Augusta metropolitan area
The Augusta metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in the U. S. states of Georgia and South Carolina centered on the principal city of Augusta. The U. S. Office of Management and Budget, Census Bureau and other agencies define Augusta's Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, as comprising Richmond, Columbia, McDuffie Counties in Georgia and Aiken and Edgefield Counties in South Carolina; as of the 2010 Census, the area had a population of 556,877, though a 2014 estimate of it was at 583,632. Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia Pop: 197,872 Martinez, Georgia Pop: 35,795 Aiken, South Carolina Pop: 29,884 Evans, Georgia Pop: 29,011 North Augusta, South Carolina Pop: 21,873 Grovetown, Georgia Pop: 12,210 Thomson, Georgia Pop: 6,718 Belvedere, South Carolina Pop: 5,792 Waynesboro, Georgia Pop: 5,816 Edgefield, South Carolina Pop: 4,690 Clearwater, South Carolina Pop: 4,370 Hephzibah, Georgia Pop: 4,021 Gloverville, South Carolina Pop: 2,831 Burnettown, South Carolina Pop: 2,673 Harlem, Georgia Pop: 2,779 Johnston, South Carolina Pop: 2,362 New Ellenton, South Carolina Pop: 2,052 Jackson, South Carolina Pop: 1,700 Lincolnton, Georgia Pop: 1,520 Sardis, Georgia Pop: 999 Wagener, South Carolina Pop: 797 Blythe, Georgia Pop: 721 Dearing, Georgia Pop: 549 Salley, South Carolina Pop: 398 Keysville, Georgia Pop: 332 Midville, Georgia Pop: 269 Monetta, South Carolina Pop: 236 Perry, South Carolina Pop: 233 Trenton, South Carolina Pop: 196 Girard, Georgia Pop: 156 Windsor, South Carolina Pop: 121 Vidette, Georgia Pop: 112 As of the census of 2000, there were 499,684 people, 184,801 households, 132,165 families residing within the MSA.
The racial makeup of the MSA was 60.81% White, 35.09% African American, 0.32% Native American, 1.42% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.85% from other races, 1.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.40% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $36,933, the median income for a family was $42,869. Males had a median income of $34,574 versus $22,791 for females; the per capita income for the MSA was $17,652. Georgia census statistical areas South Carolina census statistical areas https://web.archive.org/web/20131013222920/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/popmap/
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, the natural hazards that threaten it; the organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility; the USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The USGS employs 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia; the USGS has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, Menlo Park, California. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world." The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, was "Earth Science in the Public Service." Since 2012, the USGS science focus is directed at six topical "Mission Areas", namely Climate and Land Use Change, Core Science Systems, Ecosystems and Minerals and Environmental Health, Natural Hazards, Water.
In December 2012, the USGS split the Energy and Minerals and Environmental Health Mission Area resulting in seven topical Mission Areas, with the two new areas being: Energy and Minerals and Environmental Health. Administratively, it is divided into six Regional Units. Other specific programs include: Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide; the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location and magnitude of global earthquakes. The USGS runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System; the USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, the public, both domestic and worldwide, about significant earthquakes. It maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research, it conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards. USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast.
As of 2005, the agency is working to create a National Volcano Early Warning System by improving the instrumentation monitoring the 169 volcanoes in U. S. territory and by establishing methods for measuring the relative threats posed at each site. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time; the USGS collaborates with Canadian and Mexican government scientists, along with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, to produce the North American Environmental Atlas, used to depict and track environmental issues for a continental perspective. The USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online. National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center implements partner-driven science to improve understanding of past and present land use change, develops relevant climate and land use forecasts, identifies lands and communities that are most vulnerable to adverse impacts of change from the local to global scale.
Since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global and planetary exploration and mapping. In collaboration with Stanford University, the USGS operates the USGS-Stanford Ion Microprobe Laboratory, a world-class analytical facility for U--Pb geochronology and trace element analyses of minerals and other earth materials. USGS operates a number of water related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program and National Water-Quality Assessment Program. USGS Water data is publicly available from their National Water Information System database; the USGS operates the National Wildlife Health Center, whose mission is "to serve the nation and its natural resources by providing sound science and technical support, to disseminate information to promote science-based decisions affecting wildlife and ecosystem health. The NWHC provides information, technical assistance, research and leadership on national and international wildlife health issues." It is the agency responsible for surveillance of H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in the United States.
