Jeptha Knob

Sunday afternoon I took a little drive to Shelby County, just east of Shelbyville, to a place called Jeptha Knob. I noticed it on a topographical map of Kentucky, a round area sticking out like a sore thumb (or as Willow from Buffy would say "Wow, that thumb is sore!"). I investigated the area further and found out it is believed by many earth scientists (but not confirmed) to be an astrobleme, or a crater from an asteroid impact. The area has millions of years of erosion, so it looks to be no more than a group of hills to the average motorist passing by. Knowing more about it, however, one can definitely see it being an old impact crater. The valley below where all the farms and houses are are in the crater itself & the knobs are actually the deformed and metamorphosed rock layers pushed up and away from the crater. Not only have the knobs eroded greatly over millions of years, but the thick forested hill side, lush vegetation & thick soil deposit hides any outcroppings. I drove around the knobs a few times trying to find easy access points to explore. However, to our disappointment, it seems all the surrounding land is private and NO TRESPASSING signs were posted everywhere. We did drive up Jeptha Knob Rd. to a locked gate blocking the road. We walked up the road a little further and saw a couple of deer walking up on the hillside above us through the trees. Other than that, we did not see much, but we can always say we stood atop an astrobleme (supposedly).