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In geography, a 'coastal plain' is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in western South America. The southeastern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity. The Gulf Coastal Plain of North America extends northwards from the Gulf of Mexico along the Lower Mississippi River to the Ohio River, which is a distance of about 500 miles (about 800 km). During the Cretaceous age, the central area of the United States was covered by a shallow sea, which disappeared as the land rose. Large fossilized aquatic birds called ''Hesperornis'' and ''Ichthyornis'', found in western Kansas, indicate that the shallow sea was rife with fish. The coastal plain lying alongside the lower Mississippi River may be associated with the shallow sea which had existed 100 million years ago.

Contents

Some well-known coastal plains

See also

Some well-known coastal plains

★ The Illawarra Plains, Australia

★ The Israeli Coastal Plain

★ The Atlantic Coastal Plain, United States

★ The Oxnard Plain, California, United States, near the city of Los Angeles

See also

★ Coastal prairie

★ Field

★ Flooded grasslands and savannas

★ Flood-meadow

★ Grassland

★ Meadow

★ Pasture

★ Plain

★ Prairie

★ Rangeland

★ Savanna

★ Steppe

★ Water-meadow

★ Wet meadow

★ Veld