The USGS runs 17 biological research centers in the United States, including the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The USGS is investigating collaboration with the social networking site Twitter to allow for more rapid construction of ShakeMaps; the USGS produces several national series of topographic maps which vary in scale and extent, with some wide gaps in coverage, notably the complete absence of 1:50,000 scale topographic maps or their equivalent. The largest and best-known topographic series is the 7.5-minute, 1:24,000 scale, quadrangle, a non-metric scale unique to the United States. Each of these maps covers an area bounded by two lines of latitude and two lines of longitude spaced 7.5 minutes apart. Nearly 57,000 individual maps in this series cover the 48 contiguous states, Hawaii, U. S. territories, areas of Alaska near Anchorage and Prudhoe Bay. The area covered by each map varies with the latitude of its represented location due to convergence of the meridians. At lower latitudes, near 30° north, a 7.5-minute quadrangle contains an area of about 64 square miles.
At 49° north latitude, 49 square miles are contained within a quadrangle of that size. As a unique non-metric map scale, the 1:24,000 scale requires a separate and specialized romer scale for pl
Burnettown, South Carolina
Burnettown is a town in Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,673 at the 2010 census, it is part of Georgia metropolitan area. Burnettown is located in historic Horse Creek Valley. Burnettown is located at 33°30′44″N 81°52′14″W in western Aiken County, it lies along U. S. Route 1 and 78, 7 miles east of downtown Augusta, 10 miles west of Aiken, it is bordered by the census-designated place of Clearwater to the west, by an outer portion of the city of North Augusta to the northwest, by the CDPs of Gloverville and Langley to the east, by the unincorporated community of Bath to the south. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 6.0 square miles, of which 5.5 square miles is land and 0.54 square miles, or 9.17%, is water, consisting of Langley Pond, a reservoir on Horse Creek. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,720 people, 1,066 households, 770 families residing in the town; the population density was 563.5 people per square mile. There were 1,183 housing units at an average density of 245.1 per square mile.
The racial makeup of the town was 86.40% White, 11.88% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.26% from other races, 0.62% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.74% of the population. There were 1,066 households out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 27.7% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.00. In the town, the population was spread out with 24.4% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, 13.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.1 males. The median income for a household in the town was $33,140, the median income for a family was $38,017.
Males had a median income of $29,063 versus $22,364 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,887. About 5.0% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.2% of those under age 18 and 13.7% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 census, the total population was 2,673, of whom 0.64% were American Indian or Alaska native, 0.75% were Asian, 14.22% were African American, 78.34% were white, 4.00% were some other race, 2.06% were two or more races. 6.40 % of the population were Latino of any race. The population was 49.83 % female. The age distribution of the population was 6.17% under 5 years of age, 16.91% age 5 to 17, 60.68% age 18 to 64, 16.24% age 65 and over. Town of Burnettown official website
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in Canada, Romania and the United States. County towns have a similar function in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, in Jamaica. In most of the United States, counties are the political subdivisions of a state; the city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county. The county legislature, county courthouse, sheriff's department headquarters, hall of records and correctional facility are located in the county seat though some functions may be located or conducted in other parts of the county if it is geographically large. A county seat is but not always, an incorporated municipality; the exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia. Ellicott City, the county seat of Howard County, is the largest unincorporated county seat in the United States, followed by Towson, the county seat of Baltimore County, Maryland.
Some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, an incorporated municipality. In some of the colonial states, county seats include or included "Court House" as part of their name. In the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the term "shire town" is used in place of county seat. County seats in Taiwan are the administrative centers of the counties. There are 13 county seats in Taiwan, which are in the forms of county-administered city, urban township or rural township. Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont have two or more county seats located on opposite sides of the county. An example is Harrison County, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats; the practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days.
There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states: Coffee County, Alabama St. Clair County, Alabama Arkansas County, Arkansas Carroll County, Arkansas Clay County, Arkansas Craighead County, Arkansas Franklin County, Arkansas Logan County, Arkansas Mississippi County, Arkansas Prairie County, Arkansas Sebastian County, Arkansas Yell County, Arkansas Columbia County, Georgia Lee County, Iowa Campbell County, Kentucky Kenton County, Kentucky Essex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County, Massachusetts Plymouth County, Massachusetts Bolivar County, Mississippi Carroll County, Mississippi Chickasaw County, Mississippi Harrison County, Mississippi Hinds County, Mississippi Jasper County, Mississippi Jones County, Mississippi Panola County, Mississippi Tallahatchie County, Mississippi Yalobusha County, Mississippi Jackson County, Missouri Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Seneca County, New York Bennington County, Vermont In New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government.
