Prince William, Duke of Cumberland
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was the third and youngest son of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach. He was Duke of Cumberland from 1726, he is best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which made him immensely popular throughout Britain. He is referred to by the nickname given to him by his Tory opponents:'Butcher' Cumberland. Despite his triumph at Culloden, he had a unsuccessful military career. Between 1748 and 1755 he attempted to enact a series of army reforms that were resisted by the opposition and by the army itself. Following the Convention of Klosterzeven in 1757, he never again held active military command and switched his attentions to politics and horse racing. William was born in Leicester House, in Leicester Fields, London, where his parents had moved after his grandfather, George I, accepted the invitation to ascend the British throne, his godparents included the King and Queen in Prussia, but they did not take part in person and were represented by proxy.
On 27 July 1726, at only five years old, he was created Duke of Cumberland, Marquess of Berkhamstead in the County of Hertford, Earl of Kennington in the County of Surrey, Viscount of Trematon in the County of Cornwall, Baron of the Isle of Alderney. The young prince was educated well. Another of his tutors was his mother's favourite Andrew Fountaine. At Hampton Court Palace, apartments were designed specially for him by William Kent. William's elder brother Frederick, Prince of Wales, proposed dividing the king's dominions. Frederick would get Britain; this proposal came to nothing. From childhood, he showed physical courage and ability, became his parents' favourite, he was made a Knight of the Bath aged four. He was intended, by the King and Queen, for the office of Lord High Admiral, and, in 1740, he sailed, as a volunteer, in the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris, but he became dissatisfied with the Navy, instead secured the post of colonel of the First Regiment of Foot Guards on 20 February 1741.
In December 1742, he became a major-general, the following year, he first saw active service in Germany. George II and the "martial boy" shared in the glory of the Battle of Dettingen, where Cumberland was wounded in the leg by a musket ball. After the battle he was made a lieutenant general. In 1745, Cumberland was given the honorary title of Captain-General of the British land forces and in Flanders became Commander-in-Chief of the allied British, Hanoverian and Dutch troops despite his inexperience, he planned to take the offensive against the French, in a move he hoped would lead to the capture of Paris, but was persuaded by his advisors that this was impossible given the vast numerical superiority of the enemy. As it became clear that the French intention was to take Tournai, Cumberland advanced to the relief of the town, besieged by Marshal Saxe. In the resulting Battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, the Allies were defeated by the French. Saxe had picked the battleground on which to confront the British, filled the nearby woods with French marksmen.
Cumberland ignored the threat of the woods when drawing up his battle plans, instead concentrated on seizing the town of Fontenoy and attacking the main French army nearby. Despite a concerted Anglo-Hanoverian attack on the French centre, which led many to believe the Allies had won, the failure to clear the woods and of the Dutch forces to capture Fontenoy forced Cumberland's force onto the retreat. Following the battle Cumberland was criticised for his tactics the failure to occupy the woods. In the wake of the battle, Cumberland was forced to retreat to Brussels and was unable to prevent the fall of Ghent and Ostend; as the leading British general of the day, he was chosen to put a decisive stop to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a direct descendant of James VII of Scotland and II of England, in the Jacobite rising of 1745. His appointment was popular, caused morale to soar amongst the public and troops loyal to King George. Recalled from Flanders, Cumberland proceeded with preparations for quelling the Stuart uprising.
The Jacobite army had advanced southwards into England, hoping that English Jacobites would rise and join them. However, after receiving only limited support such as the Manchester Regiment, the followers of Charles decided to withdraw to Scotland. Cumberland joined the Midland army under Ligonier, began pursuit of the enemy, as the Stuarts retreated northwards from Derby. On reaching Penrith, the advanced portion of his army was repulsed on Clifton Moor in December 1745, Cumberland became aware that an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders would be hopeless. Carlisle was retaken, he was recalled to London, where preparations were in hand to meet an expected French invasion; the defeat of his replacement as commander, Henry Hawley, roused the fears of the English people in January 1746, under a hail of pistol fire, "eighty dragoons fell dead upon the spot" at Falkirk Muir. Arriving in Edinburgh on 30 January 1746, he at once proceeded in search of Charles, he made a detour to Aberdeen, where he spent some time training the well-equipped forces now under his command for the next stage of the conflict in which they were about to engage.
