page_title: Congaree National Park
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Congaree National Park / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Congaree National Park geologic map
context_page_description: Congaree National Park is a 26,276-acre American national park in central South Carolina. The park received its official designation in 2003 as the culmination of a grassroots campaign that began in 1969. The park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. The lush trees growing in its floodplain forest are some of the tallest in the eastern United States, forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world. The Congaree River flows through the park. About 15,000 acres are designated as a wilderness area.
context_section_description: The park resides entirely within the Congaree River Floodplain Complex with flood deposits of sand, silt, and clay. Muck and peat are the products of vegetation decay.  The meander of the river has produced distinctive oxbow lakes.  North of the park is the NE-SW regional trending Augusta Fault and the Terrace Complex consisting of Pliocene fluvial terraces.  South of the park is the Southern Bluffs, which have been eroding since the Late Pleistocene.  West of the park is the Fall Line and Piedmont.
caption: Geologic map of the park
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