Four regions of North Carolina

The Tidewater Region

Water, water, everywhere!

•Tidewater – narrow strip of land that extends along the Atlantic Ocean

The Tidewater Region

•In the south, no more than thirty miles wide.•In the north, where inland bodies of water are large, it goes back more than fifty miles in places.

NC Lighthouses

Sounds

Sounds are the inland bodies of mixed water found through much of the Tidewater.

Barrier IslandsLong chain of islands or sand spits

along the state coastline.Most famous of barrier islands are

the Outer Banks located along the northern half of the state coastline.

Really just a long ridge of sand, spread along the ocean floor, shifting in tides and storms.

InletsWhere the sand is low, inlets allow the

seawater to come in and out with the tides.An inlet is a break in the barrier islands that

allow seawater to come in and out with the tides.

Gulf Stream•The ocean current that runs northward along the North Carolina coast.•It carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic.•This was the “road” ships took back from the New World to the Old World.

Five major soundsGoing from North to South

1) Currituck Sound in the north2) Followed by the Albemarle Sound 3) Pamlico Sound4) Core Sound5) Bogue Sound

Map of Sounds

WetlandA large portion of

the Tidewater is wetland.

Wetland is soil that is soaked or flooded with water most of the year.

These wetlands contain salt marshes where shellfish breed and live.

Estuaries serve as incubators for a variety of sea life, such as shrimp.

An estuary is that part of the river where it meets the sea; where fresh and salt water mix.

Swamps and LakesPocosins

Most common type of wetland away from the estuaries.

An old Indian name, which means “a swamp on a hill.”

Made up of peat that fills with water when the water table is high.

SavannaA flat grassland with

some scattered trees.

Parts of the Great Swamp become savannas in the drier times of the year.

Find these facts on your own.1) ________________, the most eastern point of

our state, is known as the “graveyard of the Atlantic.”

2) The highest point along the barrier islands is _________________, located not far from Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers flew.

3) The ____________ is the habitat for the Venus Fly Trap, one of North Carolina’s unique plants.

4) The largest lake in the Tidewater region is ____________________.

Sourceshttp://

ncatlasrevisited.org/LandRegions/landtitle.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolinahttp://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/6861http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_StreamNC: Land of Contrasts.