Valley Region of the Appalachian Mountains Essay -- Karst Region Virgi

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. â€Å"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... ...Ridge and Valley Province of the Virginian landscape. Hartley, 2003 Works Cited Hartley, Ralph. Memorial Day Cave. 2003. Montgomery, Carla W. Environmental Geology 6th Edition. Northern Illinois University. McGraw Hill. New York. 2003. Patterson, J.H. North America 9th Edition. Oxford University Press. .New York, 1994 Skyline Caverns. Virginia, USA. Regions of Virginia. 2005. Ritter, F. Dale, Kochel, R. Craig, Miller R. Jerry. Process Geomorphology 3rd Edition. Wm. C. Brown Publishers. Boston. 1995. Stanley, Steven M. Earth System History 2nd Edition. John Hopkins University. W.H. Freeman & Co. New York, 2005 Topographic Map of Virginia. National Geographic Data Center.