Piedmont (United States)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piedmont is the plateau region of the eastern United States which lies between the Atlantic Coastal Plain, from which it is divided by the fall line, and the eastern mountain ranges, the Appalachian Mountains. The width of the Piedmont varies, being quite narrow above the Delaware River (and non-existent above the Hudson River), but nearly 300 miles (475 km) wide in the state of North Carolina. The Piedmont region of North Carolina consists of three major metropolitan areas: the Piedmont Triad, Metrolina, and the Research Triangle, all of which contribute to a geographical phoenomenon known as the Piedmont Crescent.
The surface relief of the Piedmont is characterized by relatively low, rolling hills with heights above sea level between 200 feet (50 m) and 800 feet to 1000 feet (250 m to 300 m). Its geology is complex, with numerous rock formations of different materials and ages intermingled with one another. Essentially, the Piedmont is the remnant of several ancient mountain chains that have since been eroded away. Geologists have identified at least five separate events which have led to sediment deposition, including the Grenville orogeny (the collision of continents when the supercontinent Rodinia was formed) and the Appalachian orogeny during the formation of Pangaea. The last major event in the history of the Piedmont was the break-up of Pangaea, when North America and Africa began to separate. Large basins formed from the rifting and were subsequently filled by the sediments shed from the surrounding higher ground. The series of mesozoic basins is almost entirely located within the Piedmont region.
In the Southeast, the Piedmont is marked by red, iron-stained clay--weathered from the granitic bedrock beneath and uncovered by generations of poor farming practices[citation needed]. The Cecil soil series is representative.
The name "Piedmont" derives from the Italian region of Piedmont (in Italian: Piemonte), whose meaning is to the feet of the mountains because of its characteristic geographical position, a plain surrounded by the Alps.
[edit] Music
The Piedmont region is closely associated with the blues style that originated there in the early part of the 19th century. Most Piedmont blues musicians came from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. During the Great Migration, Black Americans migrated to the Piedmont. With the Appalachian Mountains to the west, those who may otherwise have spread into rural areas instead stayed in cities and were thus exposed to a broader mixture of music than those in, for example, the rural Mississippi delta. Thus, Piedmont blues was influenced by white forms such as ragtime, country, and popular songs, forms that had comparatively less bearing on blues in other regions.
Piedmont is also characteristic of a style of dance known as the Cake Walk or the Slow Drag, which originated based on the local culture and community.
[edit] Further reading
- Michael A. Godfrey (1997). Field Guide to the Piedmont. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 524 pages. ISBN 0-8078-4671-6.
- http://www.hiltonpond.org - Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
