APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 



93 



CUMBERLAND 

 PLATEAU 



VALLEY AND RIDGE PROVINCE 



BLUE RIDGE PROVINCE 



INNER PIEDMONT 



GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS 



BREVARD BELT 



ASHEVILLE I , i 



-•■.'■Vv,;^'->/---::;--^:-".---: ■;'..■:■■'■ sv.;:' s'Vm ^^Sg 



INNER PIEDMONT 



KINGS MTN. BELT 



OUTER 



CHARLOTTE BELT 



PIEDMONT 



COASTAL PLAIN 



■ CAROLINA SLATE BELT. 



SHELBY 



10 



20 



30 



l_ 



40 



Jj MILES 



Fig. 7.2.. Cross section of Appalachian system from Cumberland Plateau to Atlantic Coastal Plain, 

 from King, 1955 and 1959. Section B-B', Fig. 7.1 "Es, Triassic Newark group; PM, Mississippian 

 and Pennsylvanian rocks; SO, Middle and Upper Ordovician and Silurian rocks; OC, Cambrian 

 and Lower Ordovician rocks; Cc, basal Cambrian Chilhowee group; pCO 2 , Great Smoky con- 



glomerate and related rocks; pCo', Hiwassee slate and Snobird fm.; pCs, gneiss and schist 

 (mainly Carolina and Roan gneisses); pCg, Cranberry and Max Patch granites; vol, slate, 

 tuff, rhyolite and andesite flows and breccia interbedded; gr 2 , massive granites; gr', foliated 

 granites; di, diorite and gaboro; gd, granite-diorite injection complex; gn, gneiss and schist. 



in the Atlantic Ocean to the margin of the continental shelf, so that the 

 province geologically should be considered to include the continental 

 shelf. It is clear that coastal plain sediments are being deposited today. 

 In addition to the great longitudinal structural divisions of the Atlantic 

 margin of the continent just described, a traverse division is also com- 

 monly made, and the terms central Appalachians and southern Appala- 

 chians are used. Generally, the three structural systems, the folded and 

 faulted Appalachians, the Blue Ridge, and the Piedmont provinces in the 

 states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia 

 are included in the southern Appalachian region, and the same three 

 divisions in northern West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 

 Jersey are included in the central Appalachian region, although some 

 authors call the whole structural complex south of New York the 

 southern Appalachians. 



RELATIONS TO GEOMORPHIC PROVINCES 



Appalachian Plateaus Province 



The structural divisions or systems are in large part reflected in the 

 geomorphic provinces and, therefore, except for minor variations, their 

 boundaries are the same. See Fig. 7.3. The Appalachian plateaus province 

 includes two main plateaus, the Cumberland on the south, and the 

 Allegheny on the north. The province is one of mature or submature 

 dissection, and stands throughout four-fifths of its periphery higher than 

 its neighbors; and parts of it are properly called mountains. The province 

 is a broad, gentle, synclinal basin, whose youngest rocks are the Dunkard 

 group or "upper barren measures" (Permian). They are mainly a thick 

 mass of red shale and sandstone, and occupy a belt extending southwest 

 from near Pittsburgh to near Huntington, West Virginia. Cropping out 



