The Coastal Plains

A lowland area sweeps from Massachusetts to Texas along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This coastal plain, which extends for more than 3,219 kilometers is divided into two parts — the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Gulf Costal Plain.

The Atlantic Plain follows the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean south from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to the Florida Peninsula. It is narrow in the north but broadens to over 322 kilometers in width toward the south. The coastline is irregular.

Many natural harbours have been created. Some of the more important ones are Massachusetts Bay, New York Bay, Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and Long Island Sound. A sound is a long, generally narrow inlet of the sea. There are fewer natural harbours along the southern part of the Atlantic Plain. Sandy beaches are found along much of the shoreline. Mixed forests of conifers and broadleaf deciduous trees are the natural vegetation

of the northern part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The vegetation of the southern part is mostly coniferous forests. Marshes are common and there are many slow-moving rivers crossing the southern plain. The most southern part of the plain includes the

swampy Everglades in Florida. The Gulf Plain is a much wider band of flat land and gently rolling hills. It varies in width from 241 kilometers to about 966 kilometers. At one point, the plain extends far inland to where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River. The Mississippi, the longest river in North America, empties into the Gulf of Mexico in Southern Louisiana.

There it has made a huge delta. This part of the Gulf Coastal Plain is made up of marshes and bayous — a word used to describe the many small, marshy creeks and rivers that flow through the delta area.