Thursday, July 24, 2008

Visit to Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

Last weekend I went on a geology field trip with KYANA Geological Society (http://www.kyanageo.org/) to Grider Hill Dock (http://www.griderhilldock.com/) at Cumberland Lake, Kentucky.

The lake was nice and not too crowded. As you can see in the picture the rock banks are very visible in the pictures as the Army Corp of Engineers had to lower the water levels to repair the dam that created this lake from the Cumberland River.

Since the water level is down it makes a great time to observe the geological features covered by the water. This area was part of a vast shallow sea during the Mississippian period (known as Carboniferous outside the United States) which was about 320-360 million years ago. Animals that looked like plants ("sea lilies") known as crinoids flourished here.

These pictures showed the marina and our group of 17 rented two pontoon boats for the day.


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