The state of Missouri has about 1,450 caves.
Most lie below the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri, where they were formed by underwater streams carving away the rock.
Southern Missouri rises to the Ozark Mountains, a dissected plateau surrounding the Precambrian igneous St. Francois Mountains.
The Bootheel region of Missouri was the epicenter of the four New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812.
