Appalachian Plateau

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Zones of the Appalachian Mountains (according to USGS )

The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian Mountains . It is made up of the Cumberland Plateau and the Allegheny Plateau . It stretches from New York to Georgia and Alabama .

physical geography

The Appalachian Plateau consists of almost undisturbed layers of the Upper and Lower Carboniferous , which contain significant coal and anthracite seams . Due to their favorable location near the highly industrialized east coast of the United States, these represented an important economic factor. The coal that formed during the Pennsylvania is often mined in open pit mining, especially mountain top removal mining .

The sediment layers form a layer step or layer table relief . The plateau is partially deeply cut by rivers, such as the Ohio River . The striking steep edge to the Valley and Ridge zone gives the impression of a mountain range from the east. To the northwest, the plateau gently merges into the Interior Plains .

From northeast to southwest, the plateau is made up of the Mohawk , Catskills , Allegheny Plateau, Kanawha, Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chad Montrie: To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia ( English ). University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2003, ISBN 0-8078-5435-2 .
  2. ↑ H. Blume: USA. A geographic study of the country. Volume 1: The metropolitan area in structural change. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-05068-1 , p. 9.
  3. ↑ Charles Redway Dryer: High School Geography. American Book Company, New York 1911, p. 345.
  4. ^ Physiographic Regions ( Memento of May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). In: A Tapestry of Time and Terrain: The Union of Two Maps - Geology and Topography. United States Geological Survey (English).

Coordinates: 40 ° 0 ′  N , 78 ° 0 ′  W