Physical Geology: Term Paper The break that now separates the Ouachita Mountains from the Appalachians, a feature known as the Mississippi Embayment, constitutes one of the largest and least understood landforms of the central U.S. In the article, “The Mississippi’s Curious Origins” the authors, Roy B. Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox shed light on the mysterious Mississippi Embayment. They begin by explaining the origins of the horseshoe-shaped lowland that is underlain by massive quantities of sand, silt and mud deposits. They begin at what geologist call Pangea, which is when North America, South America, Africa and Eurasia came together to form one supercontinent. This collision raised several mountain ranges, including the Ouachita-Appalachian. Pangea is said to be ripped apart where it had previously been sutured together: just outside the arc of the Ouachita-Appalachian Mountains. This opening formed both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This article then states that for a long period of time the Gulf Coast remained geologically stable, with no continents plowing into it or rifting away. The northern coast of the Gulf Coast began to warp upward over a large area; this is the footprint of what is now the Mississippi Embayment. As the very large arch that formed up to three kilometers high and then subsided just as much below sea level, what had been the crest of a high, arched mountain range became inundated with seawater and was eventually buried by as much as 2.6 kilometers of marine sediment. The article states that the passage of a tectonic plate over a hot spot can reactivate ancient faults, causing slippage to occur on them from time to time, even many millions of years later. The might Mississippi is said to be fundamentally controlled by goings-on a full 2,900 kilometers away and straight downward, at the boundary between the earth’s core and mantle. The Mississippi Embayment constitutes one of the largest and least understood landforms. In the article “Adventures through Deep Time: The Central Mississippi River Valley and Its Earthquakes” by Roy Van Arsdale, a more descriptive formation of the Mississippi Embayment is given. Although the Appalachian and Ouachita Mountains were ripped apart, remnants existed as a continuous mountain belt around southeastern North America from late Paleozoic until Late Cretaceous time. The major breach in the Appalachian-Ouachita mountain system occurred during the Cretaceous with the formation of the Mississippi Embayment. The article goes on to say that although the meteorite impact at the end of the Cretaceous dramatically altered life on Earth, there was no change to the regional geologic landscape. The Mississippi Embayment continued to be an extension of the Gulf of Mexico into the central United States during the early Cenozoic and experienced sea level changes. This article gave me a better understanding of the geologic history of the central Mississippi valley. In the article “Mineral, Fossil-Fuel, and Water Resources of Arkansas” by The Arkansas Geological Commission it discusses the need for mineral, fossil-fuel, and water resources. It states that a citizen consumes a lot of materials in their lifetime. Such as, 9,000 pounds of sand and gravel, 8,500 pounds of stone, 800 pounds of cement, 600 pounds of clay, 450 pounds of salt, 310 pounds of phosphate rock and those are just a few of the numbers. All of the rock, mineral, and fossil-fuel resources are non-renewable within a human life span. When a mineral deposit of an oil field is depleted, a new one must be located. When compared with the original deposit of field, experience has shown that the replacement will be more difficult to discover, will probably occur at greater depth below the surface, and will be more costly to develop. This article goes on to say , that all natural resources need to be managed and conserved. Conservation involves careful planning for the effective development and wise use of the resources with emphasis on minimizing waste. Recycling of discarded products saves raw materials and saves the added energy for processing from a raw ore. A better understanding of why mineral resources are where they are begins with an examination of the states geomorphology and underlying geology. The term ‘geomorphology’ is explained in this article. I states that it is the science of landforms. This term encompasses the classification, description, origin, and development of the present pattern of landforms. Also through satellite images, topographic mapping, and aerial photographs of Arkansas clearly show that the state is divided into two roughly equal-sized, but markedly different areas of sharply contrasting landform patterns along a line trending generally northeast-southwest across the state. The more rolling terrain of the southwestern part of the Gulf coastal Plain province is termed the West Gulf Coastal Plain. Because it is more hilly, this area is less suitable for irrigation, but it encompasses a large part of the state’s timber resources. Most of the area is underlain by unconsolidated sediments of quaternary and tertiary age and by weakly lithified sedimentary rocks of tertiary age. Arkansas mineral resources are directly related to its varied geology. The suite of minerals present in a given region is related to the geologic history of that region and, therefore, to the types of rocks in which the minerals occur.