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TheCumberland Plateau is the southern part of theAppalachian Plateau in theAppalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of easternKentucky andTennessee, and portions of northernAlabama and northwestGeorgia.[1] The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to thedissected plateau lands lying west of the mainAppalachian Mountains. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with theAllegheny River rising in the Allegheny Plateau and theCumberland River rising in the Cumberland Plateau inHarlan County, Kentucky.
The Cumberland Plateau is a deeplydissected plateau, withtopographic relief commonly of about 400 feet (120 metres), and frequentsandstoneoutcroppings and bluffs.
At Kentucky'sPottsville Escarpment, which is the transition from the Cumberland Plateau to theBluegrass in the north and thePennyrile in the south, there are many spectacular cliffs,gorges,rockhouses,natural bridges, andwaterfalls. In Tennessee, the Cumberland Plateau's western border is theHighland Rim east of theNashville Basin, and its eastern edge is marked byWalden Ridge, which continues south into Alabama asSand Mountain. Walden Ridge and Sand Mountain are separated from the main portion of the Cumberland Plateau by theSequatchie Valley. The Sequatchie River empties into theTennessee River just belowNickajack Dam and the valley extends intoJackson County, Alabama, as part of theTennessee Valley.
InKentucky, the height of the plateau's hills increases from northwest to southeast, with the westernmost areas of the plateau having a relief of around 200 feet (61 m) and an appearance similar to theknobs region, whereas areas nearBlack Mountain have a relief exceeding 2,500 feet (760 m).
The Cumberland Plateau is aphysiographic section of the largerAppalachian Plateau province, which in turn is part of the largerAppalachian Highlands physiographic division.[2] The Plateau rises about 1,000 feet (300 m) above the surrounding areas in the region (Tennessee Vacation, 2018). The rough topography that makes up the Cumberland Plateau has caused a development of isolated settlements and the local economies based onsubsistence agriculture (Britannica, 2016).
Thesedimentary rocks that compose the Cumberland Plateau and larger Appalachian Plateau are ofMississippian andPennsylvanian geological age, composed of near-shore sediments washed westward from theAppalachian Mountains. Somerock layers were laid down in shallow coastal waters, some, includingbituminous coal seams were laid onshore in swampy environments. These are interlaced with delta formations of cross-bedded sandstones and occasionally conglomerate.
There are numerousdiscontinuities in the beds, where they were raised high enough to be eroded, then lowered to have more sediments added on top near Cumberland Falls, 400 feet (120 m) below the top of the formation, going by the age of the bedrock which has moved less than 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) for the last 300 million years, caused mainly by lateral erosion of the plateau.
The plateau contains some of the largest stretches of contiguous forest in the eastern United States. Regionally, forests are intermediate betweenoak (Quercus) andhickory (Carya) forest types withpines (Pinus) occurring on dry, upland sites andmesophytic species occurring in protected coves.
TheOak Ridge National Laboratory is involved with the conservation of the mixed mesophytic forests within the Northern Cumberland Plateau.[3] Conservation organizations active on the Cumberland Plateau includeThe Nature Conservancy, theDoris Duke Charitable Foundation, and theNatural Resources Defense Council.
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