- Highland Rim
The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in
Tennessee surrounding the Central Basin. Nashville is largely surrounded by higher terrain in all directions.Geologicially, the Central Basin is actually opposite, being a dome. The Highland Rim is a
cuesta surrounding the basin, and the border where the difference in elevation is sharply pronounced is anescarpment , located somewhat in the northwestern corner of the Basin.Geology and physiography
The Highland Rim is a physiographic section of the larger Interior Low Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger
Interior Plains physiographic division.cite web |title=Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S. |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |url=http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/physio.xml |accessdate=2007-12-06 ]There are sections of the Rim referred to by all four of the cardinal directions, i.e., "Northern Highland Rim", etc. It should be recognized that the Rim is rather continuous and any division of it, including the ones made below, are somewhat arbitrary. The term "Highland" here is relative: it is certainly higher than the Basin it surrounds, but it nonetheless is seldom at an elevation above convert|1100|ft|m above sea level, and never more than about convert|1400|ft|m above sea level except where interrupted, primarily to the southeast, by outliers of the Cumberland Plateau. With the exception of a few broad stream bottoms, the land is characterized by ridges and valleys with a few fairly low hills. The entire region is well watered with many perennial streams, and occasional waterfalls which sometimes delineate the Rim from the Basin which it surrounds.
Western Highland Rim
The Western Rim is similarly encountered only a few miles west of Nashville, and extends to the western valley of the
Tennessee River . Underlying bedrock of the region is chieflyMississippian limestone ,chert ,shale , andsandstone with exposures ofDevonian ,Silurian ,Ordovician , andCambrian limestone, chert, and shale.cite web |last=|first=| authorlink = | coauthors = |title=Physiography of Tennessee |publisher=Tennessee Archaeology Net |date=|url=http://www.mtsu.edu/~kesmith/TNARCHNET/physio.html |accessdate=2007-12-30 ] In the northern part of the Western Highland Rim, karstification orsinkhole s, readily occur in an area with a southern extension of the Pennyroyal plateau of Kentucky, where thekarst is best developed on theMississippian St. Louis Limestone and theSte. Genevieve Limestone .cite web |last=Shofner |first=Gregory A. | authorlink = | coauthors = Hugh H. Mills and Jason E. Duke |title=A Simple Map Index of Karstification and its Relationship to Sinkhole and Cave Distribution in Tennessee |publisher=Journal of Cave and Karst Studies |date=2001 |url=http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/V63/v63n2-Shofner.pdf |accessdate=2007-12-30 ] The area is a hilly area that is bisected by theTennessee River and theCumberland River valleys.Eastern Highland Rim
The Eastern Rim rises approximately fifty miles east of Nashville, and is bordered to its east by even higher terrain, the
Cumberland Plateau . Erosion has exposed carbonate bedrock of LatePaleozoic age. These carbonate rocks contain variable amounts of chert, and are often interbedded with fine grained clastic rocks. As a result, these rocks are more resistant to erosion than the underlying, purer limestones of the Lower (Early) Paleozoic. The geology is diverse, and istypically limestone at valley floors (around convert|500|ft|m elevation) and sandstone on ridges (toaround 1000 feet). [cite web |last=|first=| authorlink = | coauthors = |title=Alabama Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy |publisher=Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources |date=|url=http://www.outdooralabama.com/research-mgmt/cwcs/Chapter2.pdf |accessdate=2007-12-30 ] The constituent bedrock is composed primarily of Mississippian, St. Louis, and Warsaw limestone with Fort Payne chert underlain byChattanooga Shale that forms a large part of the escarpment. This area is mostly undulating plains, hills, and karst.Northern Highland Rim
The Northern Highland Rim is encountered just a few miles north of Nashville proper and extends to the
Kentucky border, and the region of Kentucky adjacent to it called the Pennyroyal is in fact largely a continuation of it under another name.outhern Highland Rim
For the most part the Southern Rim is the farthest from Nashville, rising at some points just a few miles north of the border with
Alabama . Again, the landforms here are continuous with those in adjacent portions of Alabama, although perhaps the most spectacular landforms of any portion of the Rim are to be found here.The stratigraphy of the Southern Highland Rim is primarily composed of flat-lying limestones,
dolomite s, and shales, and to a much lesser extent, of cherts,siltstone s,mudstone s, and very fine grained to conglomeratic sandstones.References
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