All Topics  
Piedmont (United States)

 
Piedmont (United States)

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Piedmont (United States)
 
 
  Topics Piedmont (United States) Topic Home

Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 between the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Atlantic Coastal Plain

The Atlantic Coastal Plain is the flat stretch of land that borders the Atlantic Ocean . It is approximately long, stretching from New York, through the southeast United States and through Mexico, ending with the Yucat?n Peninsula....
 and 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....
, stretching from New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 in the north to central 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....
 in the south.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Piedmont (United States)'
Start a new discussion about 'Piedmont (United States)'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Nelsoncountypiedmont
Piedmontmap
Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 between the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Atlantic Coastal Plain

The Atlantic Coastal Plain is the flat stretch of land that borders the Atlantic Ocean . It is approximately long, stretching from New York, through the southeast United States and through Mexico, ending with the Yucat?n Peninsula....
 and 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....
, stretching from New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 in the north to central 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....
 in the south. The Piedmont province is a physiographic province
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
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....
 division. The province consists of the Piedmont Upland and Piedmont Lowlands sections. The Fall line
Fall line

In geomorphology, a fall line marks the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet. Technically, a fall line is an unconformity. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls....
 marks its eastern boundary with the Coastal Plain. To the west, the Piedmont is mostly bounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge, or Blue Ridge Mountains, is a Physiographic regions of the world of the larger Appalachian Mountains division. The province consists of the Northern and Southern physiographic sections, which divide near the Roanoke River gap....
, the easternmost range of the main Appalachians. Physiographically, the Piedmont is considered a province of the larger Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. The width of the Piedmont varies, being quite narrow above the Delaware River
Delaware River

The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States.The Delaware was explored by Adriaen Block as part of the New Netherlands Colony, and was named the South River to mark the southernmost reach of that colony....
 but nearly 300 miles (475 km) wide in North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
. The Piedmont's area is approximately 80,000 square miles (207,000 kmē).

The name "Piedmont" roughly translates as foot (pied) hill (mont) in French, and the region is named after the Italian region of Piemonte.

Geology

The surface relief of the Piedmont is characterized by relatively low, rolling hills with heights above sea level
Sea level

Mean sea level is the average height of the sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface. Defining the reference level , however, involves complex measurement, and accurately determining MSL can prove difficult....
 between 200 feet (50 m) and 800 feet to 1,000 feet (250 m to 300 m). Its geology
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....
 is complex, with numerous rock formations of different materials and ages intermingled with one another. Essentially, the Piedmont is the remnant of several ancient mountain chains
Mountain range

A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by mountain pass or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or Fold mountains...
 that have since been eroded away. Geologists have identified at least five separate events which have led too sediment
Sediment

Sediment is any particulate matter that can be sediment transport by fluid dynamics, and which eventually is deposited.Sediments are most often transported by water transported by wind and glaciers....
 deposition, including the Grenville orogeny
Grenville orogeny

The Grenville orogeny was an episode of mountain-building associated with the assembly of the ancient supercontinent Rodinia. The Grenville orogeny occurred in the late Proterozoic eon, 1300-1000 million years ago, as numerous continental plates collided around the edges of North America, forming folded mountains....
 (the collision of continents that created the supercontinent
Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and terrane that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today....
 Rodinia
Rodinia

In geology, Rodinia is the name of a supercontinent, a continent which contained most or all of Earth's landmass. According to plate tectonic reconstructions, Rodinia existed between 1100 and 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era ....
) and the Appalachian orogeny during the formation of Pangaea
Pangaea

Pangaea, Pang?a or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
. The last major event in the history of the Piedmont was the break-up of Pangaea, when North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 began to separate. Large basins
Sedimentary basin

The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation. As the sediments are buried, they are subjected to increasing pressure and begin the process of lithification....
 formed from the rift
Rift

In geology, a rift is a place where the Earth's Crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.Typical rift features are a central linear downdropped geologic fault segment, called a graben, with parallel normal faulting and rift-flank uplifts on either side forming a rift valley, where the rift r...
ing and were subsequently filled by the sediments shed from the surrounding higher ground. The series of Mesozoic
Mesozoic

The Mesozoic Era is one of three Geologic time scale of the Phanerozoic eon . The division of time into eras dates back to Giovanni Arduino, in the 18th century, although his original name for the era now called the 'Mesozoic' was 'Secondary' ....
 basins is almost entirely located within the Piedmont region.

