Lithosphere Project

Glaciers melting

200

2 million years ago
Glaciers receded for the last time, the rising sea left a ridege above water creating the barrier islands.

Climate warming

Period: 200 to Nov 19, 600

In a span of 10 to 15,000 years after the galcers melted and rose the ocean, North Carolina started to look as they do today. With Pine, spruce and fir trees in the cooler blue ridege mountain areas. Oak and hickory were more common in the Piedmont which was very close to the coast line due to high ocean levels.

Coastline

390

pictureWith the change of climate and the constant freezing and refreezing of the polar ice caps, it was taking a toll on all areas of shoreline. It would expose it and then cover it up. Water seeped through those sediments, carrying heavier clay downward and leaving behind sands that were piled into dunes by winds.

Barrier Islands

410

Barrier islandBarrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system. Barrier islands form when three conditions meet. There is a large supply of sand, the sea is rising and fallin gin level and there are waves and wind to move it. The N.C. coast met all three requirments easily. They form from the bottom up from sandbars and can be in large chains, that are seperated from the mainland, but not far off shore.

Appalachian mountains formed 480 million years ago

480

pictureFormed during the Ordovivian period, which is the time period between 485.4 and 443.8 million years ago. The weathered rocks reveal elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor. Which shows strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. Happened during the construction of the supercontinent of pangaea.

Valleys

520

valleyValleys are fromed from the erison of water from a river cutting down through a mountain, they make a V shaped valley. Glaciers make massive U shaped valleys, they are slow moving and completlly scar the mountain and rocks. An example of V shaped is the grand cannon. Valleys can travel through all regions on its way to the lowest elevation or the ocean.

NC River Basin

540

[http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/Documents/RiverBasin_pdfs/final_web_BOOKLET.pdf](river basins)A river basin is the land that water flows across or under on its way to a river. Any location between a river basinis imporant to keep your river basin clean and healthy becuase you influcnce what it could eventually bring to the ocean. A water shead also includes all the humans, plants and animals who live in it, and all the things we have added to it such as buildings and roads. Everything we do affects our watershed. River basins run through water sheds.

Fall Zone

560

A fall zone is the break between an inland region of hard crysalline basement rock and the softer coastal plain rock. They are only notived when crossed by a river becuase they make water falls, which explains why you might not be able to go all the way inland up a river from the sea without locks.

Soil

Nov 19, 650

As the ocean receded and the coastal plain was once again above water, the sea shells and rich ocean alage and sea weed that was once on the ocean floor turned into rich agriculture ready soil, it also formed a layer of lime stone all across the piedmont and coastal plain.

eroding

Nov 19, 1250

The Sand Hills formed during this time. Streams eroded the Piedmont and Blue Ridge, carrying sediment to the Coastal Plain. There, water seeped through those sediments, carrying heavier clay downward and leaving behind sands that were piled into dunes by winds.

present ice age begins

Mar 2, 2022

1.6 million years ago.
The Present Ice Age began causing glaciers and polar ice caps to re from. This caused the sea level to fall and expose what is now know as the coastal plain.