Appalachian Mountains
The
Appalachian Mountains (French:
les Appalaches) are a vast system of
North American mountains, partly in
Canada, but mostly in the
United States, forming a zone, from 100 to 300 miles wide, running from
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 1,500 miles south-westward to central
Alabama in the United States (with foothills in northeastern
Mississippi), although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the
Gaspé Peninsula of
Quebec. The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (900 m). The highest of the group is
Mt. Mitchell in
North Carolina (
2,040m, 6,684 ft.), which is the highest point in the United States east of the
Mississippi River as well as the second highest point in eastern North America.
The term
Appalachia is used to refer to different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region. However, the term is often used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including areas in the states of
Kentucky,
Tennessee,
Virginia,
West Virginia, and
North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern
Georgia and western
South Carolina, as far north as
Pennsylvania, and as far west as southeastern
Ohio.
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Appalachian zones in the US - USGS |
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Shaded relief map of Cumberland Plateau and Ridge and Valley Appalachians on the Virginia/West Virginia border |
The whole system may be divided into three great sections: the
Northern, from Newfoundland, Canada to the Hudson river; the
Central, from the Hudson Valley to that of New River (Great Kanawha), in Virginia and West Virginia; and the
Southern, from New River onwards. The northern section includes the
Shickshock Mountains and
Notre Dame Range in Quebec, scattered elevations in Maine, the
White Mountains and the
Green Mountains; the central comprises, besides various minor groups, the
Valley Ridges between the Front of the
Allegheny Plateau and the
Great Appalachian Valley, the
New York-New Jersey Highlands and a large portion of the
Blue Ridge; and the southern consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, the
Unaka Range, and the
Valley Ridges adjoining the
Cumberland Plateau, with some lesser ranges.
The major ranges comprising the Appalachian system include the
Long Range Mountains and
Annieopsquotch Mountains in Newfoundland, the
Notre Dame Mountains in
New Brunswick and Quebec, the
Longfellow Mountains in
Maine, the
White Mountains in
New Hampshire, the
Green Mountains in
Vermont, the
Taconic Mountains in
New York and
Massachusetts, the
Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts, the
Allegheny Mountains in
Pennsylvania,
Maryland and
West Virginia, the
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in
The Poconos Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, and the
Blue Ridge Mountains that run from southern
Pennsylvania to northern
Georgia.
The
Adirondack Mountains are sometimes considered part of the Appalachian chain but, geologically speaking, are a southern extension of the
Laurentian Mountains of
Canada.
In addition to the true folded mountains, known as the
ridge and valley province, the area of
dissected plateau Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania) to the north and west of the mountains is usually grouped with them. This includes the
Catskill Mountains of southeastern
New York, and the
Allegheny Plateau of southwestern New York, western Pennsylvania, eastern
Ohio and northern
West Virginia. This same plateau is known as the
Cumberland Plateau in southern
West Virginia, eastern
Kentucky, western
Virginia, and eastern
Tennessee.
The dissected plateau area, while not actually made up of geological
mountains, is popularly called "mountains", especially in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and while the ridges are not high, the terrain is extremely rugged. In Ohio and New York, some of the plateau has been glaciated, which has rounded off the sharp ridges, and filled the valleys to some extent. The glaciated regions are usually referred to as hill country rather than mountains.
The Appalachian region is generally considered the geographical dividing line between the
eastern seaboard of the United States and the
Midwest region of the country. The
Eastern Continental Divide follows the Appalachian Mountains from
Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Before the
French and Indian War, the Appalachian Mountains lay on the indeterminate boundary between Britain's colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin. After the
French and Indian War, the
Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement for
Great Britain's thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains (except in the northern regions where the
Great Lakes formed the boundary). This was strongly resented by backcountry settlers, especially in
Virginia and the Carolinas, who desired to move into the celebrated lands of Kentucky. The Proclamation should be seen as one of the grievances which led to the
American Revolutionary War, in so much as it made
England seem like a distant tyrannical ruler indifferent to the reality of its colonists. The backcountry settlers who fought in the Illinois campaign of
George Rogers Clark were motivated to fight largely because they desired to settle in Kentucky and north of the Ohio river, in direct violation of the colonial law and any number of treaties between Britain and Native American nations.
