LATE PALEOZOIC DISPLACEMENT AND FAULT ZONE STRUCTURE, WALBRIDGE FAULT, ROME TROUGH, EASTERN KENTUCKY

The faults in the Rome Trough are originally Cambrian in age, however, these faults have been reactivated through the Late Paleozoic. A prominent structure in the Rome Trough is the Walbridge Fault, a northeast-southwest trending normal fault in the Irvine-Paint Creek Fault System. We mapped and analyzed structural data from an exposure of the Walbridge Fault near Louisa, Kentucky. The Walbridge Fault at this exposure displaces rocks of the Pennsylvanian Breathitt Group. The primary Walbridge Fault plane is observed at the road cut exposure, along with a system of smaller antithetic-synthetic faults in the hanging wall. Gigapan panoramic photos of the exposure were made to determine displacement of the Walbridge Fault. Gigapan photos along with detailed geologic mapping and collection of structural orientation data were compiled to fully determine and describe the structural geometry of the Walbridge Fault at this exposure. Documenting and interpreting the structural geometry of the Walbridge Fault and associated minor structures in eastern Kentucky lends to a better understanding of the Late Paleozoic reactivation of Rome Trough faults during Alleghanian foreland flexure.