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96-675: Part of the Appalachian Mountains chain, the region does not consist of true mountains, geologically speaking, but instead a dissected plateau that is part of the Allegheny Plateau . The Catskill Mountains are the highest expression of the plateau, located to the east of the Endless Mountains, and separated from them by the Delaware River . The current geography was slightly modified during

192-524: A campaign to destroy the Iroquois threat by a " scorched earth " drive up the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers into central and western New York. The region's economy was formerly based on mining , lumbering (especially of hemlock for tanning ) and industry but is now largely agricultural with forestry and tourism contributing to the economic base. Much of the land is steep, but there are

288-529: A conical to irregular crown, the latter occurring especially in some of the Asian species. The leading shoots generally droop. The bark is scaly and commonly deeply furrowed, with the colour ranging from grey to brown. The branches stem horizontally from the trunk and are usually arranged in flattened sprays that bend downward towards their tips. Short spur shoots , which are present in many gymnosperms , are weakly to moderately developed. The young twigs, as well as

384-430: A few good farms on rolling hilltops or valley bottoms; many of these farms have been occupied by Mennonite and Amish people who have migrated northward as their traditional homelands became developed. Quarrying remains an important local industry with the region's high quality blue stone being particularly valuable. The area is on the edge of Pennsylvania's Coal Region , with some minor veins of coal extending into

480-472: A fragile ecosystem known as the Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest . Fraser fir rarely occurs below 5,500 ft (1,700 m), and becomes the dominant tree type at 6,200 ft (1,900 m). By contrast, balsam fir is found from near sea level to the tree line in the northern Appalachians, but ranges only as far south as Virginia and West Virginia in the central Appalachians, where it

576-735: A great thickness of sediment accumulated. Eventually, the tectonic forces pulling the two continents apart became so strong that an ocean formed off the eastern coast of the Laurentian margin. This was called the Iapetus Ocean and was the precursor of the modern Atlantic Ocean. The rocks of the Valley and Ridge province formed over millions of years, in the Iapetus. Shells and other hard parts of ancient marine plants and animals accumulated to form limey deposits that later became limestone. This

672-672: A new ocean opened up, the Rheic Ocean , during the Middle to Late Devonian, and subsequently its closure would result in the formation of the Alleghanian orogeny . As the continental plates moved closer together, fragments of oceanic crust, islands, and other continental masses collided with the eastern margin of ancestral North America. By this time, plants had appeared on land, followed by scorpions, insects, and amphibians. The ocean continued to shrink until, about 270 million years ago,

768-504: A number of deciduous rhododendrons (azaleas), and smaller heaths such as teaberry ( Gaultheria procumbens ) and trailing arbutus ( Epigaea repens ). The evergreen great rhododendron ( Rhododendron maximum ) is characteristic of moist stream valleys. These occurrences are in line with the prevailing acidic character of most oak forest soils. In contrast, the much rarer chinquapin oak ( Quercus muehlenbergii ) demands alkaline soils and generally grows where limestone rock

864-444: A number of serious insect and disease outbreaks. Among the most conspicuous is that of the introduced spongy moth ( Lymantria dispar ), which infests primarily oaks, causing severe defoliation and tree mortality. But it also has the benefit of eliminating weak individuals, and thus improving the genetic stock, as well as creating rich habitat of a type through accumulation of dead wood. Because hardwoods sprout so readily, this moth

960-473: A short peduncle up to 4 mm ( 3 ⁄ 16  in) long. Maturation occurs in 5–8 months, and the seeds are shed shortly thereafter; the cones are shed soon after seed release or up to a year or two later. The seed scales are thin, leathery, and persistent. They vary in shape and lack an apophysis and an umbo. The bracts are included and small. The seeds are small, from 2 to 4 mm ( 3 ⁄ 32 to 5 ⁄ 32  in) long, and winged, with