He trained his troops to hold their fire until the enemy came within effective firing range, fire once, bayonet
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians first formed 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period, they once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before experiencing natural erosion. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east–west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east–west. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians; the United States Geological Survey defines the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division as consisting of thirteen provinces: the Atlantic Coast Uplands, Eastern Newfoundland Atlantic, Maritime Acadian Highlands, Maritime Plain, Notre Dame and Mégantic Mountains, Western Newfoundland Mountains, Blue Ridge and Ridge, Saint Lawrence Valley, Appalachian Plateaus, New England province, the Adirondack areas. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which geologically belong to the Grenville Orogeny and have a different geological history from the rest of the Appalachians.
The mountain range is in the United States but it extends into southeastern Canada, forming a zone from 100 to 300 mi wide, running from the island of Newfoundland 1,500 mi southwestward to Central Alabama in the United States. The range covers parts of the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which comprise an overseas territory of France; the system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft. The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet, the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River; the term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region; the term is used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains including areas in the states of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, as well as sometimes extending as far south as northern Alabama and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, parts of southern upstate New York.
The Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and Oklahoma were part of the Appalachians as well but became disconnected through geologic history. While exploring inland along the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, found a Native American village near present-day Tallahassee, Florida whose name they transcribed as Apalchen or Apalachen; the name was soon altered by the Spanish to Apalachee and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15, 1528, applied the name. Now spelled "Appalachian," it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US. After the de Soto expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves; the first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutierrez's map of 1562. The name was not used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century.
A competing and more popular name was the "Allegheny Mountains", "Alleghenies", "Alleghania". In the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either Appalachia or Alleghania. In U. S. dialects in the southern regions of the Appalachians, the word is pronounced, with the third syllable sounding like "latch". In northern parts of the mountain range, it is pronounced or. There is great debate between the residents of the regions as to which pronunciation is the more correct one. Elsewhere, a accepted pronunciation for the adjective Appalachian is, with the last two syllables "-ian" pronounced as in the word "Romanian"; the whole system may be divided into three great sections: Northern: The northern section runs from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the Hudson River. It includes the Long Range Mountains and Annieopsquotch Mountains on the island of Newfoundland, Chic-Choc Mountains and Notre Dame Range in Quebec and New Brunswick, scattered elevations and small ranges elsewhere in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Longfellow Mountains in Maine, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Green Mountains in Vermont, The Berkshires in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The Metacomet Ridge Mountains in Connecticut and south-central Massachusetts, although contained within the Appalachian province, is a younger system and not geologically associated with the Appalachians. The Monteregian Hills, which cross the Green Mountains in Quebec, are unassociated with the Appalachians. Central: The central section goes from the Hudson Valley to the New River running through Virginia and West Virginia, it comprises the Valley Ridges between the Allegheny Front of the Allegheny Plateau and the Great Appalachian Valley, the New York–New Jersey Highlands, the Taconic Mountains in New York, a large portion of the Blue Ridge. Southern: The southern section runs from the New River onwards, it consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, divided into the Western Blue Ridge Front and the Eastern Blue Ridge Front, the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, the Cumberland Plateau. The Adirondack Mountains in New Y
LaFollette, Tennessee
LaFollette is a city in Campbell County, United States. Its population was 7,456 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population in 2014 of 7,131, it is the principal city of the LaFollette, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Campbell County, is a component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area. While the city's official spelling is one word —after its founders, Harvey Marion LaFollette and his younger brother Grant LaFollette—several federal agencies spell the city's name with two words. Harvey and Grant LaFollette purchased 37,000 acres at Big Creek Gap, where the present community lies, around 1890, they founded the LaFollette Coal and Railway Company in order to exploit mineral resources they had observed. Although the business failed during the 1920s, the community continued to grow; the city of LaFollette was incorporated in 1897. LaFollette is located near the geographic center of Campbell County at 36°22′30″N 84°7′39″W; the city is situated in Powell Valley, where the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley province gives way to the Cumberland Plateau region.
