The Fault in Our Charts
Tamworth's cultural identity is directly connected to a massive geological fracture in the Earth's crust. The city sits within the Tamworth Belt, a zone of ancient rock wedged between two major structures: the Hunter-Mooki Thrust Fault system to the west and the Peel-Manning Fault System to the east. The Peel Fault, a crustal fracture active for over 350 million years, is the main feature. It stretches for several hundred kilometers and is a boundary where completely different types of rock press against each other.
To the east of the fault lie deep oceanic sedimentary and volcanic deposits from the Ordovician to Carboniferous periods, between 300 and 400 million years ago. To the west are shallower marine sediments from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, formed closer to land and ancient volcanic island chains. This tectonic collision scraped up and mashed together different rock packages, creating a zone of weakness. Over millions of years, erosion worked faster on this fractured zone, carving out the Peel River valley. This valley provides a natural, low-lying passage through the otherwise formidable Great Dividing Range. Along the fault line, distinctive rocks like serpentinite and jasper can be found, evidence of the pressures and deep-earth origins of the structure.