Counties in this region have served as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of thus no county seats. In Vermont and Maine the county seats are designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the respective shire town. Bennington County has two shire towns. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town or city governments; as such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, the state government now operates the registries of deeds and sheriff's offices in those counties. In Virginia, a county seat may be an independent city surrounded by, but not part of, the county of which it is the administrative center. Two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county, their county-level services are provided by Fall River Tripp County, respectively.
In Louisiana, divided into parishes rather than counties, county seats are referred to as parish seats. Alaska is divided into boroughs rather than counties; the Unorganized Borough, which covers 49 % of Alaska's area, has equivalent. The state with the most counties is Texas, with 254, the state with the fewest counties is Delaware, with 3. County seat war Administrative center County town, administrative centres in Ireland and the UK Chef-lieu, administrative centres in Algeria, Luxembourg, France and Tunisia Municipality, equivalent to county in many c
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in the U. S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Located in Middlesex County, Lowell was a county seat until Massachusetts disbanded county government in 1999. With an estimated population of 109,945 in 2014, it is the fourth-largest city in Massachusetts, the second-largest in the Boston metropolitan statistical area; the city is part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area called Greater Lowell, as well as New England's Merrimack Valley region. Incorporated in 1826 to serve as a mill town, Lowell was named after Francis Cabot Lowell, a local figure in the Industrial Revolution; the city became known as the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, due to a large series of textile mills and factories. Many of the Lowell's historic manufacturing sites were preserved by the National Park Service to create Lowell National Historical Park. During the Cambodian genocide, the city took in an influx of refugees, leading to a Cambodia Town and America's second-largest Cambodian-American population.
Lowell is home to two institutions of higher education. Founded in the 1820s as a planned manufacturing center for textiles, Lowell is located along the rapids of the Merrimack River, 25 miles northwest of Boston in what was once the farming community of East Chelmsford, Massachusetts; the so-called Boston Associates, including Nathan Appleton and Patrick Tracy Jackson of the Boston Manufacturing Company, named the new mill town after their visionary leader, Francis Cabot Lowell, who had died five years before its 1823 incorporation. As Lowell's population grew, it acquired land from neighboring towns, diversified into a full-fledged urban center. Many of the men who composed the labor force for constructing the canals and factories had immigrated from Ireland, escaping the poverty and Potato Famines of the 1830s and 1840s; the mill workers, young single women called Mill Girls came from the farm families of New England. By the 1850s, Lowell had the largest industrial complex in the United States.
The textile industry wove cotton produced in the South. In 1860, there were more cotton spindles in Lowell than in all eleven states combined that would form the Confederacy, yet the city did not finish raw materials produced in the American South, but rather became involved in the South in another way, too. Many of the coarse cottons produced in Lowell returned to the South to clothe enslaved people, according to historian Sven Beckert, "'Lowell' became the generic term slaves used to describe coarse cottons." The city continued to thrive as a major industrial center during the 19th century, attracting more migrant workers and immigrants to its mills. Next were the Catholic Germans, followed by a large influx of French Canadians during the 1870s and 1880s. Waves of immigrants included Portuguese, Lithuanians, Swedes and eastern European Jews, they came to work in Lowell and settled in ethnic neighborhoods, with the city's population reaching 50% foreign-born by 1900. By the time World War I broke out in Europe, the city had reached its economic and population peak of over 110,000 people.
The Mill Cities' manufacturing base declined as companies began to relocate to the South in the 1920s. The city fell into hard times, was referred to as a "depressed industrial desert" by Harper's Magazine in 1931, as the Great Depression worsened. At this time, more than one-third of its population was "on relief", as only three of its major textile corporations remained active. Several years the mills were reactivated, making parachutes and other military necessities for the World War II effort. However, this economic boost was short-lived and the post-war years saw the last textile plants close. In the 1970s, Lowell became part of the Massachusetts Miracle, being the headquarters of Wang Laboratories. At the same time, Lowell became home to thousands of new immigrants, many from Cambodia, following the genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge; the city continued focusing more on culture. The former mill district along the river was restored and became part of the Lowell National Historical Park, founded in the late 1970s.
Although Wang went bankrupt in 1992, the city continued its cultural focus by hosting the nation's largest free folk festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, as well as many other cultural events. This effort began to attract other families back to the urban center. Additional historic manufacturing and commercial buildings were adapted as residential units and office space. By the 1990s, Lowell had built a new ballpark and arena, which became home to two minor league sports teams, the Lowell Devils and Lowell Spinners; the city began to have a larger student population. The University of Massachusetts Lowell and Middlesex Community College expanded their programs and enrollment. During the period of time when Lowell was part of the Massachusetts Miracle, the Lowell City Development Authority created a Comprehensive Master Plan which included recommendations for zoning adaptations within the city; the city's original zoning code was adopted in 1926 and was revised in 1966 and 2004, with changes included to respond to concerns about overdevelopment.
