Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

“C” is for Coastal plain

“C” is for Coastal plain. The coastal plain is South Carolina's largest landform region, forming two-thirds of the state and encompassing approximately 20,000 square miles. It includes the land from the Sandhills to the coast. The upper coastal plain is that section lying between the Sandhills and the Orangeburg Scarp. The middle coastal plain continues only a few miles to the Surrey Scarp, where the lower coastal plain begins. Six escarpments and seven terraces run from the Orangeburg Scarp to the coast, which represent six ocean limits and seven temporary ocean floors of their day from the Pliocene to the Holocene epochs. The coastal plain also includes the coastal zone, the land approximately ten miles inland from the coast. The beauty of the coastal plain is perhaps its greatest resource, because it reflects the successful preservation of irreplaceable ecosystems.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.