The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a mountain range that run down the Eastern United States. The Appalachian Plateau is the northwestern part of the Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New York to Alabama. The plateau is a second level United States physiographic region, covering parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Geography and physical features The formation of the plateau began during the Paleozoic Era. Regional uplift during this time caused the area to rise altogether without changing the topography of the land. The eastern side of the plateau appears as a mountain range. This false appearance is due to a very steep slope on the eastern side known as the Allegheny Front. The eastern edge is the highest part of the Appalachian Plateau. In Pennsylvania, the elevation ranges from 1,750 to 3,000 feet and continues to rise toward West Virginia, where the elevation is around 4,800 feet. From West Virginia to Tennessee, the elevation lowers to 3,000 feet and continues slanting downward to 1,000 feet in Alabama. On the western side of the plateau, the elevation is 900 feet in Ohio, increasing to about 2,000 feet in Kentucky. From Kentucky the elevation drops down to 500 feet in northwestern Alabama. The plateau has a slight slant towards the northwest, making it higher on the eastern side. A large portion of the plateau is a coalfield, which was formed approximately 320 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian Age. The plateau was subjected to glaciation during the Pleistocene ice age. As a result, the topography of this section of the plateau is relatively flat in comparison to the rest of the physiographic province. This portion of the plateau is marked with evidence of a glaciated past including bogs, lakes, and small hills of sand and gravel. The topography of the rest of the plateau was created mainly from stream erosion. The result is a rugged landscape, unlike many other plateaus, that includes many narrow stream valleys surrounded by steep ridges. The region in Kentucky is known as the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield. It includes 35 counties and covers around 30% of Kentucky's land. Major sections include the Allegheny Plateau, the Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains, with the highest peaks located in the Cumberland