The Appalachian Highlands physiographic division shown by province
The Appalachian Highlands is one of eight government-defined physiographic divisions of the contiguous United States.[1] It links with the Appalachian Uplands in Canada to make up the Appalachian Mountains. The Highlands includes seven physiographic provinces, which is the second level in the physiographic classification system in the United States. At the next level of physiographic classification, called section/subsection, there are 20 unique land areas with one of the provinces having no sections.[lower-alpha 1]
The Appalachian Highlands are characterized by a diverse physiographic division.[2][3][4]
The seven provinces are:
Adirondack
Appalachian Plateau
Blue Ridge
Piedmont
New England
St. Lawrence
Valley and Ridge
Adirondack province
Adirondack province of the physiographic division of the Appalachian Highlands
The Adirondack Mountains are a circular dome of mountains in Northeastern New York about 160 miles wide with more than 100 peaks, at least 40 that are over 4,000 feet tall. There are over 200 named lakes, with the number of smaller lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water reaching over 3,000. The region has over 1,200 miles of river.[5] The current relief owes much to glaciation. Among the named lakes around the mountains, are Lake George, Lake Placid, and Lake Tear of the Clouds, which is the source of the Hudson River.
The Adirondack High Peaks are a list of 46 mountains in the Adirondacks that are above or close to 4,000 feet in elevation. The list was created when it was believed that all 46 peaks were at least 4,000 feet tall. Later surveys showed that four of the peaks are actually lower than 4,000 feet. One 4,000 foot peak was also not included in the original list. The tallest peak is Mount Marcy, which is the highest point in New York at 5,344 feet (1,629 m). Although the mountains are formed from ancient rocks more than one billion years old, geologically, the 160-mile wide dome area, called a massif, is relatively new. Because of this, the Adirondacks have been referred to as "new mountains from old rocks." It is theorized that there is a "hotspot" beneath the region, which causes continued uplift at the rate of 1.5-3 cm annually.[6][7]
Appalachian Plateau province
The Appalachian Plateau is a large, dissected plateau region in the eastern United States. It extends from New York southwest to Alabama. It runs parallel to Lake Erie on the northwest, but does not include the land adjacent to the Great Lakes. The plateau is composed of sedimentary rocks, including sandstones, conglomerates, and shales, that were deposited during the late Paleozoic Era. These rocks are generally flat-lying, but have been dissected by streams to form a rugged and mountainous terrain. In addition to these sedimentary rocks, beds of coal are locally significant throughout the Appalachian Plateaus, making this area the heart of the American coal industry. [8]
Appalachian Plateau province of Appalachian physiographic division
The Appalachian Plateau includes several physiographic sections:
The Mohawk Plateau is located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. It is characterized by its low relief and rolling hills.
The Kanawha province contains most of West Virginia, southeastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, and northeastern Kentucky. The province is named after the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River.
The Southern New York provinces begins west of Albany, the south of Buffalo, and runs parallel, but not to the edge of, Lake Erie. It stays south of Cleveland and takes in the northeastern portion of Ohio.
The Catskill Mountains are located in southeastern New York and are known for their scenic beauty and waterfalls.
The Allegheny Mountains are located in central Pennsylvania and West Virginia and are the highest mountains in the Appalachian Plateau.
The Cumberland Mountains are located in southeastern Kentucky and Tennessee and is characterized by its gently rolling hills and dissected valleys.
The Cumberland Plateau is located in central Alabama and are the southernmost mountains in the Appalachian Plateau.
Blue Ridge province
The Blue Ridge province in the larger Appalachian Highlands physiographic division
The Blue Ridge province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. [9] This province is about 580 miles long and consists of northern and southern physiographic sections, which divides near the Roanoke River gap.
The southern section is a plateau area that stretches to northern Georgia, with the southernmost point near Amicalola Mountain in Dawsonville, Georgia with the westernmost section being near Cohutta Mountain in Murray County, Georgia. The Blue Ridge Mountains are named for their distinctive blue haze, which is caused by the presence of atmospheric pollutants and water vapor.[10] This contributes to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their perceived color.[11]
The mountains are made of highly deformed metamorphic rocks, largely developed during the Precambrian age over 541 million years ago. The mountains include schists, gneisses, slates, and quartzites, and are extensively intruded by igneous bodies. The Blue Ridge Mountains contain the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island. The highest peak in the Blue Ridge is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet.[12]
Piedmont province
Piedmont province in the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division
There are two sections of the Piedmont. The primary portion is called the Uplands section. There are two unconnected sections of the province, known as the lowlands, in the New York City and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania areas.
