Our State Geography in a Snap: landforms and regions

Reprinted with permission from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction website.

Landforms: There are three distinct landforms of the Southeast and of North Carolina: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Appalachian Mountains.

• The Coastal Plain is low, flat to gently sloping land that extends along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the Southeast lies within in the Coastal Plain.
• The Piedmont, characterized by hilly, rolling land, borders the Coastal Plain. The Piedmont extends from Virginia to Alabama.
• The Appalachian Mountains, the largest range in the eastern United States, stretch from Canada to northern Alabama.

Regions: The three landforms of North Carolina make up the three major geographic regions of the state: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Mountains. The Coastal Plain Region is usually divided into two sub regions: the Outer Coastal Plain, commonly referred to as the Tidewater; and the Inner Coastal, which is less impacted by the effects of the ocean as it is located further inward.