Geology of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina

Abstract

Every year, thousands of our fellow Americans visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the heart of the southern Appalachian highlands. All visitors find refreshment in this mountain wilderness, some of them arc also inspired by its deeper meanings--by observing the varied forests and other living things of the mountains, and by contemplating the long ages of the past during which the mountains and their living things must have evolved. These past ages can be deciphered by geologic study, which interprets first of all how the land has been shaped into its present form, and more remotely, the nature and history of the rocks from which the land has been carved.