- Grade Levels:
- 4-12
- Length:
- 60 minutes
- Taping Rights:
- Unlimited
- MARC Record:
- Downloadable
- Web Site:
- KET Online
- Teaching Materials:
- See Below
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This one-hour KET field trip moves fast. It has to—it covers 360 million years of Kentucky history.
Dr. Frank Ettensohn, a University of Kentucky geologist, leads students on an exploration of Letcher County’s Pound Gap, one of the first sites in Kentucky to be designated as geologically significant. At this cut-through near Jenkins, weathering and erosion have exposed layers of rock dating back to the Devonian Period. Abundant brachiopod fossils show that what is now Kentucky was then part of the floor of a huge basin filled with shallow, warm water. During the field trip, Ettensohn and science teacher Kim Alexander show how to identify and date rocks, moving through the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods to the present day. They point out examples of shale, sandstone, coal, limestone, and dolomite and explain how rocks are classified in terms of color, texture, and hardness.
Pound Gap also played an important role in human history. Though not as significant as the Cumberland Gap farther south, it did have a great cultural and economic impact on the region, since it allowed settlers to cross the otherwise formidable Pine Mountain Ridge.
The field trip also includes discussions of how different rocks erode and how caves are formed.
This program premiered in 2000 and was updated in 2002.
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