Foreword

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Overview

Water Use

Topography of the County

Geology of the County

Groundwater Availability

Exploration for Groundwater

Karst

Water Quality

Maps and Data

Additional Reading

References Cited

Definitions of Geologic Terms

Rock Descriptions

Discussion from McGrain and Currens (1978)

Clinton County is located in the Mississippian Plateaus area of south-central Kentucky. The southern boundary of the county is the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. The topography is diverse. Much of the terrain is a gently rolling, limestone plain, approximately 1,000 feet in elevation, with characteristic sinkhole topography. Erosional remnants of the western edge of the Cumberland Escarpment dot the landscape in the eastern part of the county and rise above the sinkhole plain as isolated knobs and mountain-like ridges. Tributary valleys of the deeply entrenched Cumberland River, which lies just north of Clinton County, dissect the surface of the limestone plain in the northern part of the county. The southern part of the county is similarly dissected through stream erosion by the Wolf River and its tributaries.

Parts of two major flood-control reservoirs touch Clinton County. Lake Cumberland on the Cumberland River backs water into parts of northern Clinton County; normal pool elevation is 723 feet. Dale Hollow Lake, an impoundment of the Obey River (in Tennessee), backs water up part of the Wolf River and tributaries in southern Clinton County. The spillway elevation of Dale Hollow Lake is 651 feet. The lowest elevation in the county, approximately 530 feet, is the Cumberland River at the junction of Clinton, Cumberland, and Russell Counties.

The highest elevation, 1,780 feet, is a knob on an upland complex of sandstone-capped ridges known as Poplar Mountain, located east-northeast of Albany. Other knobs and mountains in the area also attain elevations of 1,700 feet or greater, approximately 700 feet above the limestone plain. These include Copperas Knob, 1,711 feet; Kennedy Mountain, 1,720 feet; and Sewell Mountain, 1,760 feet. Bald Rock, on the Clinton-Wayne County line just north of the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, also has an elevation of 1,760 feet.

The elevation of Albany, the county seat, is 960 feet. Cumberland City has an elevation of 1,053 feet, and Ida is at 921 feet.

The 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle maps that cover Clinton County are shown by name and index code (Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet) on the index map.

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