Mesozoic Basins Physiography: Characteristic Features (Part 2)
• Mesozoic Basins have low to moderate relief with some ridges of harder igneous or sedimentary rocks such as diabase, sandstone, or conglomerate.
Above: Mesozoic Basins often have isolated ridges, like white Oak Mountain, near Danville, shown left. As the view from White Oak Mountain shows (right), the surrounding landscape is much flatter. (Photographs by Robert Whisonant)
• Deep red-maroon soils formed on the abundant reddish parent sedimentary rocks are very common.
Above: Deep red soil from the Culpeper Basin. Many of the Mesozoic Basins rocks, as seen in the small photograph along Bull Run, are red because they formed in continental environments where oxygen combines with iron to form the red color. (Left: photograph by Parvinder Sethi; right: photograph by Robert Whisonant)