Learning Log

What do you think the geographic name of our region, “The Coastal Plain”, infers about the area we live in?

Essential Question:What processes created NC, and when?

Geologic Features of NCPicture of Mt. Mitchell

The Eastern US coast once had volcanoes!(~ 750 million years ago)

- This volcanic activity created the rich rock and gem diversity that we enjoy today.

Sampling of NC gemstones

• When the Appalachians were formed about 480 million years ago these some of these rocks became metamorphic.

Ruby Corundum

GneissKyanite

The Atlantic Plain (where we live) formed around 250 million years ago. It had once been the bottom of the ocean and is why we have such rich phosphate deposits in coastal NC.

PCS Phosphate Mine in NC

Whale Vertebrae

Shark Teeth

Diagram of how the East Coast of the US was most likely formed.

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tectonic processes cause obvious features, such as mountain ranges (Appalachians) and volcanoes, and also more subtle features that can have profound environmental consequences.

Read the article “The natural history of North Carolina” and then answer the following:

1)What is natural history?2) How old are the oldest rocks on Earth?3) Why do you think there are holes in the fossil record?4) What is “morphology”?5) What are “genomes”, and how do scientists find out

what they are?

NC’s Fall Zone•unexplained tectonic processes create an uplift known as the Cape Fear arch •arch extends across North Carolina along a line that approximately follows the Cape Fear River •arch affects geography across the entire State of North Carolina• Appalachians higher here

than other states.• Arch still rising few

centimeters per year.• NC piedmont also higher

than neighbors’

NC has "fall zone" in which rivers lose several hundred feet of elevation over a distance of about 100 miles instead of fall line like surrounding states.

• Erosion has been intense in the North Carolina piedmont

• heavy load of eroded sediment carried mostly down the Cape Fear River, causing it to jut out into the Atlantic and deposit extensive shallow-water sediments known as "Frying Pan shoals."

• barrier islands along the coast are much farther from the mainland in North Carolina than in Virginia or South Carolina.

Cape Hatteras Seashore

Consequences of geology affects people

• high elevation of mountains forced colonists to go either north, to the Cumberland Gap in Virginia, or to lower passes in South Carolina when going west.

• North Carolina ports of Morehead City and Wilmington are far smaller than either Richmond, VA or Charleston, SC

Cliffs of Neuse State Park