With the formation of the
United States of America, an important first phase of
westward expansion in the late
18th century and early
19th century consisted of the migration of European-descended settlers westward across the mountains into the
Ohio Valley through the
Cumberland Gap and other mountain passes. The
Erie Canal, finished in 1825, formed the first route through the Appalachians that was capable of large amounts of commerce.
The
Appalachian Trail is a 2,175 mile hiking trail that runs all the way from
Mt. Katahdin in Maine to
Springer Mountain in Georgia, passing over or past a large part of the Appalachian system.
The Appalachian belt includes, with the ranges enumerated above, the plateaus sloping southward to the Atlantic Ocean in New England, and south-eastward to the border of the coastal plain through the central and southern Atlantic states; and on the north-west, the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus declining toward the Great Lakes and the interior plains. A remarkable feature of the belt is the longitudinal chain of broad valleyswhich, in the southerly sections divides the mountain system into two subequal portions, but in the northernmost lies west of all the ranges possessing typical Appalachian features, and separates them from the Adirondack group. The mountain system has no axis of dominating altitudes, but in every portion the summits rise to rather uniform heights, and, especially in the central section, the various ridges and intermontane valleys have the same trend as the system itself. None of the summits reaches the region of perpetual snow. Mountains of the
Long Range in
Newfoundland, Canada reach heights of nearly 2,000 ft. In the Shickshocks the higher summits rise to about 4,000 ft. elevation. In
Maine several peaks exceed 4,000 ft., including
Katahdin (5,271 ft.). In
New Hampshire, many summits rise above 4,000 feet, including
Mount Washington in the
White Mountains (6,288 ft.), plus
Adams (5,771),
Jefferson (5,712),
Clay (5,533),
Monroe (5,380),
Madison (5,367), and
Lafayette (5,260). In the
Green Mountains the highest point, Mansfield, is 4,364 ft.; Lincoln (4,078), Killington (4,241), Camel's Hump (4,088), and a number of other heights exceed 3,000 ft. The
Catskills are not properly included in the system. The
Blue Ridge, rising in southern
Pennsylvania and there known as the South Mountains, attains in that state elevations of about 2,000 ft.; southward to the
Potomac its altitudes diminish, but 30 miles beyond again reach 2,000 ft. In the
Virginia Blue Ridge the following are the highest peaks east of the
New River:
Mount Weather (about 1,850 ft.), Mary's Rock (3,523),
Peaks of Otter (4001 and 3875), Stony Man (4,031), and Hawks Bill (4,066). In Pennsylvania the summits of the Valley Ridges rise generally to about 2,000 ft., and in Maryland Eagle Rock and Dans Rock are conspicuous points reaching 3,162 ft. and 2,882 ft. respectively. On the same side of the Great Valley, south of the Potomac, are the Pinnacle (3,007 ft.) and Pidgeon Roost (3,400 ft.). In
West Virginia, more than 150 peaks rise above 4,000 ft., including
Spruce Knob (4863 ft.), the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains. A number of other points in the state rise above 4,800 ft. Thorny Flat (4,848 ft.) and
Bald Knob (4,842 ft.) are among the more notable peaks in West Virginia. In the southern section of the Blue Ridge are
Grandfather Mountain (5,964 ft.), with three other summits above 5,000, and a dozen more above 4000. The Unaka Ranges (including the Black and Smoky Mountains) have eighteen peaks higher than 5,000 ft., and eight surpassing 6,000 ft. In the
Black Mountains,
Mt. Mitchell (the culminating point of the whole system) attains an altitude of 6684 feet. In the
Smoky Mountains,
Clingman's Dome (6,643 ft.) is the highest peak, with several others above 6,000 and many higher than 5,000.
