2015-08-21
706
Just west of the Atlantic Coastal Plain is the Appalachian Highlands. This region takes its name from the Appalachian Mountains. The highlands stretch about 1,931 kilometers
in the United States from northern Maine to central Alabama. They lie in a northeast to southwest direction. In the highlands is the highest peak in the eastern United States — Mount Mitchell in western North Carolina. It rises 2,037 meters above sea level.
The eastern edge of the highlands is known as the Piedmont. This low plateau varies in altitude from 152 to 305 meters above sea level. The land drops sharply from the Piedmont to the plain, creating waterfalls along the fast-moving rivers. West of the Piedmont are the Appalachian Mountains, made up of many low, rounded Peaks clustered into different ranges. They are nearly parallel with the Atlantic coastne. Railroad lines run along the valleys and over the low mountain passes connecting me Atlantic coast with the interior of the country.
As s true of most of the eastern United States, the Appalachian Highlands were part of an area extensive forest — both conifers and deciduous broadleafs. Much of the highlands remained covered by trees today.
The Interior Plains
A huge "plain region" covers the middle of the United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. The region is divided into the generally flat
Central Plains just west of the Appalachian Highlands and the Great Plains which rise gradually westward toward the Rocky Mountains. The Central Plains include lowland parts of central and western Kentucky and Tennessee, the Great Lakes area, and the upper Mississippi and lower Ohio and Missouri river basins. The natural vegetation of this area is prairie grasses. There are areas of forests on the hills and in the river valleys.
West of the river basins, the elevations slowly increase to almost 1,524 meters toward the Rocky Mountains. This is the area of the Great Plains. Many long rivers flow eastward from the Great Plains, emptying into the Mississippi. They flow through large
areas of dry, almost treeless land, once covered with prairie and steppe grasses. The soils very fertile chernozem and a mixture of chernozem and podsolic soils.
