Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
, a state near the geographical center of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, has
three distinct physiographic divisions:
* a north-western upland plain or prairie region part of the Interior Plains' Central Lowland (
areas Osage Plain 12f and Dissected Till Plains 12e) known as the northern plains
* a lowland in the extreme southeast
bootheel region of Missouri, part of the Atlantic Plain known as the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (
areas 3e) or the
Mississippi embayment
The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflue ...
* the Missouri portion of the
Ozark
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...
Plateau (areas 14a and 14b) which lies between the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and the Central lowland.
The boundary between the northern plains and the Ozark region follows the
Missouri River from its mouth at
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
to
Columbia. This also corresponds to the southernmost extent of glaciation during the
Pre-Illinoian Stage which destroyed the remnant plateau to the north but left the ancient landforms to the south unaltered. The Ozark boundary runs southwestward from there towards
Joplin at the southeast corner of
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
. The boundary between the Ozark and lowland regions runs southwest from
Cape Girardeau
Cape Girardeau ( , french: Cap-Girardeau ; colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 39,540. The city is one of two principal citi ...
on the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
to the
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
border just southwest of
Poplar Bluff
Poplar Bluff is a medium city in Butler County in Southeast Missouri, United States. It is the county seat of Butler County and is known as "The Gateway to the Ozarks" among other names. The population was 16,225 at the 2020 census. The Poplar B ...
. Missouri borders eight other US States, more than any other state except
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, which also borders eight states.
Regions
Northern Plains
The Dissected
Till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
Plains portion of the northern plains region lies in the portion of the state north of the
Missouri River, while the Osage plains portion extends into the southwestern portion of the state bordering the
Ozark Plateau
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...
. Thus the northern plains covers an area slightly more than a third of the state. This region is a beautiful, rolling country, with a great abundance of streams.
It is more hilly and broken in its western half than in its eastern half. The elevation in the extreme northwestern Missouri is about . and in the extreme northeastern portion about ., while the rim of the region to the southeast, along the border of the Ozark region, has an elevation of about . The valleys for the larger streams are about 250 to deep and sometimes 8 to wide with the country bordering them being the most broken of the region.
The smaller streams have so eroded the whole face of the country that little of the original surface plain is to be seen. The
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
runs along the length of Missouri's eastern side and is skirted throughout by topographic relief of 400 to . elevation.
Ozark Plateau
The Ozark region is essentially a low dome, with local faulting and minor undulations, dominated by a ridge or, more exactly, a relatively even belt of highland that runs from near the Mississippi river about
Ste. Genevieve to
McDonald County on the Arkansas border. High rocky bluffs rise precipitously on the Mississippi, sometimes to a height of or so above the water, from the mouth of the
Meramec River
The Meramec River (), sometimes spelled Maramec River, is one of the longest free-flowing waterways in the U.S. state of Missouri, draining Blanc, Caldwell, and Hawk. "Location" while wandering Blanc, Caldwell, and Hawk. "Executive Summary" fr ...
to Ste. Genevieve. These mark where that river cuts the Ozark ridge. Across the Mississippi River, this ridge is continued by the
Shawnee Hills
The Shawnee Hills is a region of southern Illinois that rests mainly in an east-west arc roughly following the outline of the southern end of the Illinois Basin. Whereas Mississippian and Pennsylvania Age rock layers are deep beneath the soil su ...
in Illinois.
![Roubidoux sandstone bluff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Roubidoux_sandstone_bluff.JPG)
The elevations of the crests in Missouri vary from 1,100 to . This second physiographic region comprises somewhat less than two-thirds of the area of the state. The Burlington escarpment of
Mississippian rocks, which in places is as much as 250 to in height, runs along the western edge of the
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya.
T ...
formations and divides the region into an eastern and a western area, known respectively to physiographers as the Salem Plateau and the Springfield Plateau.
Headward erosion
Headward erosion is erosion at the origin of a stream channel, which causes the origin to move back away from the direction of the stream flow, lengthening the stream channel.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak It can also refer to ...
by the south flowing tributaries to the
White River in northern Arkansas has created a southern escarpment to both the Springfield and Salem plateaus that runs from
McDonald through
Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...
