Precambrian Rift Basins of Eastern North America

Contact: Dave Harris

The East Continent Rift Basin is one of a series of Precambrian Mesoproterozoic rift basins (shown here in red) in eastern North America. Similar basins include the Keweenawan Midcontinent Rift System and the Fort Wayne Rift.

The Rough Creek Graben is an east–west extension of the Reelfoot Rift and appears to be inverted to the east in central Kentucky where Cambrian sediments are thin over the East Continent Rift Basin. Farther to the east, the Rome Trough, also a Cambrian rift graben, extends to the east across Kentucky, northeastward across West Virginia, and into the Olin Basin of Pennsylvania and possibly southern New York.

Precambrian and Cambrian Basins: OA - Ouachita Aulacogen RCG - Rough Creek Graben RFR - Reelfoot Rift RT - Rome Trough BT - Birmingham Trough OB - Olin Basin FWR - Fort Wayne Rift ECRB - East Continent Rift Basin LPCM - Late Paleozoic continental margin

Return to East Continent Rift Basin, or Return to Rough Creek Graben