Into the Valley and Ridge on to Carters Lake Dam We Go!
In the Valley and Ridge, which is located in North Georgia to the east and south of the Appalachian Plateau, one place we visited on our trip is the fault below Carters Lake Dam. This fault was an unusual fault, because one part of it is in the Valley and Ridge and the other part is in the Piedmont. On the Valley and Ridge side the rocks are similar to the rocks in the Appalachian Plateau but more folded and faulted. On the Piedmont side, the rocks went under intense metamorphism. You might be wondering what a fault is. A fault is a crack in the world. It is a break in the rock that make up the Earth's crust.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/12511
The rocks that I saw while visiting the fault were: sandstone, limestone,
and Cambrian shale (on the left side of the rock). Read more to learn
about these rocks!Limestone is a SEDIMENTARY rock. This means the rock has formed over a very long period. It is layers and layers of sediments or items left behind from skeletal fragments such as coral. The limestone is dark gray and brown with evidence of fossils and layers. Limestone is in the midrange of the Mohs hardness scale.
http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml
http://www.minimegeology.com/blog/2011/10/19/what-would-you-do-with-a-sandstone-rock/
Shale
is another SEDIMENTARY rock. Shale is fine grained sedimentary rock that
forms from the squeezing and crushing of silt and clay-size mineral particles that we
commonly call mud. 
http://geology.com/rocks/shale.shtml
Sources:
Kimberly Kirstein, http://georgiageosciences.tripod.com/carter's_dam_fault.htm
Author unknown, http://geology.com/rocks/sandstone.shtml
Kimberly Kirstein, http://georgiageosciences.tripod.com/carter's_dam_fault.htm
Author unknown, http://geology.com/rocks/sandstone.shtml
