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Geology of the United States
For the main part of this lab we will use a nice map from the United States Geologic Survey (USGS):
This map has the conterminous United States divided into regions based on "lay of the land," or physiography. The physiographic regions are based on landscape features, which are mostly controlled by the geology of the regions. The map below shows the same regions on a shaded relief map:
For a listing of basic information about the regions study this table. Here are the 25 regions posted on the map:
LAURENTIAN UPLAND
1. Superior Upland (This is the edge of the huge Canadian Shield).
ATLANTIC PLAIN
2. Continental Shelf (around the margin of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic margin)
3. Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain
APPALACHIAN HIGHLANDS
6. Valley and Ridge province and also here
7. St. Lawrence Valley and maps of bedrock geology and surface geology (The part in the US is just the edge of this mostly Canadian province).
8. Appalachian Plateaus province
9. New England Province, which is the continuation of the Appalachian Mountain provinces into states like New Hampshire
INTERIOR PLAINS
"12. Central Lowlands": This broad area includes broad areas affected by Pleistocene glaciation, such as the driftless area, and there are many uplifts and sedimentary basins, such as the Michigan Basin
13. Great Plains province and here
INTERIOR HIGHLANDS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SYSTEM
INTERMONTANE PLATEAUS
22. Basin and Range province and here
PACIFIC MOUNTAIN SYSTEM
23. Cascade Mountains / Sierra Nevada Mountains
25. Lower California province (Chaparral Area)
ALASKA
Learn about these three mountain ranges: 26. Alaska Range, 27. Brooks Range, 28. Aleutian Range (Islands).
Physiographic Map of Alaska
Geologic Map of Alaska (Use the legend below for identifying geologic age of areas).
For another colored geologic map of Alaska, look here.
Resources
Geology of the Conterminous United States at 1:2,500,000 Scale - A Digital Representation of the 1974 P.B. King and H.M. Beikman Map: publication page
Wikipedia also has a page with links to areas on the map used here.
Thelin, G.P., and Pike, R.J., 1991, Landforms of the conterminous United States; A digital shaded-relief portrayal: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-2206 scale 1:3,500,000., and the actual full-size (11.8 megabytes) tiff file.