1056-559: A short peduncle. The pollen itself has a saccate, ring-like structure at its distal pole, and rarely this structure can be more or less doubly saccate. The seed cones are borne on year-old twigs and are small ovoid-globose or oblong-cylindric, ranging from 15–40 mm ( 5 ⁄ 8 – 1 + 5 ⁄ 8  in) long, except in T. mertensiana , where they are cylindrical and longer, 35–80 mm ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 4  in) in length; they are solitary, terminal or rarely lateral, pendulous, and are sessile or on

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1152-438: A topography of very low relief. When the area was uplifted, the river's bends were preserved as incised meanders . The large river cut a deep valley and established a low baseline for its tributaries , which then cut the plateau into the rugged hills of the present day. Several Native American bands settled the area in prehistoric times. By the early colonial period, Munsee - Lenape , Susquehannock , and Iroquois peoples were

1248-544: A variety of oaks ( Quercus spp.), hickories ( Carya spp.) and, in the past, by the American chestnut ( Castanea dentata ). The American chestnut was virtually eliminated as a canopy species by the introduced fungal chestnut blight ( Cryphonectaria parasitica ), but lives on as sapling-sized sprouts that originate from roots, which are not killed by the fungus. In present-day forest canopies, chestnut has been largely replaced by oaks. The oak forests of

1344-588: A variety of other destructive activities continue, albeit in diminished forms; and thus far only a few ecologically based management practices have taken hold. Appalachian bogs are boreal ecosystems , which occur in many places in the Appalachians, particularly the Allegheny and Blue Ridge subranges. Though popularly called bogs , many of them are technically fens . Tsuga Tsuga ( / ˈ s uː ɡ ə / , from Japanese 栂 ( ツガ ),

1440-672: Is "section". The Appalachian Uplands are one of the seven physiographic divisions in Canada . Canada's GSC does not use the same classification system as the USGS below the division level. The agency does break the divisions of the Appalachian Uplands into 13 subsections that are in four different political provinces of Canada. While the Appalachian Highlands and Appalachian Uplands are generally continuous across

1536-709: Is a 2,175-mile (3,500 km) hiking trail that runs all the way from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia , passing over or past a large part of the Appalachian range. The International Appalachian Trail is an extension of this hiking trail into the Canadian portion of the Appalachian range in New Brunswick and Quebec . While exploring inland along the northern coast of Florida in 1528,

1632-483: Is a boreal species that forms a few high elevation outliers as far south as West Virginia. All of these species except white pine tend to occupy sandy, rocky, poor soil sites, which are mostly acidic in character. White pine, a large species valued for its timber, tends to do best in rich, moist soil, either acidic or alkaline in character. Pitch pine is also at home in acidic, boggy soil, and Table Mountain pine may occasionally be found in this habitat as well. Shortleaf pine

1728-403: Is found at high elevations in the northern Appalachians, and in bogs as far south as Pennsylvania. The Appalachians are also home to two species of fir, the boreal balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ), and the southern high elevation endemic, Fraser fir ( Abies fraseri ). Fraser fir is endemic to the highest parts of the southern Appalachian Mountains, where along with red spruce it forms

1824-533: Is generally found in warmer habitats and at lower elevations than the other species. All the species listed do best in open or lightly shaded habitats, although white pine also thrives in shady coves, valleys, and on floodplains. The Appalachians are characterized by a wealth of large, beautiful deciduous broadleaf (hardwood) trees. Their occurrences are best summarized and described in E. Lucy Braun 's 1950 classic, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America (Macmillan, New York). The most diverse and richest forests are

1920-663: Is in marked conflict with earlier studies, which found T. mertensiana as basal to the rest of the genus. Moved to other genera: The species are all adapted to (and are confined to) relatively moist, cool temperate areas with high rainfall, cool summers, and little or no water stress; they are also adapted to cope with heavy to very heavy winter snowfall and tolerate ice storms better than most other trees. Hemlock trees are more tolerant of heavy shade than other conifers; they are, however, more susceptible to drought. The two eastern North American species, T. canadensis and T. caroliniana , are under serious threat by

