Piedmont Province

Topography of the
Southern Appalachians

The Piedmont Province is a dissected plateau that beginsat the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains and ends atthe Coastal Plain. The general slope is from the mountains toward the Coastal Plain. The landscape is characterized by hilly relief. Elevations range from a few tens of meters near the Coastal Plain to as much as1800 feetnear the Blue Ridge. With the exception of the Mesozoic rift basins, the Piedmont is underlain entirely by crystalline (metamorphic and igneous) rock of Paleozoic and Precambrian age. The boundary with the Coastal Plain is marked by the Fall Line or Fall Zone. Here the hard rocks of the Piedmont meet the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal Plain,and streams typically descend from the Piedmont onto the Coastal Plain over a series of rapids or small waterfalls usually distributed over a distance of several miles.

Physiographic provinces

• Topography: The Piedmont Province containsfour topographic subregions, called zones,of which the Piedmont Lowlands Zone is the largest.
• Regolith: Most of the regolith in the Piedmont Province is saprolite,which isdecomposed residual regolith. However, there are also substantial areas of colluvium, which is decomposed and transported regolith.
• Soil: The dominant soil order in the Piedmont is the Ultisol, comprised mainly of the great group Hapludults.
• Streams: In the foothill zone of the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia, northeast-flowing tributaries to the southeast-flowing master streams are long and subparallel, whereas opposing tributaries are short and irregular in direction.