Provides regional identifiers for county based regions of various types. These can be combined with other datasets for visualization, mapping, analyses, and aggregation. These regions include:Metropolitan Statistical Areas (Current): MSAs as defined by US OMB in 2023Metropolitan Statistical Areas (2010s): MSAs as defined by US OMB in 2013Metropolitan Statistical Areas (2000s): MSAs as defined by US OMB in 2003Region: Three broad regions in North Carolina (Eastern, Western, Central)Council of GovernmentsProsperity Zones: NC Department of Commerce Prosperity ZonesNCDOT Divisions: NC Dept. of Transportation DivisionsNCDOT Districts (within Divisions)Metro Regions: Identifies Triangle, Triad, Charlotte, All Other Metros, & Non-MetropolitanUrban/Rural defined by:NC Rural Center (Urban, Regional/Suburban, Rural) - 2020 Census designations2010 Census (Urban = Counties with 50% or more population living in urban areas in 2010)2010 Census Urbanized (Urban = Counties with 50% or more of the population living in urbanized areas in 2010 (50,000+ sized urban area))Municipal Population - State Demographer (Urban = counties with 50% or more of the population living in a municipality as of July 1, 2019)Isserman Urban-Rural Density Typology

This publication is a preliminary map and geodatabase of the coseismic surface rupture and other coseismic features generated from the August 9, 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, North Carolina. Geologic mapping facilitated by analysis of post-earthquake quality level 0 to 1 lidar, document the coseismic surface rupture, named the Little River fault, and other coseismic features. The Little River fault is traced for approximately 4 kilometers and cuts the regional Paleozoic fabric (mean foliation, 063°/57°), and the dominant strike of joint sets are 0°–10°, 130°–150° and 320°–340°. Individual fault strands occur in an en echelon pattern within an approximately 10-meter-wide zone. Trenches across the Little River fault document a thrust fault oriented 110°/45° with at least 10 centimeters (cm) of displacement. The Little River fault is marked by a flexure or scarp with a height of 5-30 cm and a local maximum height of 50 cm. Southwest-side-up displacement is consistent along the fault and indicates thrust kinematics. The strike of the Little River fault changes from 110° to 130° near Duncan Farm where it crosses Chestnut Grove Church Road (NC Rt. 1426). Although the surface expression of the fault terminates and (or) is imperceptible at both ends, deformation is still clear in residual surface maps showing the change between pre- and post-earthquake lidar elevations. Other coseismic features documented are rockfalls, ground cracks, fissures, lateral spreading on a sandbar, and mass-wasting scarps; several possible faults that were identified from lidar analyses strike E-W and oblique to the Little River fault.

The need for extensive shellfish management in North Carolina has been recognized since the 1947 North Carolina General Assembly authorized the Division of Commercial Fisheries to conduct a rehabilitation program to restore the declining oyster (Crassostrea virginica) fishery. More recently, rising prices and increased demand for hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Bay Scallops have spurred the implementation of new management techniques and philosophies toward this expanding fishery. Although the Fisheries Management Section of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries has been actively managing these shellfish resources since 1964, it has done so with limited resource base information. The most complete and accurate shellfish bottom survey in North Carolina waters was done by Lt. Francis Winslow, U.S. Navy, in 1889 and was limited to the larger estuaries. This survey was targeted solely toward oysters and potential oyster producing grounds, and although it was quite extensive in Pamlico Sound, it has long since become outdated. Beginning in 1978, the Division of Marine Fisheries has undertaken a shellfish bottom survey of the commercial shellfish-producing waters in the coastal area. The purpose of the survey is to locate and map shellfish-producing areas and to delineate potentially productive benthic shellfish habitats. Gross determinations of shellfish concentrations within productive bottom types are to be determined through a stratified random sampling program. The information generated from this survey is expected to update resource base data to a level from which information can be drawn for making management decisions. A preliminary survey of the Newport River system was conducted from November 1980 to April 1981. Newport River was selected as a testing ground for survey techniques because of its close proximity to sampling headquarters, its diverse fisheries and environmental characteristics, and the pressing need for resource base data in such a dynamic system. From this survey it was deemed that the mapping techniques and survey methods proved acceptable, and in 1987 the estuarine waters were divided into areas based on shellfish habitat suitability criteria. In 1989 the Shellfish Resource Mapping Proposal was introduced, which led to the creation of the Shellfish Mapping Program in 1990 MSA I2 is the second iteration of Shellfish Bottom Mapping. I2 is developed based on newer shoreline created from high resolution imagery. There are changes in mapping process with use of updated transect grid size (6" * 6") and also use of mapping grade GPS for ground truthing purposes. Iteration 2 (I2) data should be used when it is geographically available.

