LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Nashville Basin
built 633 days ago
West of the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin is the Gulf Coastal Plain, which includes the Mississippi embayment. The Gulf Coastal Plain is, in terms of area, the predominant land region in Tennessee. It is part of the large geographic land area that begins at the Gulf of Mexico and extends north into southern Illinois. In Tennessee, the Gulf Coastal Plain is divided into three sections that extend from the Tennessee River in the east to the Mississippi River in the west. The easternmost section, about 10 miles (16 km) in width, consists of hilly land that runs along the western bank of the Tennessee River. To the west of this narrow strip of land is a wide area of rolling hills and streams that stretches all the way to Memphis; this area is called the Tennessee Bottoms or bottom land.
Source:
According to AFT's "Farming on the Edge," a study of land-use trends first published in 1993, the Nashville Basin is the 12th highest among Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs) in the nation. MLRAs are geographic areas defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that have relatively homogeneous patterns of soil, climate, water resources, land use and type of farming.
Source:
Mill Creek, a watershed in the karst terrain of the Nashville Basin, subject to variable land use practices, is listed with the USEPA as an impaired watercourse [303(d)]. It has exceeded USEPA regulatory levels (>90th percentile of allowable limits for the given ecoregion) for siltation, nutrient load, and pathogens, and failed to reach adequate dissolved oxygen concentrations (TDEC, 2004). Colloidal constituents (particulate matter <1µm) that are permanently dispersed within the water column can contribute to the downstream distribution of pollutants due to their high surface areas and surface charge characteristics. To assess this contribution, grab samples were collected from Mill Creek in its upper, middle, and lower reaches under variable flow conditions between August of 2004 and Feburary of 2005. Tangential flow filtration was used to filter and fractionate particulates into size ranges of >0.65µm, 0.65µm - 0.45µm, 0.45µm - 0.11µm and <0.11µm. The resulting permeates were analyzed for total and reactive phosphate and trace metals by spectrophotometer and ICP-MS, respectively.
Source:
The glades of the Nashville Basin go back 460 million years to the middle of the Ordovician Period. At that time, what is now North America sat just south of the equator in a shallow tropical sea. The water was quiet, clear and very shallow. Murfreesboro, which was the highest point around, periodically emerged from the water as an island. Corals, snails, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, many soft-bodied invertebrates, and microorganisms lived in these waters.
Source:
Much of the farmland in the Nashville Basin has been converted to residential use and to small estate-type farms, especially around Nashville. Hay, pasture and some grains for beef and dairy cattle are the principal crops. Small acreages of burley tobacco, cotton and soybeans are grown as well.
Source:
The Nashville Basin is characterized by rich, fertile farm country and high natural wildlife diversity. Middle Tennessee was a common destination of settlers crossing the Appalachians in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Nashville Basin