deep well lining so narrow that only a child hanging from a rope could have assembled it (with an underground stream still flowing), a perfect 10 foot circular cistern, gateways in the middle of nowhere in the woods, farm ponds lined with an internal wall, spring houses (or the remains of them), huge blocks for stairs and foundations that I have no idea how they cut and moved them. I could go on, but won't. Also, sometimes there were some good fossils in them.