Contact: Dave Harris
Geological Society of America, 2001 Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, no. 4, p. A-42
WHITE, T.M, and Drahovzal, J.A., Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky
The Rome Trough is a northeast-trending graben system thought to be part of a late interior Iapetus or an Ouachita rift event (Early? to Middle Cambrian). In eastern Kentucky, the Rome Trough is bounded on the west by the Lexington Fault System, on the north by the Kentucky River Fault System, and on the south by the Rockcastle River Fault System. In eastern Kentucky, the trough trends east-northeast. Near the Kentucky-West Virginia Border, the strike of the trough changes to northeast and can be traced through West Virginia and into Pennsylvania. Within the eastern Kentucky portion of the Rome Trough, the Irvine-Paint Creek Fault System accommodates a southeast deepening of the rift graben. Northwest-striking faults also cut through the trough. An interpretation of fault kinematics within the trough can be based on an examination of thickness variations in seismic sequences both within and between individual fault blocks. Preliminary conclusions include the following: (1) along-strike deepening from west to east within the trough is accommodated by faulting, with little or no dip apparent along the individual fault blocks, (2) across-strike deepening from north to south is accommodated by both faulting and tilting of individual fault blocks, (3) flower structures along the Kentucky River, Irvine-Paint Creek, and northwest-striking faults indicate a strike-slip component of faulting, (4) there is indication of late reactivation and reversal along the Rockcastle River Fault System, and (5) relative rates of fault displacement within the trough can be determined.