2016-414: Is near the surface. Hence no ericaceous shrubs are associated with it. The Appalachian flora also include a diverse assemblage of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), as well as fungi . Some species are rare and/or endemic. As with vascular plants , these tend to be closely related to the character of the soils and the thermal environment in which they are found. Eastern deciduous forests are subject to

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2112-465: Is not as harmful as the hemlock woolly adelgid . Perhaps more serious is the introduced beech bark disease complex, which includes both a scale insect ( Cryptococcus fagisuga ) and fungal components. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Appalachian forests were subject to severe and destructive logging and land clearing, which resulted in the designation of the national forests and parks as well many state-protected areas. However, these and

2208-527: Is now the southern United States, the Ococee Basin was formed. Seawater filled the basin. Rivers from the surrounding countryside carried clay, silt, sand, and gravel to the basin, much as rivers today carry sediment from the midcontinent region to the Gulf of Mexico. The sediment spread out in layers on the basin floor. The basin continued to subside, and over a long period of time, probably millions of years,

2304-415: Is often browsed by deer , and the seeds are eaten by finches and small rodents . Old trees are commonly attacked by various fungal disease and decay species, notably Heterobasidion annosum and Armillaria species, which rot the heartwood and eventually leave the tree liable to windthrow , and Rhizina undulata , which may kill groups of trees following minor grass fires that activate growth of

2400-606: Is one of the provinces of the Appalachian Highlands. The Appalachian range runs from the Island of Newfoundland in Canada, 2,050 mi (3,300 km) southwestward to Central Alabama in the United States; south of Newfoundland, it crosses the 96-square-mile (248.6 km ) archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an overseas collectivity of France , meaning it is technically in three countries. The highest peak of

2496-552: Is possible that the cratons of Kalahari , and Rio Plato , were also part of that early collision since they were present as Rodinia broke up). Mountain-building referred to as the Grenville Orogeny occurred along the boundaries of the cratons. The present Appalachian Mountains have at least two areas which are made from rock formations that were formed during this orogeny - the Blue Ridge Mountains and

2592-487: Is present today. The Appalachian Mountains are a barrier to east–west travel, as they form a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east–west. This barrier was extremely important in shaping the expansion of the United States in the colonial era. The range is the home of a very popular recreational feature, the Appalachian Trail . This

2688-645: Is subject to the hemlock woolly adelgid ( Adelges tsugae ), an introduced insect, that is rapidly extirpating it as a forest tree. Less abundant, and restricted to the southern Appalachians, is Carolina hemlock ( Tsuga caroliniana ). Like Canada hemlock, this tree suffers severely from the hemlock woolly adelgid. Several species of pines characteristic of the Appalachians are eastern white pine ( Pinus strobus ), Virginia pine ( Pinus virginiana ), pitch pine ( Pinus rigida ), Table Mountain pine ( Pinus pungens ) and shortleaf pine ( Pinus echinata ). Red pine ( Pinus resinosa )

2784-506: Is the same process by which limestone forms in modern oceans. The weathering of limestone, now exposed at the land surface, produces the lime-rich soils that are so prevalent in the fertile farmland of the Valley and Ridge province. During this continental break-up, around 600 million to 560 million years ago, volcanic activity was present along the tectonic margins. There is evidence of this activity in today's Blue Ridge Mountains. Mount Rogers , Whitetop Mountain , and Pine Mountain are all

2880-464: Is usually confined above 3,900 ft (1,200 m) asl, except in cold valleys. Curiously, it is associated with oaks in Virginia. The balsam fir of Virginia and West Virginia is thought by some to be a natural hybrid between the more northern variety and Fraser fir. While red spruce is common in both upland and bog habitats, balsam fir, as well as black spruce and tamarack, are more characteristic of