In 2002, in lieu of updating the Comprehensive Master Plan, more broad changes were recommended so that the land use and development would be consistent with the current master plan. The most significant revision to the 1966 zoning code is the adoption of an inclusion of a transect-based zoning code and some aspects of a form-based code style of zoning that emphasizes urban design elements as a means to ensure that infill development will respect the character of the neighborhood or district in question. By 2004, the recommended zoning changes were unanim
Horse Creek Valley
Horse Creek Valley is a geographic area along Horse Creek, a tributary of the Savannah River. It lies within South Carolina; the area is alternately referred to as "Midland Valley". Rising near Vaucluse, South Carolina, Horse Creek enters the Savannah two miles downstream of downtown Augusta, Georgia. Other communities along Horse Creek include Graniteville, Gloverville, Burnettown and Clearwater. While Horse Creek itself is rather insignificant, its potential for water power led to early examples of Southern industrialization, including a textile mill at Vaucluse and William Gregg's Graniteville Mill; the textile industry continued to play a primary role until the Graniteville Train Derailment and final closure of the Graniteville Mill in 2006. Henry Woodward recorded Westo Indians in the area during his pioneering travels from Charleston in 1674; the Westoes were well connected with slaveholders in Virginia and terrorized neighboring tribes by their slave raids. The South Carolinians foresaw more profit in trade than in these slave raids, engineered an overthrow of the Westos in a 1690 trade war, after which the area was occupied by Shawnee.
In 1723 the South Carolina Assembly invited the Chickasaw to occupy the area. Located in northern Mississippi, the Chickasaw relied on South Carolina as a source of guns, agreed to send a colony under the so-called Squirrel King. In 1737 they were allocated a 21,774-acre tract along the northern/western bank of Horse Creek, extending from the Savannah River up to Vaucluse; these Chickasaws collaborated with the English in the defense of this area during the Cherokee War in 1760. The Chickasaw returned to their homeland shortly before the American Revolutionary War; the rapid expansion of cotton farming led to commercial growth, first in Augusta on the Georgia side of the Savannah River at a South Carolina competitor founded in 1821 by Henry Shultz under the name of Hamburg. At the end of a growing season, farmers wagoned their bales of cotton overland to either of these towns, for sale into warehouses or onto boats for transport to Savannah or Charleston, textile mills in the northeastern U.
S. and Europe. The farmers could spend the proceeds shopping for manufactured goods to carry back home. In order to divert traffic going by river to the more accessible port at Savannah, the South Carolina Rail Road was completed from Hamburg to Charleston in 1833. At 136 miles in length, this was at the time the longest railroad in the world, ran on published regular schedules with the exclusive use of steam power. Horse Creek's power potential attracted early industries to the area. According to an 1885 survey, "Horse Creek crosses the fall line, has a rapid fall, offering excellent advantages for power... it offers a good example of the large amount of power which can be obtained at small expense from a comparatively insignificant stream if it is only properly developed." An 1883 South Carolina survey noted 1807 horsepower developed, a capacity for one-third more. The first Horse Creek textile mill, located at Vaucluse in 1830, produced disappointing results; as noted by William Gregg, the causes included insufficient capital investment, excessive diversity of products, lack of a widespread marketing area, insufficient hands-on management.
Gregg, a great proponent of Southern industrialization, built a landmark mill embodying his ideas at Graniteville in 1845. While Gregg's success was well appreciated, it contradicted a Southern preference for the agrarian slave economy, was not imitated for several decades. Other industries taking advantage of Horse Creek water power were a paper mill at Bath and pottery works above Vaucluse. In 1860, the Benjamin Franklin Landrum pottery works manufactured 40,000 gallons capacity of stoneware annually, with three employees and a 1 HP water turbine. In the same year, the Lewis J. Miles pottery works manufactured 50,000 gallons with 13 employees and a 4 HP turbine; the famous potter Dave worked there as late as 1863. In 1880, this same establishment had a 35 HP water turbine; the Charlotte and Augusta Railroad was built through the valley in the late 1860s. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, the textile industry entered a period of great expansion. By 1900, industrial establishments included the Graniteville, Vaucluse... mills and employment along the Valley was....