The Piedmont is characterized by rolling hills and valleys that are underlain by crystalline metamorphic rocks. The Piedmont is a region of great geological diversity. It is underlain by a variety of rocks that range in age from Precambrian to Cenozoic. The oldest rocks in the Piedmont are gneisses and schists that formed more than a billion years ago during the Grenville orogeny. These rocks were later intruded by granites and other igneous rocks during the Paleozoic era. During the Mesozoic era, the Piedmont was covered by shallow seas that deposited layers of sandstone, shale, and limestone. These sedimentary rocks were later deformed and uplifted during the Cenozoic era. [16]
The Piedmont is also home to several important mineral resources. The region has long been known for its deposits of gold, which were mined extensively during the 19th century. Other important minerals found in the Piedmont include copper, iron, mica, and granite. [17]
New England province
Five sections of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division
The New England province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division of the United States. It includes five subdivisions: the New England Uplands, New England Seaboard Lowland, Green Mountain, White Mountain, and Taconic. [18]
The New England Uplands is the area runs from the northernmost point in Maine to the area south of Reading, Pennsylvania, excluding other notable physiographic features found in the other four sections.
The White Mountain section starts in the area around Traveler Mountain and rounds west to the Maine/Canadian border. The namesake White Mountains are on the southern border of the section.
Much of the New England province’s bedrock aquifers are in consolidated rocks of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic origin. Some of these aquifers, mainly in the western portion of Vermont, consist of carbonate rocks (primarily limestone, dolomite, and marble). These consolidated rocks yield water primarily from bedding planes, fractures, joints, and faults, rather than from intergranular pores. [19]
Like the adjacent physiographic provinces, a large part of the New England province was peneplained during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, then uplifted, extensively dissected, and finally glaciated.[20]
St. Lawrence province (Champlain section)
The St. Lawrence Valley province, including only the Champlain section of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division
The St. Lawrence Valley is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, containing only the Champlain physiographic section. [21] The St. Lawrence Plain is a vast, flat plain, with elevations rarely exceeding 300m (1,000 feet) in Vermont and New York. This area was originally a forest-wetland complex, although very little of the forest remains today. [22]
The province abuts the eastern edge of the St. Lawrence River in New York along the Canadian border and contains most of Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York. Most of the northern border of the St. Lawrence Valley province is adjacent to a physiographic division in Canada that is not part of the Appalachian Mountains in that country. Canada considers all land of the St. Lawrence Valley to be part of the Central Lowlands. The part of the St. Lawrence Valley province that abuts the Appalachian Uplands of Canada meets the Eastern Quebec Uplands. [23]
Valley and Ridge province
Valley and Ridge province of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division; to the north is the Hudson section, then the central section, and to the south the Tennessee section.
The Valley and Ridge province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, located in the eastern United States. It is bordered on the east by the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces and on the west by the Appalachian Plateau. There are three sections of the province, the Hudson section, the Central section, and the Tennessee section. [24]
The Hudson section takes in the southern section of Lake Champlain including|South Bay, and follows the man-made Champlain Canal to the point at which the Hudson River turns south toward Albany. It continues along the Hudson to Staatsburg, NY.
The province is a series of northeast-southwest trending synclines and anticlines composed of early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Limestones and shales are more susceptible to erosion and make up much of the valleys, whereas more resistant sandstones and conglomerates form the ridges. [25]
The Valley and Ridge province extends for nearly 1,200 miles (1,930 km) from the St. Lawrence Valley in upstate New York to the Coastal Plain of central Alabama. Its width varies from 14 to 80 miles (23 to 130 km). The area is home to many valuable resources, both economic and geo-heritage. Vast beds of anthracite coal exist in Pennsylvania and are mined at depths up to 600 m (2,000 ft). Iron and Zinc are also produced in the Valley and Ridge province, mined from the minerals hematite (iron) and sphalerite (zinc). [26]
Notes
↑ A physiographic region has a distinct type of landscape, landforms, rock type, and evolutionary history. The advantage of using physiographic regions in the exploration of geography is that all land areas are included. The borders do not overlap, and there are no undefined land areas. It is possible to make a map of any country using the coordinates in the classifications.
The Adirondack Mountains are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York which form a circular dome approximately 160 miles (260 km) wide and covering about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the highest point in New York at 5,344 feet (1,629 m). The Adirondack High Peaks, a traditional list of 46 peaks over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), are popular hiking destinations. There are over 200 named lakes with the number of smaller lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water reaching over 3,000. Among the named lakes around the mountains are Lake George, Lake Placid, and Lake Tear of the Clouds. The region has over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of river.
