Download Geological Features of Louisiana

Introduction
 Louisiana is entirely made of Mississippi mud.
 Its surface rocks are 50 million old.
 Louisiana is famous for Petroleum which is deeply
buried under the whole state.
LAND
 Mount Driskill, Bienville Parish are the highest
Point in Louisiana.
 New Orleans is the lowest point in Louisiana.
 Atchafalaya and Wax Lake Deltas are the fastest
growing natural features
 Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes are
experiencing the highest rate of land loss.
 Houston Ridge is the oldest shoreline feature in
Louisiana.
WATER
 Lake Pontchartrain is the largest natural water body
in Louisiana
 Toledo Bend Reservoir is the largest artificial lake.
 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1972 affected the entire
Mississippi alluvial valley.
 Louisiana coastline gets directly effected by the growth
and the decline of the Antarctic ice sheet.
ROCKS
 Agate is the gemstone of Louisiana state which is a
verity of translucent microcrystalline quartz called
“Chalcedony”.
 The oldest exposed rocks in Louisiana are small
patches of Late Cretaceous marine rocks.
FOSSILS
 Petrified palm wood is the Louisiana state fossil and is
characterized by prominent rod-like structures within
the regular grain of the silicified wood.
 The largest fossils found in Louisiana are the bones of
Basilosaurus, a primitive whale, called by
paleontologists “archaeocetes.”
 The oldest fossils found in Louisiana are Paleozoic
marine invertebrates.
CONCLUSION
 The surface of the state may properly be divided into
two parts, the uplands and the alluvial.
 Near the coast, there are many salt domes, where salt is
mined and oil is often found.
 Louisiana contains a number of areas which are, in
varying degrees, protected from human intervention.
 Petroleum and gas deposits are found in abundance
both onshore and offshore in waters.
REFERENCES
 Louisiana Geological Survey
 www.lgs.lsu.edu
 Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering
Geology