LOESS HILLS GEOGRAPHY
The map at the right shows where most of the US's loess is deposited, and how deep it is. It makes these interesting points:
- The Loess Hills Region of the Lower Mississippi Valley corresponds extends from western Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, into central Louisiana, plus notice the deposits in eastern Arkansas and extreme southwestern Missouri. In Arkansas the most impressive bluffs are known as Crowley's Ridge.
- There's a great deal of loess in North America other than what we have in the Lower Mississippi Valley
- However, history, plants and animals typical of the U.S. Southeast are profoundly influenced by loess only in our Loess Hills
- In the Lower Mississippi Valley, our loess is thickest where it parallels the Mississippi River's eastern shore, and it diminishes and finally vanishes toward the east