In spite of the existence of the Great Appalachian Valley, the master streams are transverse to the axis of the system. The main watershed follows a tortuous course which crosses the mountainous belt just north of New river in Virginia; south of this the rivers head in the Blue Ridge, cross the higher Unakas, receive important tributaries from the Great Valley, and traversing the Cumberland Plateau in spreading gorges, escape by way of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers to the Ohio and Mississippi, and thus to the Gulf of Mexico; in the central section the rivers, rising in or beyond the Valley Ridges, flow through great gorges (water gaps) to the Great Valley, and by south-easterly courses across the Blue Ridge to tidal estuaries penetrating the coastal plain; in the northern section the water-parting lies on the inland side of the mountainous belt, the main lines of drainage running from north to south.
Main article:
Geology of the Appalachians |
Geological map of the Appalachian Mountains |
The Appalachians are aging mountains. A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian mountains reveals elongated belts of folded and thrust
faulted marine
sedimentary rocks,
volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor, which provides strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 680 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent
Pangea with the Appalachians near the center. Because North America and Africa were connected, the Appalachians form part of the same mountain chain as the
Atlas mountains in
Morocco.
During the middle
Ordovician Period (about 495-440 million years ago), a change in plate motions set the stage for the first Paleozoic mountain building event (
Taconic orogeny) in
North America. The once-quiet Appalachian passive margin changed to a very active plate boundary when a neighboring oceanic plate, the
Iapetus, collided with and began sinking beneath the North American
craton. With the birth of this new
subduction zone, the early Appalachians were born. Along the continental margin, volcanoes grew, coincident with the initiation of subduction. Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin. As mountains rose, erosion began to wear them down. Streams carried rock debris downslope to be deposited in nearby lowlands. The Taconic Orogeny was just the first of a series of mountain building plate collisions that contributed to the formation of the Appalachians (see
Appalachian orogeny).
By the end of the
Mesozoic era, the Appalachian Mountains had been eroded to an almost flat plain. It was not until the region was uplifted during the
Cenozoic Era that the distinctive topography of the present formed. Uplift
rejuvenated the streams, which rapidly responded by cutting downward into the ancient bedrock. Some streams flowed along weak layers that define the folds and faults created many millions of years earlier. Other streams
downcut so rapidly that they cut right across the resistant folded rocks of the mountain core, carving canyons across rock layers and geologic structures.
The Appalachian Mountains contain major deposits of
Anthracite coal as well as
Bituminous coal. In the folded mountains the coal is in metamorphosed form as
anthracite represented by the
Coal Region of northeastern Pennsylvania and discovered by
Necho Allen. The
Bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, southeastern Ohio, eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia is the sedimentary form. Some plateaus of the Appalachian Mountains contain metallic minerals such as
iron and
zinc. The mountains are vast and stretch out for hundreds of miles.
Much of the region is covered with forest yielding quantities of valuable timber, especially in
Canada and northern
New England. The most valuable trees for lumber are
spruce,
white pine,
hemlock,
juniper,
birch,
ash,
maple and
basswood; all excepting pine and hemlock, and poplar in addition, are ground into wood pulp for the manufacture of paper. In the central and southern parts of the belt oak and hickory constitute valuable hard woods, and certain varieties of the former furnish quantities of tan bark. The
tulip-tree produces a good clear lumber known as white wood or poplar, and is also a source of pulp. In the south both white and yellow pine abounds. Many flowering and fruit-bearing shrubs of the heath family add to the beauty of the mountainous districts,
rhododendron and
kalmia often forming impenetrable thickets.
Bears, mountain lions (
pumas), wild cats (
lynx) and
wolves haunt the more remote vastnesses of the mountains;
foxes abound;
deer are found in many districts and
moose in the north.
