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The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau
Appalachian Plateau

The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian mountains, stretching from New York to Georgia and Alabama. The plateau is a second level United States physiographic region....
. It includes much of eastern Kentucky
Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern United States , but it is uncommonly included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwestern United States....
 and western West Virginia
West Virginia

West Virginia is a U.S. state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast....
, part of Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, and a small portion of northern Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
 and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau

The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and eastern Ohio....
" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
.






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The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau
Appalachian Plateau

The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian mountains, stretching from New York to Georgia and Alabama. The plateau is a second level United States physiographic region....
. It includes much of eastern Kentucky
Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern United States , but it is uncommonly included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwestern United States....
 and western West Virginia
West Virginia

West Virginia is a U.S. state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast....
, part of Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, and a small portion of northern Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
 and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau

The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and eastern Ohio....
" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with the Allegheny River
Allegheny River

The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point State Park#History" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
 rising in the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland River
Cumberland River

The Cumberland River is an important waterway in the Southern United States. It is 688 miles long. It starts in Letcher County, Kentucky in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau, flows through southeastern Kentucky and crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before draining into the Ohio River a...
 rising in the Cumberland Plateau.

Geography

The Cumberland Plateau is a deeply dissected plateau
Dissected plateau

A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been uplifted, then severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, Metamorphic rock, extensive Geological fault, or magmatic activity that accompanies oro...
, with topographic
Topography

Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, Natural satellite, and asteroids. It is also the description of such surface shapes and features ....
 relief commonly of about four hundred feet (120 meters), and frequent sandstone
Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
 outcrop
Outcrop

Outcrop is a Geology term referring to the appearance of bedrock or superficial deposits exposed at the surface of the Earth. In most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be seen or examined closely....
pings and bluffs. Many coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
 seams are present in the area, and the Cumberland Plateau has for many years been heavily mined
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
.

At Kentucky's Pottsville Escarpment
Pottsville Escarpment

The Pottsville Escarpment is a resistant sandstone belt of cliffs and steep sided, narrow crested valleys in eastern Kentucky, United States. It features spectacular cliffs, rock shelters, waterfalls, and natural archs....
, which is the transition from the Cumberland Plateau to the Bluegrass
Bluegrass region

The Bluegrass Region is a region of the United States, mostly in northern Kentucky, containing a majority of the state's population. The region is centered on , with other major metropolitan areas including and , as it extends into southern Ohio....
 in the north and the Pennyrile
Pennyroyal Plateau

The Pennyroyal Plateau, or, as it is more commonly called in Kentucky, the Pennyrile, is a large area of the state that features rolling hills, caves, and karst topography in general....
 in the south, there are many spectacular cliff
Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them....
s, gorges, rockhouse
Rockhouse

Rockhouse is a common colloquial term in the eastern United States for the geologic feature known as a rock shelter.Rockhouse also refers to some specific geographic features, including:...
s, natural bridge
Natural arch

A natural arch or natural bridge is a natural formation where a Rock arch forms, with a natural passageway through underneath. Most natural arches form as a narrow ridge, walled by cliffs, become narrower from erosion, with a softer rock stratum under the cliff-forming stratum gradually eroding out until the rock shelters thus forme...
s, and waterfall
Waterfall

A waterfall is usually a geology geologic formation resulting from water, often in the form of a stream, flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a nickpoint, or sudden break in elevation....
s. In Tennessee, the Cumberland Plateau's western border is the Highland Rim
Highland Rim

The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee surrounding the Nashville Basin. Nashville, Tennessee is largely surrounded by higher terrain in all directions....
 east of the Nashville Basin
Nashville Basin

The Nashville Basin is a term often used to describe the area surrounding Nashville, Tennessee. The Central Basin was caused by an uplifting known as the Nashville Dome....
, and its eastern edge is marked by Walden Ridge
Walden Ridge

Walden Ridge is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it....
, which continues south into Alabama as Sand Mountain
Sand Mountain (Alabama)

Sand Mountain is a large plateau in Northeastern Alabama and Northwestern Georgia which is a part of the southern tip of the Appalachian mountain chain....
. Walden Ridge and Sand Mountain are separated from the main portion of the Cumberland Plateau by the Sequatchie Valley
Sequatchie Valley

Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the United States state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed by erosion of a compression anticline, rather than Rift valley process as had been for...
, which extends into central Alabama under other names.

In Kentucky
Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern United States , but it is uncommonly included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwestern United States....
, the height of the plateau's hills increases from northwest to southeast, with the westernmost areas of the plateau having a relief of around 200 feet and an appearance similar to the knobs region
Knobs region

The Knobs region is in the United States of America in Kentucky. It is a narrow, horseshoe shaped region consisting of hundreds of isolated hills....
, whereas areas near Black Mountain
Black Mountain (Kentucky)

Black Mountain is the tallest mountain in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, with a summit elevation of 4,145 feet above mean sea level and a top to bottom height of over 2,500 feet ....
 have a relief exceeding 2,500 feet.

Geology and physiography

The Cumberland Plateau is a physiographic section
Physiographic regions of the world

The physiographic regions of the world are a means of defining the Earth's landforms into distinct regions based upon Nevin Fenneman's classic three-tiered approach of divisions, provinces and sections, in 1916, which although they date from the mid 1910s, are still considered basically valid, and were the basis for similar classifications of...
 of the larger Appalachian Plateau
Appalachian Plateau

The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian mountains, stretching from New York to Georgia and Alabama. The plateau is a second level United States physiographic region....
 province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian
Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
 physiographic division.

The Cumberland Plateau is contiguous with the Allegheny Plateau on the northern side, the only real difference being local naming. The sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock is one of the three main Rock types . Sedimentary rock is formed by deposition and consolidation of mineral and organic material and from precipitation of minerals from solution....
s that compose both plateaus are of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian
Pennsylvanian

The Pennsylvanian is an epoch in the geologic timescale or a series in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Carboniferous period lasting from roughly   to  Ma ....
 geological
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 age, composed of near shore sediments washed westward from the old Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
. Some rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 layers were laid down in shallow coastal waters, some, including bituminous coal
Bituminous coal

Bituminous coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite but poorer quality than Anthracite....
 seams were laid onshore in swampy environments. These are interlaced with delta formations of cross-bedded sandstones and occasionally conglomerate. There are numerous discontinuities
Discontinuity

Discontinuity can be:*Discontinuity , a property of a mathematical functionDiscontinuity may also refer to:*A break in continuity , in literature...
 in the beds, where they were raised high enough to be eroded, then lowered to have more sediments added on top.

Natural history

The plateau contains some of the largest stretches of contiguous forest in the eastern United States. Regionally, forests are intermediate between oak and hickory forest types with pines occurring on dry, upland sites and mesophytic species occurring in protected coves.

See also

  • Cumberland Mountains
    Cumberland Mountains

    The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains....
  • Geology of the Appalachians
    Geology of the Appalachians

    The geology of the Appalachians dates back to more than 480 million years ago. A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian Mountains reveals elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ophiolite - strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate tectonics....


Further reading

  • Caudill, Harry M.
    Harry M. Caudill

    Harry M. Caudill was an United States author, historian, lawyer, legislator, and environmentalist from Letcher County, Kentucky, in the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky....
    , Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1963). ISBN 0-316-13212-8


External links

  • Cumberland Plateau
  • , Cumberland Plateau