The Appalachian Plateau is the western part of the Appalachian mountains, stretching from New York and Alabama. The plateau is a second level United States physiographic region. The Appalachian Plateau also covers many states.
From the east the escarpment that forms the edge of the plateau has the appearance of a mountain range. However, technically it is an eroded plain of sedimentary rock not mountains. A large portion of the plateau is a coalfield formed during the Pennsylvanian Period. The surface of the plateau slopes gently to the northwest and merges imperceptibly into the Interior Plains.
The main physiographic sections (generally ordered from the northeast to the southwest) of the plateau are named the Mohawk section, the Catskill section, the southern New York section, the Allegheny Plateau section, the Kanawha section, the Cumberland Plateau section, and the Cumberland Mountains section.