Valley Region of the Appalachian Mountains and Subsequent Karst Regions in the State of Virginia
This map which appears on page 402 of Process Geomorphology (1995), written by Dale
F. Ritter, Craig R. Kochel, and Jerry R. Miller, serves as the basis of my report on the
formation of the Appalachian Mountains and its subsequent karst regions in along the
Atlantic side of the United States particularly in the state of Virginia. The shaded areas
represent generalized karst regions throughout the United States.
The state of Virginia is divided into five major physiological regions based on
similar landscapes and relatively static climates, each region being as diverse as the next.
From the east to west they are respectively named, the Tidewater which stretches from
the Atlantic Ocean to the fall line, the Piedmont which lies east of the Blue Ridge
Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains which exclusively extends to the eastern
Appalachian Mountains, and finally the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachian
Mountain chain. In this paper I will pay particular attention to the formation of the
Appalachian Mountains and the subsequent karst regions in the western part of the state.
“Ordovician mountain
building events in eastern North
America are collectively termed
Tactonic Orogeny (Stanley,
318).” In short, there were three
such orogenic events that helped
form the current-day
Appalachian Mountains. This was the first of three orogenic episodes occurred when
Laurentia, the North American craton, part of the continental crust, collided with the
Iapetus which is composed of oceanic crust. The resulting impact caused mountains to
rise up in the east. Over thousands of years, through the process of physical and chemi...
... middle of paper ...
...Ridge
and Valley Province of the Virginian landscape.
Hartley, 2003
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Ashton, John. "KENEDY, MIFFLIN." 15 June 2010. Handbook of Texas Online. Web. 5 May 2014. .
...the only major geologic event in the history of the Appalachians. Several glaciers have covered parts of the Northern Appalachians over the last three million years. (Appalachian tales) The mountains have been there ever since and that is how they were formed.
Fleeger, Gary M., Bushnell, Kent O., and Watson, Donald W. “Moraine and McConnells Mill State Parks.” Pennsylvania Trail of Geology. 2003. Print. 29 April 2014.
The west coast of North America has been tectonically and volcanically active for billions of years. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in eastern California were born of volcanoes, and magma has been erupting in the Long Valley to the east of the mountains for over three million years (Bailey, et. al., 1989). However, the climactic eruption of the region occurred relatively recently in the region's geologic history. About 760,000 years ago, a huge explosion of magma warped the Eastern Sierra into the landscape that exists today. The eruption depleted a massive magma chamber below the earth's surface so that the ceiling of the chamber imploded, forming what is now known as the Long Valley caldera. The caldera is at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 50 km northwest of the town of Bishop, and 30 km south of Mono Lake (Bailey, 1976).
ed. Vol. 2. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 973-974. Yaeger, Bert D. The
Ed. Thomas J. Collins and Vivienne J. Rundle. Toronto: Broadview Press, Ltd, 1999. 254-277. Print.
I was raised in an ultra-conservative Pentecostal Holiness church in the Appalachian Mountains. There were snake handlers in our church. It was thought that it tested one's faith to pick up a poisonous snake -- God wouldn't allow it to bite you if you had faith. However, I was always afraid that to pick up a snake would greatly increase God's propensity to smite me via death by snakebite. I did not have enough faith. I've never encountered a miracle -- I've never had a dream come true. I therefore can't help but lack faith.
Strait and Ungava Bay; on the east by Labrador (Which is a part of Newfoundland),
Ranking up in age, this geographical feature was formed thirty five million years ago. “A rare bolide; comet or asteroid-like object, hit the area that is now the lower tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, near Cape Charles, Virginia”(Chesapeake Bay Program, 2012) This impact is the earliest stage of the Bay’s formation. Following this very significant action, a series of ice ages attracted ocean water from massive glaciers around the area. In the following hundreds of
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay holds eighteen hundred trillion gallons of water and stretches over 200 miles in length between its most northern point, the Susquehanna River to the Bay’s most southern tip, the Atlantic Ocean. Home to more than seventeen million people, the Chesapeake Bay is the primary water source for over 150 rivers and streams. Because of the vast amount of rivers and streams the bay feeds, this watershed impacts the lives of citizens on the eastern shore spanning a total of six U.S. states. The importance of the Chesapeake Bay is incredible; two of the United States’ five major North Atlantic ports – Baltimore and Hampton Roads – are on the Bay. (Chesapeake Bay Program, n/d). The highly productive ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay provides food and shelter for a wide variety of plant and animal life in and surrounding the Bay. The critical natural resources the bay provides stimulates economic growth and has for centuries.
The Appalachian population extends across thirteen states in the United States including: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. These regions are divided into categories of Northern Appalachia, Central Appalachia and Southern Appalachia. West Virginia is the only state that is entirely within Appalachia.1 The environment these individuals encounter is within the mountains, valley and rivers with varying degrees. There are few cities within this culture and many still live in small communities.
...on. Vol. 34. Georgia State University, 2001. 39-53. H. W. Wilson Web. 22 Mar. 2004.
Appalachia is a 205,000-square-mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains stretching from southern New York to northern Mississippi. It is home to more than 25 million people.
Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003. 600-605.