"G" is for Geology. The geology of South Carolina begins with plate tectonics. Heat within the earth drives plates together and apart over millions of years. Such forces began forming in South Carolina about 450 million years ago. As plates moved, a continental fragment and a large island arc were welded to what is now eastern North America—forming the Blue Ridge and the Piedmont. Overlapping this terrain are the sediments of the coastal plain. Collision and mountain building have ended for now. The state has developed from processes over a billion years in the making. And, it has contributed to the field of geology by providing evidence of the universal processes of plate tectonics, a process that gives rise to the dynamic, if slow transformation of the surface of the earth. South Carolina geology is currently in a passive phase.
"G" is for Geology