,
Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
,
Christian,
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
, and
Howell
Howell may refer to:
Places
In the United Kingdom
*Howell, Lincolnshire, England
In the United States
*Howell, Georgia
* Howell, Evansville, a neighborhood of Evansville, Indiana
*Howell, Michigan
* Howell, Missouri
*Howell, Utah
* Howell C ...
counties. To the south of this escarpment lies some of the more rugged and highly dissected parts of the Missouri Ozarks. The famed
Shepherd of the Hills region near
Branson Branson may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Branson, Toronto
;United States
* Branson, Missouri, a popular tourist destination in the Ozark Mountains
* Branson, Colorado
* Branson City, California
* The Branson School, in Ross, California
* Warrenpoi ...
lies within this rugged area. To the east of the
West Plains plain lies the dissected valleys of the
Eleven Point River
The Eleven Point River is a river in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, United States. It originates near Willow Springs, Missouri. It more than doubles in flow when Greer Spring Branch runs into it, adding over of water per day to the ri ...
and the
Current River.
Superficially, each is a simple rolling plateau, much broken by erosion (though considerable undissected areas drained by underground channels remain), especially in the east, and dotted with hills. Some of these are residual outliers of the eroded
Mississippian limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
s to the west, and others are the summits of a
Precambrian topography above and around which
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
formations were deposited and then eroded. There is no arrangement in chains, but only scattered rounded peaks and short ridges, with winding valleys about them.
The two highest points in the state are
Taum Sauk Mountain
Taum Sauk Mountain in the Saint Francois Mountains is the highest natural point in the U.S. state of Missouri at 1,772 feet (540 m).
The topography of Taum Sauk is that of an elongated ridge with a NNW-SSE orientation rather than a peak.
Desc ...
at in the
St. Francois Mountains
The St. Francois Mountains in southeast Missouri are a mountain range of Precambrian igneous mountains rising over the Ozark Plateau. This range is one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America.
The name of the range is spelled out ...
in
Iron County and Lead Hill just east of the community of
Cedar Gap at in the southwestern corner of
Wright County.
Few localities have an elevation exceeding . Rather broad, smooth valleys, well degraded hills with rounded summits, and despite the escarpments generally smooth contours and sky-lines, characterize the bulk of the Ozark region.
Mississippi Alluvial Plain
The third region, the lowlands of the south-east and part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, has an area of some . It is an undulating country, for the most part well drained, but swampy in its lowest portions. The Mississippi is skirted with lagoons, lakes and morasses from Ste. Genevieve to the
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
border, and in places is confined by levees. These lowlands are the northernmost extent of the
Mississippi embayment
The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflue ...
. The area is within the
New Madrid Seismic Zone
The New Madrid Seismic Zone (), sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the Southern and Midwestern United States, stretching t ...
and includes the
epicenter
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
location of the
1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes at
New Madrid, Missouri
New Madrid ( es, Nueva Madrid) is a city in New Madrid County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,787 at the 2020 census. New Madrid is the county seat of New Madrid County. The city is located 42 miles (68 km) southwest of Cairo ...
.
Climate
![Missouri Köppen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Missouri_K%C3%B6ppen.svg)
Missouri generally has a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
with cool, sometimes cold, winters and hot, humid, and wet summers. In the southern part of the state, particularly in the
Bootheel, the climate becomes
humid subtropical
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
. Located in the interior United States, Missouri often experiences extreme temperatures. Without high mountains or oceans nearby to moderate temperature, its climate is alternately influenced by air from the cold Arctic and the hot and humid Gulf of Mexico. Missouri's highest recorded temperature is at
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
on July 14, 1954, while the lowest recorded temperature is also at Warsaw on February 13, 1905.
Located in
Tornado Alley
Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, ...
, Missouri also receives extreme weather in the form of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. On May 22, 2011, a
massive EF-5 tornado killed 158 people and destroyed roughly one-third of the city of
Joplin. The tornado caused an estimated $1–3 billion in damages, killed 159 people and injured more than a thousand. It was the first EF5 to hit the state since 1957 and the deadliest in the U.S. since 1947, making it the seventh deadliest tornado in American history and 27th deadliest in the world.
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
and its suburbs also have a history of experiencing particularly severe tornadoes, the most recent one of note being an EF4 that damaged
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the primary commercial airport serving metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Commonly referred to as Lambert Field or simply Lambert, it is the largest and busiest airport in the state of ...
on April 22, 2011.
One of the worst tornadoes in American history struck St. Louis on May 27, 1896, killing at least 255 people and causing $10 million in damage (equivalent to $3.9 billion in 2009 or $ in today's dollars).
