Geological Tour of Western Kentucky University Campus

Compiled by Dr. Michael T. May, Professor of Geology, WKU

Revised October 2007

From the EST Bldg walk to the cross walk by the Planetarium and traverse toward Cherry Hall on 15th street.

STOP 1 – Henry Hardin Cherry Statue – Founder of the University. Observe the Building behind the statue, Cherry Hall. This building, completed in 1937, was constructed with the Salem Limestone of Mississippian age from Bedford Indiana (the world famous Indiana Building Stone). The Salem is known as great “dimension stone”. The engineering building next to EST is also partially faced with similar stone. The Salem is a fine-grained skeletal limestone that has been used in the construction of famous buildings such as the Empire State Building in New York and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It is so uniform in character that even damaged buildings can be easily refurbished with new stone and it is difficult to tell what would be replacement stone versus original stone in a given structure. For example, after the 9-11-2001 attack on the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C, the building was replaced with Salem Limestone and today you can’t even tell a plane crashed into this structure. It matches perfectly even though the Pentagon is over 60 years old!

Activity for Notes:

1. List features you might see in this limestone (please go up to the building) such as cross bedding (an example of cross bedding can be seen in animations at http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/seds/bedforms/animation.html ), fossils (for comparison you can see some fossils at http://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/index.htm , and sorting or grain-size differences. Look at this stone and compare to stone in other buildings such as the Bowling Green Oolite (what is an oolite?) or Girkin Limestone.

2. Look from Cherry Hall steps toward Henry Hardin Cherry Statute down College Street observational location affords a view of the Barren River Valley and the Dripping Springs Escarpment across the valley. Draw a general topographic profile from Cherry Hall through downtown Bowling Green, over the Barren River and up to the hill side on the other side of the valley (refer to a topographic map on topozone.com or go to the Kentucky Geological Survey Website and enclose an area around Bowling Green to get an interactive topographic and geologic map of the campus (hint: keep zooming in) see http://kgsmap.uky.edu/website/KGSGeology/viewer.asp .

Traverse along the top of the hill to Gordon Wilson Hall.

STOP 2 – Gordon Wilson Hall – Completed in 1927 - originally as the College Library.

Write down the answers to these questions.

1)Compare and contrast stone in this building to stone at STOP 1. Does it look the same?

2) If not, what specifically looks different about it?

3) Do you think it is more or less resistive to weathering than the Salem Limestone?

STOP 3 – Van Meter Auditorium – completed in 1911.

The same stone used for construction of Van Meter Hall (also the Colonnade by Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Building and others) was used to construct the Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort, KY (yes the so-called Bowling Green stone (most of this was the Girkin Limestone) is famous but not as famous as the world famous Indiana Limestone). This Bowling Green stone was also used to construct the beautiful U.S. Customs House in downtown Nashville on Broadway Avenue and the magnificent State Street Methodist Church in downtown Bowling Green (look at a picture of this stone from Bowling Green being quarried in the late 1920s at http://www.wku.edu/Library/onlinexh/rrr1/Pages/Secpages/ind_whitestone.html .

Activity for Notes:

Does this stone look like the stone facing Wilson Hall or Cherry Hall?

Look particularly at the steps on the way up. Is the surface rough or smooth? _________ Would you say this is weathered more or less than the buildings at the first two stops?

What sedimentary structures do you see up the steps?

Do you see any burrowing or other heterogeneous features in this limestone? __________

Look at the Columns. Do you see any fossils? - list them if you can.

Go into the auditorium. Look at the rock on the walls. What type of rocks are present (sedimentary, igneous, sedimentary)? ________________________________

Describe the rocks you see (you can go up the steps to the balcony too).

From the top of the Van Meter Hall steps you can get an excellent view of the Barren River Valley, the sinkhole plain below you and the Dripping Springs Escarpment in the distance (toward Jackson’s Orchard).

Is the ridge in the distance due north of Van Meter Hall higher or lower than the top of Western’s hill?

Calculate the difference in elevation. You might be surprised!

The Big Clifty sandstone caps the limestone on the Escarpment. Write whether or not you think this affects the elevation of the ridge.

Is the Big Clifty present in Bowling Green?

