Geography of Tennessee

Tennessee is a long, narrow state that stretches approximately 440 miles east to west but averages only 120 miles north to south. This elongated shape means the state spans dramatically different landscapes — from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the east to the Mississippi River bottomlands in the west.

East Tennessee is the mountainous region where the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, form the border with North Carolina. These are among the oldest mountains in the world, worn smooth over hundreds of millions of years. Clingmans Dome (6,643 feet) on the Tennessee-North Carolina border is the highest point in the state and the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail.

The Ridge and Valley Region lies west of the Blue Ridge in East Tennessee — a series of parallel ridges and valleys running northeast to southwest. Knoxville sits in this region, surrounded by long ridgelines separated by broad agricultural valleys.

The Cumberland Plateau is a wide, flat-topped tableland that runs diagonally across Middle Tennessee and into Alabama. The plateau is dissected by deep gorges — the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and the Obed Wild and Scenic River cut into the plateau's western escarpment.

The Central Basin around Nashville is a broad agricultural plain formed in an ancient geologic sink. The Nashville Basin is rimmed by the Highland Rim — a ring of elevated terrain that surrounds it on all sides.

West Tennessee drops in elevation toward the Mississippi River floodplain. The landscape is flat, fertile, and heavily agricultural — cotton, soybeans, and corn are the primary crops. Memphis sits at the southwestern corner where the Mississippi forms the state border with Arkansas.

Major Rivers: The Tennessee River flows through the eastern part of the state, then crosses into Alabama and returns to Tennessee from the south before flowing into the Ohio River in western Kentucky. The Cumberland River flows through Nashville. The Mississippi forms the western border.

Reelfoot Lake in the far northwest corner of the state was formed by the New Madrid earthquake of 1811–12 — one of the largest earthquakes in US history — which caused the Mississippi River to flow backward temporarily and submerged a large area of forest.