Soils and farming

Piedmont soils are generally clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
ey and moderately fertile. In some areas they have suffered from erosion
Erosion

For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion 'For use of in dermatopathology, see Erosion Erosion is the removal of solids in the natural environment....
 and over-cropping, particularly in the south where cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 is the chief crop. In the central Piedmont region of North Carolina and Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
, tobacco
Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines....
 is the main crop, while in the north there is more diversity, including orchard
Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs maintained for food agriculture. Orchards comprise fruit tree or nut -producing trees grown for commercial production....
s, dairy
Dairy

A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk—mostly from goat or cattle, but also from bovine, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption....
ing, and general farm
Farm

A farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel....
ing. The northern end of the piedmont has some of the most fertile soils.

Music

The Piedmont region is closely associated with the Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues

The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a fingerpicking approach on the guitar in which a regular, alternating thumb bassline string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the Clef#The treble clef strings generally picked with the fore-finger, occasionally others....
, a style of blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
 music that originated there in the late 19th century. Most Piedmont blues musicians came from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. During the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)

The Great Migration was the movement of 1.3 million African-Americans out of the Southern United States to the Northern United States, Midwestern United States and Western United States from 1916 to 1930....
, Black Americans migrated to the Piedmont. With the Appalachian Mountains to the west, those who might otherwise have spread into rural areas instead stayed in cities and were thus exposed to a broader mixture of music than those in, for example, the rural Mississippi delta. Thus, Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues

The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a fingerpicking approach on the guitar in which a regular, alternating thumb bassline string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the Clef#The treble clef strings generally picked with the fore-finger, occasionally others....
 was influenced by many types of music such as ragtime, country, and popular songs -- styles that had comparatively less influence on blues music in other regions.

Native to the Piedmont is a characteristic style of dance known as the cakewalk
Cakewalk

Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slavery in the Southern United States. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk....
 or the Slow Drag.

Cities

Many major cities are located on the Fall line
Fall line

In geomorphology, a fall line marks the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet. Technically, a fall line is an unconformity. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls....
, the eastern boundary of the Piedmont. Within the Piedmont region itself there are several areas of urban concentration. For example, the Piedmont Crescent
Piedmont Crescent

The Piedmont Crescent is a large urbanized region in the U.S. state of North Carolina that forms the northern section of the rapidly developing I-85 Corridor megalopolis in the southeastern United States....
 in North Carolina includes several metropolitan clusters such as Metrolina (Charlotte)
Charlotte metropolitan area

The Charlotte metropolitan area is a metropolitan area/region of North Carolina and South Carolina The Carolinas within and surrounding the city of Charlotte, North Carolina....
, the Piedmont Triad
Piedmont Triad

The Piedmont Triad, Triad, or North Carolina Triad is a region of the U.S. state of North Carolina in the Piedmont that consists of the area centered around the cities of Greensboro, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and High Point, North Carolina....
, and The Triangle
The Triangle (North Carolina)

The Research Triangle, commonly referred to as "The Triangle", is a region in the Piedmont of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina....
. Another major city of the Piedmont is Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the Capital and most populous city in Georgia , as well as the 33rd largest city in the United States of America with a population of 519,145....
.

See also

  • Cecil (soil)
    Cecil (soil)

    Originally mapped in Cecil County, Maryland in 1899, more than 10 million acres of the Cecil soil series are now mapped in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States....


Further reading

  • Michael A. Godfrey (1997). Field Guide to the Piedmont. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 524 pages. ISBN 0-8078-4671-6.


External links