For a century, the Appalachians were a barrier to the westward expansion of the British colonies; the continuity of the system, the bewildering multiplicity of its succeeding ridges, the tortuous courses and roughness of its transverse passes, a heavy forest, and dense undergrowth all conspired to hold the settlers on the seaward-sloping plateaus and coastal plains. Only by way of the
Hudson and
Mohawk Valleys, and round about the southern termination of the system were there easy routes to the interior of the country, and these were long closed by hostile aborigines as well as French colonists to the north and Spanish colonists to the south.
In eastern Pennsylvania the
Great Appalachian Valley, or Great Valley, was accessible by reason of a broad gateway between the end of
South Mountain and the Highlands, and here between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers settled many
Germans and
Moravians, whose descendants even now retain the peculiar patois known as "
Pennsylvania Dutch". These were late comers to the New World forced to the frontier to find unclaimed lands. With their followers of both German and
Scots-Irish origin, they worked their way southward and soon occupied all of the Virginia Valley and the upper reaches of the Great Valley tributaries of the
Tennessee.
By 1755, the obstacle to westward expansion had been thus reduced by half; outposts of the English colonists had penetrated the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus, threatening French monopoly in the transmontane region, and a conflict became inevitable. Making common cause against the French to determine the control of the
Ohio valley, the unsuspected strength of the colonists was revealed, and the successful ending of the
French and Indian War extended England's territory to the
Mississippi. To this strength the geographic isolation enforced by the Appalachian mountains had been a prime contributor. The confinement of the colonies between an ocean and a mountain wall led to the fullest occupation of the coastal border of the continent, which was possible under existing conditions of agriculture, conducing to a community of purpose, a political and commercial solidarity, which would not otherwise have been developed. As early as 1700 it was possible to ride from
Portland, Maine, to southern
Virginia, sleeping each night at some considerable village. In contrast to this complete industrial occupation, the French territory was held by a small and very scattered population, its extent and openness adding materially to the difficulties of a disputed tenure. Bearing the brunt of this contest as they did, the colonies were undergoing preparation for the subsequent struggle with the home government. Unsupported by shipping, the American armies fought toward the sea with the mountains at their back protecting them against British leagued with the Aboriginals. The few settlements beyond the Great Valley were free for self-defence because debarred from general participation in the conflict by reason of their position.
'Appalachian' is pronounced either or . The first pronunciation, with an English 'long a', is favored in the northern parts of the range as well as outside of the area. The second pronunciation, with a 'short a', is favored in the southern part of the mountain range and in the
Piedmont region, such as in
Virginia and the Carolinas [
1]. The 'short a' pronunciation is used for
Appalachian State University of
Boone, North Carolina.
When the Spanish explorer
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his crew were exploring the Florida coast in 1528, they found a
Native American town which they transliterated as
Apalachen . This name and its pronunciation were applied to a nearby body of water, now spelled Apalachee Bay, to the
Apalachicola River and the Apalachicola Bay, and to the city known as
Apalachicola, Florida. The word "Apalachen" was also applied to an inland mountain range, and through the course of time it became applied to the entire range and its spelling was changed.
*
Appalachian Trail*
International Appalachian Trail*
Appalachian Mountain Club*
Appalachia* Topographic maps and Geologic Folios of the United States Geological Survey
* Bailey Willis,
The Northern Appalachians, and C. W. Hayes,
The Southern Appalachians, both in
National Geographic Monographs, vol. i.
* chaps, iii., iv. and v. of Miss E. C. Semple's
American History and its Geographic Conditions (Boston, 1903).
*
*Weidensaul, Scott.; 2000,
Mountains of the Heart: A Natural History of the Appalachians, Fulcrum Publishing, 288 pages, ISBN 1555911390
*
Appalachian/Blue Ridge Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu (
slow modem version)
*
Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu (
slow modem version)
