Cumberland Plateau facts for kids
The Cumberland Plateau is a large, flat area of land that is higher than the land around it. It's part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. You can find it in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and parts of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia.
Sometimes, people also talk about the "Allegheny Plateau". Both names refer to similar high, flat lands west of the main Appalachian Mountains. The names are mostly based on old traditions, not big geological differences. The Allegheny River starts in the Allegheny Plateau, and the Cumberland River starts in the Cumberland Plateau, in Harlan County, Kentucky.
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What is the Cumberland Plateau Like?
The Cumberland Plateau is a "dissected plateau." This means it's a high, flat area that has been cut into by rivers and streams over time, creating many valleys and ridges. The land often changes height by about 400 feet (122 meters). You'll frequently see sandstone cliffs and bluffs, which are steep rock faces.
Features in Kentucky
In Kentucky, the area where the Cumberland Plateau meets other regions is called the Pottsville Escarpment. Here, you can find amazing cliffs, deep gorges, rockhouses (overhangs in rocks), natural bridges, and beautiful waterfalls.
The hills in Kentucky's plateau get taller as you go from northwest to southeast. In the western parts, the land changes height by about 200 feet (61 meters). But near Black Mountain, the changes in height can be more than 2,500 feet (762 meters)!
Features in Tennessee and Alabama
In Tennessee, the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau is next to the Highland Rim. Its eastern edge is marked by Walden Ridge. This ridge continues south into Alabama as Sand Mountain. Walden Ridge and Sand Mountain are separated from the main plateau by the Sequatchie Valley. This valley also extends into central Alabama under different names.
How the Plateau Was Formed
The Cumberland Plateau is a special "physiographic section" of the larger Appalachian Plateau area. It rises about 1,000 feet (305 meters) above the surrounding land. Because the land is so rough and hilly, it has sometimes led to small, isolated communities where people grew their own food to survive.
Rocks and Layers
The rocks that make up the Cumberland Plateau are similar to those in the Allegheny Plateau. They are sedimentary rocks, meaning they formed from layers of sediment over millions of years. These rocks are from the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian geological ages. They were created from sediments washed westward from the ancient Appalachian Mountains.
Some rock layers formed in shallow coastal waters. Others, including layers of bituminous coal, formed on land in swampy areas. These layers are mixed with formations of sandstones and sometimes conglomerate (a rock made of pebbles and gravel).
There are also places where the rock layers were lifted up, eroded away, and then new sediments were added on top. Near the Cumberland Falls, for example, the bedrock has moved very little over the last 300 million years. The changes you see are mostly from the plateau slowly eroding away.
Nature and Protecting the Land
The Cumberland Plateau has some of the biggest areas of continuous forest in the eastern United States. The forests here are a mix of oak and hickory trees. You'll find pines in dry, higher places. In protected, moist valleys, you'll see many different kinds of trees, known as mesophytic species.
Organizations like the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The Nature Conservancy, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are working to protect these important forests and the natural beauty of the Cumberland Plateau.
See also
In Spanish: Meseta de Cumberland para niños