The geology of an area of 660 square miles mostly in the northeastern corner of Tennessee and small adjacent areas in Virginia and North Carolina is the subject of this report. The region lies principally in the Unaka province, with extensions northwestward into the Appalachian Valley and southwestward into the Blue Ridge province. The report combines results of surveys made between 1941 and 1953 by the U. S. Geological Survey, the Tennessee Division of Geology, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, and is published in cooperation with the Tennessee Division of Geology. Northeasternmost Tennessee is a region of widespread mineralization and was formerly important for mineral production. Iron, manganese, and bauxite have been mined, and the region has been prospected for phosphate, tripoli, zinc, pyrite, and barite. However, mineral deposits are dealt with only incidentally in this report. Chief attention is given to the rock formations, their structure, and their land forms, all of which are basic to an interpretation and evaluation of the mineral deposits. The consolidated rocks of northeasternmost Tennessee are largely of sedimentary origin and of early Paleozoic age, but they lie on a basement of plutonic and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age. The basement rocks are principally exposed in the Blue Ridge province along the southeastern edge of the region of this report, but they also crop out in smaller areas farther northwest, in diverse structural situations. The basement rocks include some granitic intrusions that were probably injected as sheets at relatively shallow depth late in Precambrian time. But most of the basement rocks are evidently older and have had a much more complex history; their fabrics reflect structures superposed during successive epochs of plutonism, metamorphism, and deformation. During the earlier episodes, in Precambrian time, a terrane whose initial character is unknown was converted by plutonic metamorphism into gneiss, migmatite, and granitic rocks. During a subsequent episode, perhaps in early Paleozoic time, the basement rocks on the southeast were extensively sheared and mylonitized. In later Paleozoic time, when all the rocks of the region were deformed and broken into large-scale thrust blocks, the basement rocks were further sheared along relatively narrow zones of movement. In the northern part of the region the Mount Rogers volcanic group wedges in between the basement rocks and rocks of definite Paleozoic age. The group is a sequence of silicic flows and tuffs and clastic sedimentary rocks many thousands of feet thick, which were probably laid down during latest Precambrian time. The early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks include rocks of the Lower, Middle, and Upper Cambrian series, and of the Lower and Middle Ordovician series. Sedimentary rocks below the Middle Ordovician are 12,000 to 18,000 feet thick, of which the lower 6,000 to 10,000 feet belongs to the Lower Cambrian series. The Middle Ordovician series may exceed 5,000 feet in thickness in places. Because the Lower Cambrian series is very thick, and has been duplicated structurally, it occupies by far the widest area of outcrop in the region. In general, the older sedimentary rocks lie to the southeast, nearest the Precambrian basement, and the younger rocks lie to the northwest, in and near the Appalachian Valley, but in detail the sequence has been disordered by great low-angle thrusts, and lesser folds and faults. The initial Paleozoic deposit, the Chilhowee Group, is a mass of clastic rocks conglomerate, arkose, shale, and quartzite, with some thin beds of basaltic lava in the lowest formation. Diagnostic Lower Cambrian formations are known only near the top, although worm tubes (Scolithus) occur through the upper half. The Chilhowee Group forms the high ridges of the Unaka Mountains. The Chilhowee Group is overlain by a great carbonate sequence, which has been worn down into valleys and lowlands between the mountains. The lower two units of the sequence, the Shady dolomite and Rome Formation, belong to the Lower Cambrian series; succeeding them are the Conasauga Group (Middle and Upper Cambrian) and the Knox Group (Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician), a mass of dolomite and limestone with the thin Nolichucky shale present in places at the top of the Conasauga. The carbonate sequence is succeeded by a thick body of shale and sandstone of Middle Ordovician age, the youngest Paleozoic rocks still preserved in the region. Conglomerate interbedded in the Middle Ordovician rocks records an important orogenic episode, earlier than the late Paleozoic orogeny which produced most of the visible structures. The structure of northeasternmost Tennessee is representative of that of the southern Appalachians which were formed during later Paleozoic time and were characterized by great low-angle thrust faults that have been considerably warped. The traces of three major low-angle faults the Holston Mountain, Iron Mountain, and Stone Mountain faults divide the region into four structural units. Northwest of the Holston Mountain fault are the deformed Paleozoic rocks of the Appalachian Valley; between the Holston Mountain and Iron Mountain faults is the Shady Valley thrust sheet, which has been warped down into the Stony Creek syncline; between the Iron Mountain and Stone Mountain faults is the Mountain City window; southeast of the Stone Mountain fault are the plutonic and metamorphic basement rocks of the Blue Ridge province. The rocks of the Appalachian Valley and the Mountain City window are part of the same structural block, and have been overridden 18 miles or more by the rocks of the Shady Valley thrust sheet; this thrust sheet is, in turn, a lower slice of the great overriding mass of the Blue Ridge province than has moved along the Stone Mountain fault. The Shady Valley thrust sheet overrode previously deformed rocks; but the rocks of the thrust sheet lie in the relatively open Stony Creek syncline. Latest structures in the region are a series of right-lateral transcurrent faults, perhaps produced by continuation of thrusting movements southwest of the region of this report. Either during the deformation or shortly after, hydrothermal minerals were introduced locally in the consolidated rocks, producing small deposits of sphalerite, pyrite, specular hematite, and barite. During the Cenozoic era, degradation lowered parts of the land surface from levels near the present mountain summits to levels near the present streams. Degradation proceeded unequally; the limestone and dolomites especially were worn down to lowlands, with the quartzite and other clastic rocks remaining as high mountain ridges. Degradation also proceeded intermittently, with times of stillstand when the weaker rocks were extensively leveled and times of accelerated downcutting. There is little evidence of any former high-level erosion surfaces, except perhaps on the summits of Holston and Iron Mountains, but a very extensive former surface was cut lower down at the level of valley floors that stand several hundred feet above the modern streams. The time of cutting of the valley floor surface was one of deep and prolonged weathering, during which the carbonate rocks (especially the Shady dolomite) were thickly blanketed by residuum, and were in turn covered by quartzite wash from the adjoining mountains. It was also a time of mineralization, when widely distributed deposits of iron and manganese oxides were formed in the residuum, and local deposits of bauxite accumulated in depressions on the valley floor surface. Since the valley-floor surface was formed, the streams have cut down to their present levels, and talus and rock streams have accumulated on the mountain slopes, probably chiefly during the more rigorous climatic conditions of Pleistocene time.

