The Surficial Geology of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Region, Tennessee and North Carolina was mapped from 1993 to 2003 under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park Service (NPS). This 1:100,000-scale digital geologic map was compiled from 2002 to 2003 from unpublished field investigations maps at 1:24,000-scale. The preliminary surficial geologic data and map support cooperative investigations with NPS, the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (http://www.dlia.org/) (Southworth, 2001). Although the focus of our work was within the Park, the geology of the surrounding area is provided for regional context. Surficial deposits document the most recent part of the geologic history of this part of the western Blue Ridge and eastern Tennessee Valley of the Valley and Ridge of the Southern Appalachians. Additionally, there is great variety of surficial materials, which directly affect the different types of soil and associated flora and fauna. The surficial deposits accumulated over tens of millions of years under varied climatic conditions during the Cenozoic era and resulted from a composite of geologic processes.
Surficial Geologic Map (54 x 30 inches) (Low resolution for screen viewing) [5.8-MB PDF file]
Surficial Geologic Map (54 x 30 inches) (High resolution) [11.4-MB PDF file]
Text To Accompany Map (44 pages) [392-KB PDF file]
This version of the report is Section 508 compliant. Please note: If you download the PDF file instead of viewing it online, you also will need to download the PDF figures (see directory) into a directory named srfofrfigs at the same level as the Text To Accompany Map, as the 62 figures are separate PDF files. The figures are available as an 8.3-MB volume.
Description of Map Units (Text file)
Data ProductsDatabase [38-MB Access Database]
Other Accompanying GIS Files
Boundary Shape Files [46 KB] | Metadata
Geology Shape Files [5.25 MB] | Metadata
Stream Shape Files [3.9 MB] | Metadata
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For questions about the scientific content of this report, contact Scott Southworth .
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