Drainage
The drainage of the state is wholly into the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
, directly or indirectly, and to a large extent into either that river or the
Missouri River within the borders of the state. The latter stream, crossing the state and cutting the eastern and western borders at or near St Louis and Kansas City respectively, has a length within Missouri of . The areas drained into the Mississippi outside the state through the
St. Francis,
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
and other minor streams are relatively small. The larger streams of the
Ozark
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...
dome are of decided interest to the physiographer. Those of the White system have open trough valleys bordered by hills in their upper courses and canyons in their lower courses.
Both the Ozark region and the northern plain region are divided by minor escarpments into ten or twelve sub-regions. There are remarkable differences in the drainage areas of their two sides, with interesting illustrations of shifting water-partings; and the
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
,
Gasconade,
Osage and other rivers are remarkable for upland meanders, lying, not on flood-plains, but around the spurs of a highland country. These
incised meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
s have been interpreted to have formed by downward erosion after uplift of an older
peneplain
390px, Sketch of a hypothetical peneplain formation after an orogeny.
In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion. This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage ...
surface.
Many streams in Missouri are called "rivers" though they are small enough perhaps to be called "creeks". This is due to a direct translation of the French word "rivière" which implies a stream size smaller than the French word "fleuve", meaning "a river that flows to the sea". An example of this is "
Loutre River
The Loutre River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in the United States. The Loutre River begins in Audrain County. It ...
", from "Rivière Loutre", or "Otter Stream".
Caves
![Missouri karst feature distribution v1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Missouri_karst_feature_distribution_v1.svg)
The Ozarks region has a well-developed
karst topography with numerous areas of
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
s,
stream capture, and
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
rn development.
Caves, within areas of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and
dolomite Dolomite may refer to:
*Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral
*Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock
*Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community
*Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
bedrock, occur in great numbers in and near the Ozark Mountain region in the southwestern part of Missouri. More than a hundred have been discovered in
Stone County alone, and there are many in
Christian,
Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
and
McDonald counties.
Marvel Cave
Marvel Cave is a National Natural Landmark located just west of Branson, Missouri, on top of Roark Mountain in Stone County. The cave was known by the Osage Indians in the early 16th century, after a tribe member fell through the cave's main e ...
is located a short distance southeast of the center of Stone county. The entrance originally was through a large sink-hole at the top of Roark Mountain, though now an easier entrance has been made. Marvel Cave has a large hall-like room about long and about wide with bluish-grey limestone walls, and a vaulted roof, rising from 100 to . Due to its acoustic properties the room has been named the ''Auditorium''. At one end is a large stalagmite formation about in height and about in girth, called the ''White Throne''.
Exploration of
Jacobs Cavern, near
Pineville,
McDonald county, revealed human and animal skeletons along with crude implements. Crystal Cave, near Joplin,
Jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...
county, has its entire surface lined with
calcite crystals and scalenohedron formations, from 1 to in length.
Other caves include Friede's Cave, about six miles (10 km) northeast of
Rolla,
Phelps County and
Mark Twain Cave
Mark Twain Cave — originally McDowell's Cave — is a show cave located near Hannibal, Missouri. It was named for author Mark Twain whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Clemens lived in Hannibal from 1839 to 1853, age 4 to 17. It is ...
(in
Marion County, about one mile (1.6 km) south of
Hannibal), which has a deep pool containing many eyeless fish.
See also
*
List of Missouri state parks
This is a list of state parks and state historic sites in Missouri. In the U.S. state of Missouri both state parks and state historic sites are administered by the Division of State Parks of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources ...
*
Mountain peaks of Missouri
References
* Guccione, M., 1983, ''Quaternary sediments and their weathering history in north central Missouri.'' Boreas. vol. 12, pp. 217–226.
* Rovey, C.W., IIa and W.F. Keanb, 1996, ''Pre-Illinoian Glacial Stratigraphy in North-Central Missouri.'' Quaternary Research. vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 17–29
* Unklesbay, A.G; & Vineyard, Jerry D. (1992). ''Missouri Geology—Three Billion Years of Volcanoes, Seas, Sediments, and Erosion.''
University of Missouri Press
The University of Missouri Press is a university press operated by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and London, England; it was founded in 1958 primarily through the efforts of English professor William Peden. Many publications a ...
.
* Bretz, J Harlen. ''Caves of Missouri''. 2012 reprint: J. Missouri.
External links
USGS Missouri Map
{{EB1911, wstitle=Missouri, volume=13, pages=607–614 (See p. 608.)