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The Pliocene-to-present course of the Tennessee River

William E. Odom·Darryl E. Granger
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Abstract

The Tennessee River, a primary drainage of the southern Appalachians and significant sediment source for the Gulf of Mexico, is generally considered to be the product of captures that rerouted the river from a more direct gulfward course. Sedimentary and genetic evidence indicates that a paleo-Tennessee flowed into the Mobile Basin through the late Miocene, although alternate models propose other redirections of the river. We constrain the river course’s age by dating terraces near Pickwick, Tennessee, with cosmogenic 26 Al/ 10 Be isochron burial dating. We find that the river’s present path dates to at least the early Pliocene.

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Journal of GeologyArticle
90° N90° S · 180° W ← longitude → 180° E
Source-reported bounding extent: 34.982972° to 36.678118° latitude; -90.309877° to -81.6469° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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BibTeXRIS

William E. Odom, Darryl E. Granger. 2022. The Pliocene-to-present course of the Tennessee River. https://doi.org/10.1086/719951

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