Geologic Provinces of the United States: Appalachian Highlands gallery
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Great Falls of the Potomac River
Great Falls Park
Photo by Avery A. Drake, Jr, USGS
Erosion-resistant Late Proterozoic rock forms the Great Falls of the Potomac River in the Piedmont province of northern Virginia (left) and Maryland (right).
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Entrance to Delaware Water Gap
The entrance to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation
Area as viewed from atop Kittatinny Mountain, Pennsylvania on
the right, New Jersey on the left.
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Delaware River
The Delaware River makes a sweeping bend as it heads throogh the
world-famous Delaware Water Gap. The bend of the river mimics the
underlying geology. Click here to learn more.
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Ordovician and Silurian rocks
Exposure of Ordovician (Martinsburg) and Silurian (Shawangunk)
rocks in Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey side. Click here to learn more.
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Looking west from Loudoun Heights, Virginia
Looking west from Loudoun Heights, Virginia, to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Shenandoah (left) and Potomac (right) Rivers. The low ridge just west of the terraced top of the town is underlain by fossil-bearing Cambrian metasandstone.
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Elk Ridge at Maryland Heights, Maryland
Looking north from Blue Ridge at Loudoun Heights, Virginia, to Elk Ridge, a large fold of Lower Cambrian rock is exposed along the water gap of the Potomac River. The C&O Canal National Historical Park is along the Potomac River in the lower part of the photograph.
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Clingmans Dome
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Photo by photo by Bob McDowell, USGS
At 6643 feet above sea level, Clingmans Dome is one of the highest peaks in the Appalachians. Click here to learn more.
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Gregory Bald
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Photo by Scott Southworth, USGS
Gregory Bald, at 4949 feet elevation above sea level, straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina border in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The grassy "bald" in the immediate foreground is underlain by meter-deep, organic-rich soil developed on Precambrian graphitic slate and metasandstone. Click here to learn more.
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Old Rag Mountain
Shenandoah National Park
Photo by Paul Hackley, USGS
View looking north to Old Rag Mountain, Shenandoah National Park, in the Blue Ridge province of Virginia. The craggy rock peak is exposed billion year old granitic gneiss called the Old Rag Granite. The low land in the foreground is a fluvial valley more characteristic of the Piedmont province to the east.
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Blue Ridge
Shenandoah National Park
Photo by Paul Hackley, USGS
View looking west to Blue Ridge from the crest of Old Rag Mountain. Outcrop and weathered boulders of billion-year-old Old Rag Granite is in the foreground. Blue Ridge forms the provincial boundary with the Great Valley of the Valley and Ridge province.
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Looking east from Blue Ridge
Shenandoah National Park
Photo by Paul Hackley, USGS
Looking east from Blue Ridge. The craggy peaks are billion-year-old Old Rag Granite. Click here to learn more.
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Appalachian Highlands
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