The
geography of Georgia describes a
state in the
Southeastern United States in
North America. The
Golden Isles of Georgia lie off the coast of the state. The main geographical features include mountains such as the
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in the northwest, the
Blue Ridge Mountains in the northeast, the
Piedmont plateau in the central portion of the state and
Coastal Plain in the south. The highest area in Georgia is
Brasstown Bald which is 1,458 m (4,784 ft) above sea level, while the lowest is at sea level, at the
Atlantic Ocean. Georgia is located at approximately 33° N 83.5° W. The state has a total area of and the geographic center is located in
Twiggs County .
Physical geography
Geological development
The oldest known rock found in Georgia comes from the
Precambrian Proterozoic Era and is about 1 to 1.3 billion years old. It is found in the Piedmont Plateau and Blue Ridge mountain regions. Approximately 1 billion years ago a metamorphic change occurred during the an event called the
Grenville Orogeny and caused the rocks, which were originally
sediment, to compress into a form of rock called
gneiss due to heat and pressure. Around 630 million years ago the Grenville mountains began to erode carrying sediments from streams to the sea. The gneiss formed from these sediments created the
marble,
metaconglomerate,
phyllite,
quartzite,
schist, and
slate found in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont areas.
Three...
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