Cumberland Mountain, a 50-mile ridge stretching from Cumberland Gap in the east to Bruce Gap in the west, rises north of LaFollette. Norris Lake dominates the area to the south. Jacksboro lies adjacent to LaFollette to the southwest. A leg of the Cumberland Trail is accessible off Tennessee Avenue at the north end of LaFollette. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.9 square miles, all land. The elevation varies around the city, around 1,050 feet in the valley areas to 1,500 feet on ridge tops; the average elevation is around 1,150 feet. U. S. Route 25W and state routes 63 run concurrently through the community. Interstate 75 is 8 miles to the southwest, beyond Jacksboro. Jellico is 23 miles to the north via US 25W, over the Cumberland Plateau; as of the census of 2000, there were 7,926 people, 3,422 households, 2,135 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,624.7 people per square mile. There were 3,779 housing units at an average density of 774.6 per square mile.
The racial makeup of the city was 97.89% White, 0.54% African American, 0.40% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.14% from other races, 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.42% of the population. There were 3,422 households out of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 17.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.6% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.86. In the city, the population was spread out with 22.0% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, 21.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $18,370, the median income for a family was $24,235.
Males had a median income of $25,541 versus $18,835 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,355. About 28.3% of families and 33.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 48.7% of those under age 18 and 21.1% of those age 65 or over. Adele Arakawa, television news anchor Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, musician The Isaacs, a southern gospel/bluegrass family singing group Carl Stiner, U. S. Army general J. Will Taylor, congressman Official website Municipal Technical Advisory Service entry for LaFollette — information on local government and link to charter LaFollette Press newspaper An essay on local radio in La Follette in the 1950s and 1960s, including original audio: Hanson, Bradley, "The Tennessee Jamboree: Local Radio, the Barn Dance, Cultural Life in Appalachian East Tennessee," Southern Spaces, November 20, 2008
Syncline
In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. A synclinorium is a large syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are a downward fold, termed a synformal syncline, but synclines that point upwards can be found when strata have been overturned and folded. On a geologic map, synclines are recognized as a sequence of rock layers, with the youngest at the fold's center or hinge and with a reverse sequence of the same rock layers on the opposite side of the hinge. If the fold pattern is circular or elongate, the structure is a basin. Folds form during crustal deformation as the result of compression that accompanies orogenic mountain building. Powder River Basin, Wyoming, US Sideling Hill roadcut along Interstate 68 in western Maryland, US, where the Rockwell Formation and overlying Purslane Sandstone are exposed Saou, a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France The Southland Syncline in the southeastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand, including The Catlins and the Hokonui Hills Strathmore, Angus Syncline, Scotland Anticline Homocline Monocline Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia; this province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range; the Blue Ridge Mountains are noted for having a bluish color. Trees put the "blue" in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their distinctive color. Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks – the Shenandoah National Park in the northern section, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section – and eight national forests including George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, Cherokee National Forest, Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest and Chattahoochee National Forest.
The Blue Ridge contains the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile long scenic highway that connects the two parks and is located along the ridge crest-lines with the Appalachian Trail. Although the term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains, the Great Balsams, the Roans, the Blacks, the Brushy Mountains and other mountain ranges; the Blue Ridge extends as far north into Pennsylvania as South Mountain. While South Mountain dwindles to mere hills between Gettysburg and Harrisburg, the band of ancient rocks that form the core of the Blue Ridge continues northeast through the New Jersey and Hudson River highlands reaching The Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Green Mountains of Vermont; the Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island. About 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet in elevation.
The highest peak in the Blue Ridge is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet. There are 39 peaks in North Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet. Southern Sixers is a term used by peak baggers for this group of mountains; the Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles along crests of the Southern Appalachians and links two national parks: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. In many places along the parkway, there are metamorphic rocks with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake. Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancient granitic charnockites, metamorphosed volcanic formations, sedimentary limestone. Recent studies completed by Richard Tollo, a professor and geologist at George Washington University, provide greater insight into the petrologic and geochronologic history of the Blue Ridge basement suites. Modern studies have found that the basement geology of the Blue Ridge is made of compositionally unique gneisses and granitoids, including orthopyroxene-bearing charockites.
