Name | Grand Caverns |
Address | 5 Grand Caverns DriveGrottoes, VA 24441 |
Type | Attraction |
Category | Scenic |
Description | . In a process that took millions of years, enormous thicknesses of sediments consolidated themselves into limestone, shales, and sandstones. These were deposited in horizontal beds in great interior seas that occupied the Appalachian Trough, extending form what is now Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. After the seas receded, this huge mass of sedimentary rocks was folded, fractured and displaced by great thrust faults, producing vertical uplift. During and after this and successive periods of uplift, thousands of feet of the rock were eroded and removed by prolonged activity of rains, surface streams, groundwater, and other geologic agents. In areas underlain by weaker rocks, such as limestone and shale, broad valleys were formed, whereas the more resistant rocks, such as sandstone and quartzite, were left standing as ridges. Thus were the present Alleghany Mountains and the Valley of Virginia formed. The Blue Ridge Range to the east was formed by the same process, but it is older than the Alleghenies, and is composed largely of volcanic-formed, or igneous, rocks. |
Email | cavernsinfo@ci.grottoes.va.us |
Handicapped Accessible | No |
Website | www.grandcaverns.com |
Last Updated | 12/11/2014 |
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