This dataset is the 20ft Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for all of Buncombe County, NC. The DEMs were developed from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data acquired January though February through April 2003, with partial re-flights for gap data in December 2003. Cell values in the DEMs were derived from a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) produced from the bare earth mass points and breaklines. The dataset was provided to the Buncombe County by the NC Floodplain Mapping Project as pre-release data in July and Sept 2006 .Specific information about individual data tiles can be obtained at www.ncfloodmaps.com

This dataset is the 5 foot contour intervals for all of Buncombe County, NC. This data was created using a 20ft Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The DEMs were developed from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data acquired January though February through April 2003, with partial re-flights for gap data in December 2003. Cell values in the DEMs were derived from a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) produced from the bare earth mass points and breaklines. The dataset was provided to the Buncombe County by the NC Floodplain Mapping Project as pre-release data in July and Sept 2006 .Specific information about individual data tiles can be obtained at www.ncfloodmaps.comTo download the 5 foot contours go to https://www.buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/gis/download-digital-data.aspx

The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia), there are one or more incorporated places that are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their states. These incorporated places are known as independent cities and are treated as equivalent entities for purposes of data presentation. The District of Columbia and Guam have no primary divisions, and each area is considered an equivalent entity for purposes of data presentation. The Census Bureau treats the following entities as equivalents of counties for purposes of data presentation: Municipios in Puerto Rico, Districts and Islands in American Samoa, Municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The entire area of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas is covered by counties or equivalent entities. The boundaries for counties and equivalent entities are as of January 1, 2017, primarily as reported through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).