From the steps of Van Meter you can also see the Kentucky Museum to your left as you face away from the building. It is interesting to note that the Bowling Green Oolite adorns this building as 22-foot solid pieces of limestone columns. Go look at the columns (STOP 3A) and sketch them (hint: you should see big cross bedding features here). Which way is the bedding oriented in the columns (either vertical or horizontal).

Traverse back up the hill from the Museum and around Van Meter Hall and walk through the civil war “trench” behind Van Meter Hall – this goes through the Girkin Limestone (civil war fort).

STOP 4 Girkin Limestone near Brick Monument (up and out of the trench toward Garrett Conference Center).

Activity for Notes:

Look at the surface of the limestone exposed behind the pavilion and brick monument. Careful here with your footing – it’s a low relief but “rugged” area. What do you see?

Make a sketch of these features.

These are called grikes and clints. How do you define a grike?

How do you define a clint?

How do grikes form? Do you see any pattern in the grikes? For example, do they appear random or do they have a preferred orientation?

What might be responsible for these relatively small-scale geomorphic features? (Think of all the controls on weathering we have discussed – climate, tectonics, lithology etc.).

Traverse between Potter Hall and Garrett Conference Center and go to the Colonnade.

STOP 5 – Northwest end (right side as you face Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Building) of Colonnade. This area is the former football stadium. This was built at the site of an abandoned quarry (Ste. Genevieve Limestone that was used for many homes, buildings and stone walls in Bowling Green). Look briefly at the weathering on the columns.

Traverse down steps and ramp toward the Math and Science Academy or formerly Schneider Hall (designed in 1929). The Math and Science Academy Building on your right was built of Girkin Limestone or Whitestone from the Whitestone Quarry located about five miles from Bowling Green. Before this building was called Schneider Hall it was actually named “Whitestone Hall.” You guessed it; this name was in honor of the limestone used in the building’s construction. Go down the steps to the grassy area (on left) by Grise Hall. Walk along the rock wall.

STOP 6 – Outcrop of Ste. Genevieve Limestone by Grise Hall.

Activity for Notes:

You can see here rather large cross beds and then some smaller ones (look behind the mulched plants). You might have to stand 40 feet or so back to get the big picture and then get right upon the outcrop to see all the features. Are the cross beds all oriented the same way?

If you think this is the case, then speculate on an environment of deposition (EOD) for these deposits of ooids. If you think that cross beds are not oriented the same way then likewise, infer an EOD for the oolitic-rich deposits.

A bonus at this stop is that about 2/3 of the way toward Grise Hall from the steps you just came down you can see a small karst conduit or opening and depending on the air temperature, you might detect the constant “cave breath” of about 56 degrees Fahrenheit (try this on a hot August or September day for better results). It’s literally a cool geologic spot on a warm or hot day.

Traverse up the steps by Grise Hall going up the hill toward the Wilson Fine Arts Building and at the uppermost “landing” turn right, walking parallel to the hill contour for a distance until you get in front of the Cravens Library. Go down the steps between the Cravens Library and the Helm Library (Old Field House made of limestone!). The next stop is an exposure of Ste. Genevieve Limestone.

STOP 7 – Ste. Genevieve Limestone at edge of old abandoned quarry. This is a stop to see in detail ooids and some excellent macro (body) fossils such as brachiopods, corals, crinoids, bivalves etc. that typified Mississippian marine biota.

With a hand lens or your naked eye, look at the nice white ooids and make a sketch of them. Likewise, make a sketch of any relatively large body fossils you observe.

Traverse out to Normal Drive/State Street and turn left, going up the hill. As you walk, notice the weathering profile of the limestone.

STOP 8 – Ste. Genevieve Limestone along State Street. This stop affords a view of solutional weathering typical of our karst areas (compare to the grikes at the top of the hill – STOP 4).You can observe a recessed area below a limestone bench that looks like something different than limestone.

Activity for Notes:

What is the lithology (rock type) that appears to be less resistive below the limestone bench?

Briefly describe via a labeled sketch, two types of weathering at this exposure. If you look at these surfaces as “little landscapes” how might you describe them to an ant that desires to traverse them on an expedition? How are these different than what you saw at STOP 4?

THE END!

Reference: Information on buildings –

Jeffrey, Jonathan, 2002, Bowling Green in Vintage Postcards, Arcadia Press, Charleston, S.C., 128 p.