During this time, a popular winter resort for the wealthy developed at the headwaters of the valley, which became known as the Aiken Winter Colony. The Whitney Polo Field, established in 1882, the Palmetto Golf Course, begun in 1892, characterize the vacation pursuits, the horse culture still thrives in Aiken. Thirty residences survive in the Aiken Winter Colony Historic District. Pat Conroy's essay, Horses Don’t Eat Moon Pies, explored the juxtaposition of wealthy equestrians and the blue collar mill culture of the valley. In 1903 the Hampton Terrace Hotel opened in North Augusta, South Carolina, near the lower end of the valley, connected to Aiken by means of the Augusta-Aiken Railway. Rich and famous vacationers included John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bing Crosby; the textile industries suffered the effects of the Great Depression. Labor strife at the Horse Creek Valley mills was a major theme of
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern United States and the easternmost of the Deep South. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution on May 23, 1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote in favor of secession from the Union on December 20, 1860. After the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25, 1868. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and 23rd most populous U. S. state. Its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3.13%. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties; the capital is Columbia with a 2017 population of 133,114. The Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin metropolitan area is the largest in the state, with a 2017 population estimate of 895,923. South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, who first formed the English colony, with Carolus being Latin for "Charles".
South Carolina is known for its 187 miles of coastline, beautiful lush gardens, historic sites and Southern plantations, colonial and European cultures, its growing economic development. The state can be divided into three geographic areas. From east to west: the Atlantic coastal plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Locally, the coastal plain is referred to the other two regions as Upstate; the Atlantic Coastal Plain makes up two-thirds of the state. Its eastern border is a chain of tidal and barrier islands; the border between the low country and the up country is defined by the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, which marks the limit of navigable rivers. The state's coastline contains many salt marshes and estuaries, as well as natural ports such as Georgetown and Charleston. An unusual feature of the coastal plain is a large number of Carolina bays, the origins of which are uncertain; the bays tend to be oval. The terrain is flat and the soil is composed of recent sediments such as sand and clay.
Areas with better drainage make excellent farmland. The natural areas of the coastal plain are part of the Middle Atlantic coastal forests ecoregion. Just west of the coastal plain is the Sandhills region; the Sandhills are remnants of coastal dunes from a time when the land was sunken or the oceans were higher. The Upstate region contains the roots of an eroded mountain chain, it is hilly, with thin, stony clay soils, contains few areas suitable for farming. Much of the Piedmont was once farmed. Due to the changing economics of farming, much of the land is now reforested in Loblolly pine for the lumber industry; these forests are part of the Southeastern mixed forests ecoregion. At the southeastern edge of the Piedmont is the fall line, where rivers drop to the coastal plain; the fall line was an important early source of water power. Mills built to harness this resource encouraged the growth of several cities, including the capital, Columbia; the larger rivers are navigable up to the fall line. The northwestern part of the Piedmont is known as the Foothills.
The Cherokee Parkway is a scenic driving route through this area. This is. Highest in elevation is the Blue Ridge Region, containing an escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which continue into North Carolina and Georgia, as part of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Sassafras Mountain, South Carolina's highest point at 3,560 feet, is in this area. In this area is Caesars Head State Park; the environment here is that of the Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests ecoregion. The Chattooga River, on the border between South Carolina and Georgia, is a favorite whitewater rafting destination. South Carolina has several major lakes covering over 683 square miles. All major lakes in South Carolina are man-made; the following are the lakes listed by size. Lake Marion 110,000 acres Lake Strom Thurmond 71,100 acres Lake Moultrie 60,000 acres Lake Hartwell 56,000 acres Lake Murray 50,000 acres Russell Lake 26,650 acres Lake Keowee 18,372 acres Lake Wylie 13,400 acres Lake Wateree 13,250 acres Lake Greenwood 11,400 acres Lake Jocassee 7,500 acres Lake Bowen Earthquakes in South Carolina demonstrate the greatest frequency along the central coastline of the state, in the Charleston area.
South Carolina averages 10–15 earthquakes a year below magnitude 3. The Charleston Earthquake of 1886 was the largest quake to hit the Southeastern United States; this 7.2 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the city. Faults in this region are difficult to study at the surface due to thick sedimentation on top of them. Many of the ancient faults are within plates rather than along plate boundaries. South Carolina has a humid subtropical climate, although high-elevation areas in the Upstate area have fewer subtropical characteristics than areas on the Atlantic coastline. In the summer, South Carolina is hot and humid, with daytime temperatures averaging between 86–93 °F in most of the state and overnight lows averaging 70–75 °F on the coast and from 66–73 °F inland. Winter temperatures are much less uniform in South Carolina. Coastal areas of the state have mild winters, with high temperatures approaching an average of 60 °F and overnight lows around 40 °F. Inland, the average January overnight low is around 32 °F i
United States of America
South Carolina
Aiken