Analysis of zircon minerals in the granite completed by John Aleinikoff at the U. S. Geological Survey has provided more detailed emplacement ages. Many of the features found in the Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that the rocks exhibit many similar features in other North American Grenville-age terranes; the lack of a calc-alkaline affinity and zircon ages less than 1,200 Ma suggest that the Blue Ridge is distinct from the Adirondacks, Green Mountains, the New York-New Jersey Highlands. The petrologic and geochronologic data suggest that the Blue Ridge basement is a composite orogenic crust, emplaced during several episodes from a crustal magma source. Field relationships further illustrate that rocks emplaced prior to 1,078–1,064 Ma preserve deformational features; those emplaced post-1,064 Ma have a massive texture and missed the main episode of Mesoproterozoic compression. The Blue Ridge Mountains began forming during the Silurian Period over 400 million years ago.
320 Mya, North America, Europe collided, pushing up the Blue Ridge. At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world and reached heights comparable to the much younger Alps. Today, due to weathering and erosion over hundreds of millions of years, the highest peak in the range, Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, is only 6,684 feet high – still the highest peak east of the Rockies; the English who settled colonial Virginia in the early 17th century recorded that the native Powhatan name for the Blue Ridge was Quirank. At the foot of the Blue Ridge, various tribes including the Siouan Manahoacs, the Iroquois, the Shawnee hunted and fished. A German physician-explorer, John Lederer, first reached the crest of the Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year. At the Treaty of Albany negotiated by Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, of Virginia with the Iroquois between 1718 and 1722, the Iroquois ceded lands they had conquered south of the Potomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Colony.
This treaty made the Blue Ridge the new demarcation point between the areas and tribes subject to the Six Nati
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located at the border between Kentucky and Virginia, centered on the Cumberland Gap, a natural break in the Appalachian Mountains. The park lies in parts of Bell and Harlan counties in Kentucky, Claiborne County in Tennessee, Lee County in Virginia; the park contains the Kentucky-Virginia-Tennessee tri-state area, accessible via trail. The Cumberland Gap Visitor Center is located on U. S. Highway 25E just southeast of Middlesboro and just northwest of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel and Cumberland Gap, Tennessee; the visitor center features a museum with interactive exhibits about the Gap's role as a transportation corridor, an auditorium that shows films about the area's cultural and natural history, a book store and the Cumberland Crafts gift shop with crafts from Appalachia. The park is among the largest national parks in the eastern United States; as of 2010, 14,091 acres of this was designated as Recommended Wilderness.
Elevation varies from a low of 1,100 feet to a high of 3,500 feet. The park runs along the Cumberland Mountains, stretching about 20 miles with an average width of 1.6 miles. The park straddles a tri-state area encompassing land from Kentucky and Virginia, it includes the area of the Wilderness Road running through the passage across the Cumberland Plateau and through the Cumberland Gap, an important geological feature that facilitated travel for American settlers and Native Americans. It includes 24 known cave features ranging in size from around 20 feet to more than 16 miles in length. There are a number of large cliff systems in the park, the most prominent of, the 500 feet cliffs of White Rocks, located in the eastern portion of the area. At the northeastern end, the park sits adjacent to the Sillalah Creek Wildlife Management Area and the Martin's Fork Wildlife Management Area and State Natural Area; the climate of the area is mild, with hot and humid summers and mild winters, an average annual temperature of 54 °F.
The park contains over 62 miles of streams. With the exception of one, Little Yellow Creek, all of these originate from within the park, with those to the north of the main ridge flowing into the Cumberland River, those to the south flowing into the Powell River. Overall water quality in the park is good to fair, with some areas falling below recommended pH levels due to natural causes, others exceeding recommended levels of microorganisms due to contamination from campgrounds; the area of the park is 97% forested and contains 970 species of vascular plants, 90 of which are classified as sensitive or rare species. These include 108 non-native species of plants, 31 considered to be aggressive invasive plants; the park is home to at least 145 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, including the near-threatened bat, Myotis sodalis. The streams in the park house around 27 species of fish, including Chrosomus cumberlandensis, federally listed as an endangered species. Additionally, surveys have identified at least 36 species of amphibians.
