Coastal Plain Physiography Topics

1. Regional Setting
2. General Physiography
3. Beaches and Shores
Sea Level Changes
Environ-ments
4. Special Features
• Introduction to Physiography
• Coastal Plain
• Piedmont
• Mesozoic Basins
• Blue Ridge
• Valley and Ridge
• Appalachian Plateaus
• Virginia's Rivers

Coastal Plain Physiography: Regional Setting, Part 1

The Coastal Plain in Virginia is one part of a much larger physiographic province.

1. The Coastal Plain in North America

2. Coastal Plain and continental shelf

The Coastal Plain in North America

• The Coastal Plain is one of the largest provinces in eastern North America.

• The Coastal Plain begins in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula, extends through the Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard states, and ends at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Coastal Plain, highlighted in yellow, in the United States extends from Texas to the Northeast. (Image courtesy of the United States Geological Survey)

• The Coastal Plain everywhere is a broad, low relief surface that slopes gently toward the ocean.

Typical Coastal Plain topography across the region. This photograph is taken in Northern Virginia. (Photograph by Robert Whisonant)