Download North Carolina - Duplin County Schools

4.6 billion years ago…
Earth came together as a cloud of dust and gas
3.8 bya…
North America began to
form
1.7 bya…
Landmass under North Carolina began to form
1.3 bya…
The first mountains were formed in North Carolina: the
Grenville Mountains
They eroded long ago, but rocks formed at this time lie
underneath the Appalachians and are exposed in parts of
the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
1.0 bya…
The land under North Carolina was pulled apart, and
inland seas emerged.
Island volcanoes developed.
Rocks formed by those volcanoes extend today over a
wide area of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
542 mya…
All of North Carolina was under water.
Coast line was in the middle of Tennessee.
444 mya…
North America and Europe/Africa moved together and
pushed up Appalachian mountains for 100 million years.
Sand and mud were carried west to the sea; filled in gaps
to create Pangaea.
260 mya…
The Appalachian mountains were complete and began to
erode.
The Appalachian mountain range was 620 miles long
(from Canada, Great Britain, Greenland, and Scandinavia
all the way south to Louisiana)
The mountains were as high as the highest mountains in
the world today.
The tallest peaks were in what is now the eastern
Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
250 mya…
North Carolina was located near the Equator.
200 mya…
The North American continent drifted to the northwest
and the Atlantic Ocean formed between North America
and Africa.
The shore was located near the present Outer Banks.
The Appalachians continued to erode. Wind and rain wore
away the rock and carried it as sediment to lower-lying
land or to the sea, leaving the flat land that now exists in
the eastern Piedmont.
145 mya…
East Coast of North Carolina was under water.
Coastal Plain rose above sea level at the end of
Paleocene.
65.5 mya…
The entire modern Coastal Plain of North Carolina was
again above sea level.
55 mya…
The crust under the Coastal Plain began to sink
Ocean pushed as far west as the modern Piedmont
The calcium-rich shells of microscopic algae sank to the
ocean floor, where over time they became limestone.
23 mya…
Rapid erosion in the Piedmont was uneven, and left the
Uwharrie Mountains behind.
1.8 mya…
The present "Ice Age" began
As glaciers and polar ice caps re-formed, sea level fell,
exposing the Coastal Plain.
Several periods of glaciation (the forming of glaciers) and
melting followed, with corresponding falls and rises in sea
level.
Sand Hills formed.
NC’s longest River:
~275 miles long
Rises in Piedmont
region and empties
into the Pamlico
Sound
NC’s largest natural lake:
Wetlands depression: lake is
filled by rain water and runoff,
not by underground springs
2-3 ft. deep
18 miles long
7 miles wide
Lake bed is 3-5 feet below sea
level
Perhaps formed by prehistoric
meteor shower or
underground peat fires
Barrier islands stretching
200 miles
Formed ~10,000 years
ago at the end of the
last Ice Age when huge
continental glaciers
began to melt and the
ocean began to rise.
Silt and sand carried by
glacier meltwater washed
out into the ocean and
built up to create long
barrier islands
Blue Ridge Mountains
Highest peak: Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet)
Began forming over 400 million years ago. Approximately 320
mya, North America and Europe collided, pushing the Blue
Ridges up higher.
Mostly formed of ancient granitic charnockites,
metamorphosed volcanic formations, and sedimentary
limestones.
Remnant of ancient
chain of Sauratown
Mountains
315-foot granite
monolith
References
www.coastalguide.com
www.learnnc.org
www.mattamuskeet.org
www.visitmayberry.com
www.wikipedia.com