1. Watersheds and Geographic Provinces of South Carolina

2. River Systems of South Carolina
Precipitation that falls in South Carolina is drained by a system of streams and rivers leading to the Atlantic. The land area that is drained by one system of streams and rivers is called a watershed or river basin. These are the 4 river basins of SC:

4. Pee Dee River Basin – drains 25% of South Carolina at the rate of 10
Pee Dee River Basin – drains 25% of South Carolina at the rate of 10.5 billion gallons per day.
Santee River Basin – drains 34% of South Carolina at the rate of 7.5 billion gallons per day.

5. ACE Basin (Ashley-Cooper, Combahee-Coosawhatchie, and Edisto ) – drains 26% of South Carolina at the rate of 5 billion gallons per day.
Savannah River Basin – drains 15% of South Carolina at the rate of 8 billion gallons per day.

7. SOUTH CAROLINA GEOLOGIC PROVINCES
South Carolina can be divided into five landform regions based on a number of criteria including relief, rock types, and geologic history.
Blue Ridge (or Foothills of the Appalachians)
Piedmont
Sandhills
Coastal Plain (or Upper Coastal Plain)
Coastal Zone (or Lower Coastal Plain)

9. SC Provinces These regions run in bands parallel to the Atlantic Ocean
Elevation decreases steadily from over 3000 ft in the Blue Ridge to sea level
Rivers flow from NW to SE

10. Read only:
About 100 million years ago, the ocean level was located near the fall line. The sands in the in this region are from an ancient beach.
Columbia would have been an ocean front city.

11. Blue Ridge Mountains Less than 2% of SC lies in the Blue Ridge.
The Blue Ridge is the
eastern most mt. range
of the Appalachians.
The Appalachians were formed more than 350 million years ago making it the oldest mountain chain in North America.

12. Read only:
The vegetation of the Blue Ridge was once classified as an oak – chestnut forest, but early in the 20th century, a fungus (the chestnut blight) killed all of the American chestnuts drastically altering the species composition.

13. Piedmont
The Piedmont (from the French meaning “foot of the mountain”) consists of a 100 mile wide belt between the Blue Ridge and the Sandhills. This region is characterized by gently rolling hills with many stream-cut valleys.
An outstanding feature of this province is the monadnock. This is a residual rock feature that is more resistant than the surrounding rocks and as a result is not eroded away at the same rate. Table Mountain is a well know monadnock.
Read only:

15. The vegetation in the Piedmont region has been more disturbed by humans than any other region. This region is now covered in loblolly pine which was introduced into the Piedmont as a cash lumber crop.
This pine species now dominates much of the Piedmont.

16. Sandhills
This province is a belt of infertile sandy soil five to fifteen miles. Streams drop rapidly at the fall line as they pass from the hard rock of the piedmont to the loose soft sands of the Sandhills.
Many cities (Columbia, Atlanta, Raleigh, Richmond, Washington DC, Philadelphia) were built along the fall line for two reasons. Rivers were un-navigable past the fall line and the falls or rapids created by the change in rock structure were used as a hydrologic power source.
Read Only

17. The sandy soils quickly drain any rainfall that falls in the area leaving desert-like conditions.

18. Coastal Plain Read Only:
The coastal plain is the largest landform region in South Carolina. It covers about 2/3 of the state and is nearly flat and featureless. Elevations begin at ~300 ft near the Sandhills and decrease to sea level at the coastal zone.
The major habitats are vast flood plains, river swamps, and elliptical depressions called Carolina bays.
Read Only:

19. Read Only: Carolina Bays
These bays are large, shallow, elliptical depressions that have long axes all aligned in the same direction – NW to SE
These features are found from Maryland to Florida and number close to ½ million
There are a few theories on how these bays were formed: the meteorite theory, the tidal eddy theory, and the artesian spring theory.

22. Coastal Zone The coastal zone extends seaward of Hwy 17.
This geographic province includes a small portion of the mainland, tidal marshes, sea islands, barrier islands, and the Atlantic continental shelf offshore to the 3-mile jurisdictional boundary.
49% of South Carolina’s beachfront (88 miles) was developed as of 1988.