Jeptha Knob is the highest point in the
Bluegrass region of
Kentucky. It is located on private property in
Shelby County, Kentucky, about eight miles east of
Shelbyville near the hamlet of
Clay Village and rises some 300 ft (90 m) higher than the surrounding rolling farmland.
Geography
The knob is located almost exactly midway between
Lexington and
Louisville and is the symbolic dividing point between both cities' hinterlands. There are four points in the area that contend for the highest point. The location and elevation given here is that of a
National Geodetic Survey benchmark.
Impact structure
The Kentucky historical marker at its base calls it a "cryptovolcanic structure", but it is now believed to be the result of an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
impact some 425 million years ago.
Iridium apparently has been found in anomalously high levels in
breccias associated with the structure.
[Seeger, C. R., Asaro, F., Michel, H., Alvarez, W., & Alvarez, L. (1985)]
Iridium Discovery at the Jeptha Knob Cryptoexplosion Structure, Kentucky
LUNAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE XVI, pp. 757-758.
See also
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Knobs region
*
Middlesboro crater
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Landforms of Shelby County, Kentucky
Possible impact craters on Earth
Hills of Kentucky