Ecosystems in the park are threatened by a number of insect infestations from non-native pest species, including Dendroctonus frontalis, Adelges tsugae. The species Agrilus planipennis and Lymantria dispar dispar represent imminent threats from surrounding areas. Business leaders from Middlesboro, Kentucky meeting in Cincinnati for the Appalachian Logging Conference, proposed a Lincoln National Park, centered around Fern Lake as early as 1922. However, two bills introduced into the Kentucky State Legislature the following year by State Congressman John Robison both failed. Attempts in 1929 sought to create memorials for Civil War battles fought in the area, failed. In 1938, the National Park Service agreed to support a park of if the lands were donated to form one, the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Association was created, sparking more unsuccessful attempts in Kentucky, passage of a bill in Virginia in 1939 that paved the way for federal authorization; the park was established on June 11, 1940 by Franklin Roosevelt in order to "commemorate the story of the first doorway of the west".
It was authorized by Congress to occupy an area not to exceed 50,000 acres. The surrounding states purchased and deeded the land of the park to the federal government in 1955, the official opening took place in 1959. In 1992 the park purchased the area surrounding Gap Cave, owned. By 1996, the park had undergone some $280 million in improvements, including construction of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. Toward the southern end of the park lies Fern Lake, created by an earthen dam in 1890, which provides water to the nearby town of Middlesboro, Kentucky; the area surrounding the lake was purchased by the park in four phases following the passage of the Fern Lake Conservation and Recreation Act, increasing the overall size of the park by 20%: Phases I and II, 1,850 acres of land purchased in 2008 from Ataya Hardwoods by The Trust for Public Land and transferred to the park Phase III, 1,268 acres of land purchased in 2009 from Molpus Woodlands Group Phase IV, 905 acres of land purchased in 2009 from Molpus Woodlands GroupAs of 2010 there were plans to acquire an additional 600 acres of land surrounding the lake.
As of 2018 the park had an estimated $15 million in deferred maintenance. The park includes a visitor's center, renovated in 2004, which features a museum and auditorium, providing exhibits on the area
Virginia
Virginia the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as the first English colonial possession established in mainland North America and "Mother of Presidents" because eight U. S. presidents were born there, more than any other state. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna; the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million. The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy.
Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution. In the American Civil War, Virginia's Secession Convention resolved to join the Confederacy, Virginia's First Wheeling Convention resolved to remain in the Union. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, both major national parties are competitive in modern Virginia; the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008, it is unique in how it treats cities and counties manages local roads, prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginia's economy has many sectors: agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley. S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. Virginia has a total area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water, making it the 35th-largest state by area. Virginia is bordered by Maryland and Washington, D.
C. to the north and east. Virginia's boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the low-water mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, though surveyor error led to deviations of as much as three arcminutes; the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court; the Chesapeake Bay separates the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the drowned river valleys of the James River. Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock and James, which create three peninsulas in the bay; the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the fall line. It includes major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay; the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its heavy clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet. The Ridge and Valley region includes the Great Appalachian Valley; the region includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, south of the Allegheny Plateau. In this region, rivers flow northwest, into the Ohio River basin; the Virginia Seismic Zone has not had a history of regular earthquake activity. Earthquakes are above 4.5 in magnitude, because Virginia is located away from the edges of the North American Plate. The largest earthquake, at an estimated 5.9 magnitude, was in 1897 near Blacksburg. A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Virginia on August 2011, near Mineral. The earthquake was felt as far away as Toronto and Florida. 35 million years ago, a bolide impacted. The resulting Chesapeake Bay impact crater may explain what earthquakes and subsidence the region does experience.
Coal mining takes place in the three mountainous regions at 45 distinct coal beds near Mesozoic basins. Over 64 million tons of other non-fuel resources, such as slate, sand, or gravel, were mined in Virginia in 2018; the state's carbonate rock is filled with more than 4,000 caves, ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns. The climate of Virginia is humid subtropical and becomes warmer and more humid farther south and east. Seasonal extremes vary from average lows of 26 °F in January to average highs of 86 °F in July; the Atlantic Ocean has a strong effect on southeastern coastal areas of the state. Influenced by the Gulf Stream, coastal weather is subject to hurricanes, most pronouncedly near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. In spite of its position adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean the coastal areas have a significant continental influence with quite large temperature differences between summ
. The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
