Sidling Hill, Maryland
February 22, 2006
Provided and copyright by: Keith McKain, Colonel Richardson High School, MD
Summary authors & editors: Keith McKain
One of the best examples of a synclinal mountain anywhere is located approximately 6 miles west of Hancock in Washington County, Maryland, where Interstate 68 cuts through Sideling Hill. Almost 810 feet (247 m) of strata in a tightly folded syncline are exposed in this road cut. Sideling Hill lies in the Valley and Ridge Physiographic Province of eastern North America, a region characterized by tightly folded strata. Erosion of these folds has produced a series of subparallel ridges and valleys, in which the ridges are capped by erosion-resistant sandstones, and the intervening valleys are underlain by soluble limestones and easily eroded shales. Though one of the smallest states in the U.S., there's still a lot to see in Maryland -- "America in Miniature."
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