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Understanding West Virginia’s geology is essential to appreciating its settlement, land use, and economic and cultural history. Located entirely within the Appalachian region, the Mountain State is remarkably diverse, shaped by ancient seas, mountain-building forces, and Ice Age influences. Layers of limestone, sandstone, shale, and coal—formed over hundreds of millions of years—tell the story of shifting continents and evolving landscapes. These geologic foundations have defined everything from farming and forestry to mining and industry, giving each region of West Virginia its own distinct character, economy, and way of life.
For most of West Virginia, the rock beneath our feet is sedimentary—layers of sand, mud, and other materials that hardened over time. These sediments were laid down during the Paleozoic Era, between about 570 and 230 million years ago, when much o...
About 600 million years ago, a huge landmass called Old Appalachia (pictured in the darkest shade of red) was located where the eastern United States is today. Made of ancient igneous and metamorphic rock, it bordered a shallow inland sea that onc...
Long ago, the North American tectonic plate collided with and then moved away from the European and African plates, causing the land and seas in this region to rise and sink. Over time, layers of mud and sand built up and hardened into rocks such ...
An orogeny is a period of mountain building caused by movements of Earth’s crust. The Appalachian Orogeny happened when the North American, European, and African plates collided millions of years ago, forming huge mountains that once looked like t...
During the Great Ice Age, or Pleistocene Epoch (about 1 million to 10,000 years ago), huge glaciers covered much of North America. They didn’t reach as far south as West Virginia, but they still had a big impact on the state’s land, rocks, plants,...
The giant Teays River flowed through what is now a very wide and flat valley between Charleston and Huntington (and also continues across southern Ohio).It was filled up with lake sediments—basically, mud and sand. This happened because huge glaci...
The Ohio River didn't always exist. It's a relatively "new" river, born during the Great Ice Age. Before that, two other large rivers, the Monongahela and the Allegheny, flowed in a different direction. As massive sheets of ice (glaciers) moved, t...
By contrast, our oldest waterway is called the New River. It formed hundreds of millions of years ago, making it one of the oldest rivers in the world. It is generally believed to be the last remaining segment of the old Teays River. As the Appala...
Another feature left over from the cold climate of the Ice Age is bogs, which we often call glades. Special glades are found at high altitudes in the mountains. Even though the glaciers didn't cover these spots, the climate was much colder, allowi...
West Virginia might look like one state on a map, but when scientists examine its geology (the types of rocks) and physiography (the shape of the land, such as mountains or valleys), it can be divided into several different major regions, or provi...
The Blue Ridge Mountains have the oldest rocks in the state but are no longer in their original forms. They have transformed because they were subjected to intense heat and pressure when the mountains were being pushed up, or upthrusted. The amoun...
West of the small Blue Ridge area is a much larger region called the Ridge and Valley Province. This includes most of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. The rocks here were originally flat, but they were folded and squeezed when continents collide...
West of the intense folds of the Ridge and Valley Province is the High Plateau., which acts as a transition zone between the severely squeezed rocks to the east and the flatter rocks to the west.The rocks here are only slightly folded. Instead of ...
Most of West Virginia is covered by the Appalachian Plateau Province. The Plateau holds mineral resources unmatched anywhere else in the eastern United States. These resources, especially its rich coal deposits, have historically been the foundati...
While the rich coal deposits cover most of the state, they eventually disappear toward the west. So, the far western counties of West Virginia don't produce coal.Instead, these western areas are rich in other fuels, such as natural gas and petrole...
Karst forms when carbonate rocks (like limestone) slowly dissolve in water over thousands of years. This chemical process creates unique features:Sinkholes (dolines) are bowl-shaped depressions where the ground has collapsed.“Lost rivers” are stre...
Caves in eastern and southeastern West Virginia form when groundwater dissolves limestone. West Virginia has at least 4,200 caves; Organ Cave (Greenbrier County) and Friars Hole (Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties) are the longest.Caves protect un...
West Virginia was well-known for its springs and the resorts that built up around them. In fact, these springs were the sources of our region's first tourism boom, dating back to the late 1700s.There are two types of springs. Mineral springs conta...
Soil is organized into layers called horizons; the top layer is the topsoil. West Virginia has seven of the twelve main global soil types. The quality depends on the underlying rock (like limestone, sandstone, or shale).Valleys in the Eastern Panh...
This Exhibit has 32 Sections
This Exhibit has 17 Sections