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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coast (as shown in pictures 1 & 2). The area of sea is subject to the
The Shenandoah Valley is located in the western part of Virginia. The valley lies between the Allegheny Mountains, Shenandoah Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains with the Potomac River being the northern boundary to the valley. The Valley offered two tactical advantages to the Confederates with the Union having knowledge of this. The first is a Northern Army invading Virginia would be vulnerable to a Confederate flanking attacks pouring through the many winding gaps across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The other is that the Valley offers a sheltered avenue that would allow any Confederate army to head north into Pennsylvania uncontested. The Shenandoah Valley also contains twelve bridges that are of significance to any maneuvering army of the day and the valley is only 25 miles wide. The valley represented to the Army of the Potomac (Union) a direct approach to the CSA capital of Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War (Keeg...
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.
small part of Illinois and the Canadian providence of Ontario toward the north. In terms of chronological dates, this
Strait and Ungava Bay; on the east by Labrador (Which is a part of Newfoundland),
In order to define the music of Appalachia, one must first define the area in which the Appalachians encompass. This mountainous area extends 1500 miles and covers an area that extends from Maine to Georgia. There are eighteen states which make up the Appalachians. According to most Europeans, they consider the Appalachians to be only the southeastern region of the United Stated. However, the Appalachians are actually a combined combination of states that include all eighteen states. During the 1920’s these areas were considered 1“Back Country” areas.
The 205-thousand-square-mile Appalachian Mountain range, which spans from Eastern Canada to northern Alabama, boasts North America’s oldest mountains (formed approximately 400 million years ago), the highest peak of the eastern United States (Mount Mitchell), industrial production opportunities and leisurely recreation. The range includes the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky mountains (NCSU, n.d.). A range of recreational activities such as fishing in freshwater streams, camping, biking the Blue Ridge Parkway, skiing and hiking are available in the region. One popular hiking location is the 2,184-mile Appalachian Natural Scenic Trail, which is the longest walking trail in the eastern United States (United States. National Park Service, 2014). Its rich natural capital offers a plethora of resources, allowing production to range from small-scale agricultural establishments to larger industrial outputs of metal and timber. Approximately 80 percent of land has been used for the coal and logging industry since the 90’s (Little, 1995). Though the commercial utilization of the mountains has boosted the economy of Appalachian towns and cities, it has also degraded the range aesthetically and commercially.
Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron, eds. The Bedford Reader. 11th ed.
To get an idea of what the Appalachian Trail looks like it is important to understand its description. The trail spans from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Northern Maine
ed. Vol. 2. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 973-974. Yaeger, Bert D. The
a yellow mountain, and in the north a black mountain...,”. With this sentence the starts the history of the
of the book. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28. Mullen, Edward J. & Co.