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain. The general definition used is one followed by the United States Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada to describe the respective countries' physiographic regions. The U.S. uses the term Appalachian Highlands and Canada uses the term Appalachian Uplands; the Appalachian Mountains are not synonymous with the Appalachian Plateau, which is one of the provinces of the Appalachian Highlands.
The geology of the Appalachians dates back more than 1.2 billion years to the Mesoproterozoic era when two continental cratons collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia, 500 million years prior to the development of the range during the formation of Pangea. The rocks exposed in today's Appalachian Mountains reveal elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks, and slivers of ancient ocean floor—strong evidences that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of Pangea with the Appalachians and neighboring Anti-Atlas mountains near the center. These mountain ranges likely once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before they were eroded.
The Great Appalachian Valley, also called The Great Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough, including a chain of valley lowlands, and the central feature of the Appalachian Mountains system. The trough stretches about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from Quebec in the north to Alabama in the south and has been an important north–south route of travel since prehistoric times.
The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the Eastern United States. It is situated between the Atlantic Plain and the Blue Ridge Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont Province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands physiographic division and consists of the Piedmont Upland, and the Piedmont Lowlands sections.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with the Allegheny River rising in the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland River rising in the Cumberland Plateau in Harlan County, Kentucky.
The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area of the Appalachian Mountains in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio. It is divided into the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau and the glaciated Allegheny Plateau.
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three sections: the Hudson Valley, the Central, and the Tennessee.
The Champlain Valley is a region of the United States around Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York extending north slightly into Quebec, Canada. It is part of the St. Lawrence River drainage basin, drained northward by the Richelieu River into the St. Lawrence at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The Richelieu valley is not generally referred to as part of the Champlain Valley.
The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a range that run from Nova Scotia in Canada to Alabama in the United States.
The U.S. state of Georgia is commonly divided into four geologic regions that influence the location of the state's four traditional physiographic regions. The four geologic regions include the Appalachian foreland, Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. These four geologic regions commonly share names with and typically overlap the four physiographic regions of the state: the Appalachian Plateau and adjacent Valley and Ridge; the Blue Ridge; the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain.
The Geology of Pennsylvania consists of six distinct physiographic provinces, three of which are subdivided into different sections. Each province has its own economic advantages and geologic hazards and plays an important role in shaping everyday life in the state. From the southeast corner to the northwest corner of the state, they include: the Atlantic Plain Province, the Piedmont Province, the New England Province, the Ridge and Valley Province, the Appalachain Province, and the Central Lowlands Province.
New Jersey is a very geologically and geographically diverse region in the United States' Middle Atlantic region, offering variety from the Appalachian Mountains and the Highlands in the state's northwest, to the Atlantic Coastal Plain region that encompasses both the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Shore. The state's geological features have impacted the course of settlement, development, commerce and industry over the past four centuries.
The New England province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division of the United States. The province consists of the Seaboard Lowland, New England Upland, White Mountain, Green Mountain, and Taconic sections.
The Laurentian Upland is a physiographic region which, when referred to as the "Laurentian Region" or the Grenville geological province, is recognized by Natural Resources Canada as one of five provinces of the larger Canadian Shield physiographic division. The United States Geological Survey recognizes the Laurentian Upland as the larger general upland area of the Canadian Shield.
The Reading Prong is a physiographic subprovince of the New England Uplands section of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands. The prong consists of mountains made up of crystalline metamorphic rock.
The La Chute River, also known as Ticonderoga Creek, is a short, fast-moving river, near the Vermont–New York border. It is now almost wholly contained within the municipality of Ticonderoga, New York, connecting the northern end and outlet of the 32-mile (51 km) long Lake George and the southern end of the 107-mile (172 km) long Lake Champlain through many falls and rapids. The river drops about 230 feet in its three and a half-mile (6 km) course, which is a larger drop than Niagara Falls.
The geology of North America is a subject of regional geology and covers the North American continent, the third-largest in the world. Geologic units and processes are investigated on a large scale to reach a synthesized picture of the geological development of the continent.
↑ "Adirondack Mountains". visitadirondacks.com. Retrieved 2023-09-08. Adirondack Park is a New York state-protected area and covers an area of over six million acres, representing over 20 percent of the state. Established in 1892 by the state legislature, it is intended to protect the region’s natural resources and to provide recreational opportunities for the public.
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