2976-628: The Adirondacks . After the Grenville orogeny, the direction of the continental drift reversed, and the single supercontinent Rodinia began to break up. The mountains formed during the Grenvillian era underwent erosion due to weathering, glaciation, and other natural processes, resulting in the leveling of the landscape. The eroded sediments from these mountains contributed to the formation of sedimentary basins and valleys. For example, in what

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3072-596: The Coal Region of northeastern Pennsylvania . The bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania , western Maryland , southeastern Ohio, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia , and West Virginia contain the sedimentary form of coal. The mountain top removal method of coal mining , in which entire mountain tops are removed, is currently threatening vast areas and ecosystems of the Appalachian Mountain region. The surface coal mining that started in

3168-758: The Gulf of Mexico . In the central section, north of the New River, the rivers, rising in or just beyond the Valley Ridges, flow through great gorges to the Great Valley, and then across the Blue Ridge to tidal estuaries penetrating the coastal plain via the Roanoke River, James River , Potomac River , and Susquehanna River . In the northern section the height of land lies on the inland side of

3264-734: The Iapetus Ocean , from the North America/Europe collision (See Caledonian 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

3360-491: The North American craton . Volcanoes grew along the continental margin coincident with the initiation of subduction . Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin. As the mountains rose, erosion began to wear them down over time. Streams carried rock debris downslope to be deposited in nearby lowlands. The Taconic orogeny ended after about 60 million years, but built much of

3456-723: 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. The Appalachians, particularly the Central and Southern regions, is one of the most biodiverse places in North America. The north–south orientation of the long ridges and valleys contributes to the high number of plant and animal species. Species were able to migrate through these from either direction during alternating periods of warming and cooling, settling in

3552-1552: The mixed-mesophytic or medium-moisture types, which are largely confined to rich, moist montane soils of the southern and central Appalachians, particularly in the Cumberland and Allegheny Mountains, but also thrive in the southern Appalachian coves. Characteristic canopy species are white basswood ( Tilia heterophylla ), yellow buckeye ( Aesculus octandra ), sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ), American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ), tuliptree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ), white ash ( Fraxinus americana ) and yellow birch ( Betula alleganiensis ). Other common trees are red maple ( Acer rubrum ), shagbark and bitternut hickories ( Carya ovata and C. cordiformis ) and black or sweet birch ( Betula lenta ). Small understory trees and shrubs include paw paw ( Asimina tribola ), flowering dogwood ( Cornus florida ), hophornbeam ( Ostrya virginiana ), witch-hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana ) and spicebush ( Lindera benzoin ). There are also hundreds of perennial and annual herbs, among them such herbal and medicinal plants as American ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius ), goldenseal ( Hydrastis canadensis ), bloodroot ( Sanguinaria canadensis ) and black cohosh ( Cimicifuga racemosa ). The foregoing trees, shrubs, and herbs are also more widely distributed in less rich mesic forests that generally occupy coves, stream valleys and flood plains throughout

3648-596: The 1940s has significantly impacted the central Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky , Tennessee , Virginia and West Virginia. Early mining methods were unregulated and mined land reclamation research, including acid base reaction , was led by the West Virginia University in the 1960s and 1970s. West Virginia developed rigorous mine reclamation standards for state coal mines in the late 1960s. Regulations were introduced by most federal states to protect

3744-564: The Appalachian Basin. Some plateaus of the Appalachian Mountains contain metallic minerals such as iron and zinc . There are many geological issues concerning the rivers and streams of the Appalachians. In spite of the existence of the Great Appalachian Valley, many of the main rivers are transverse to the mountain system axis. The drainage divide of the Appalachians follows a tortuous course that crosses

3840-627: The Appalachian Mountains by the late 1960s. Social and political activism brought about the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 . The 1859 discovery of commercial quantities of petroleum in the Appalachian Mountains of western Pennsylvania started the modern United States petroleum industry . Recent discoveries of commercial natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation and Utica Shale formations have once again focused oil industry attention on

3936-552: The Blue Ridge again reaches 2,000 ft (600 m) and higher. In the Virginia Blue Ridge, the following are some of the highest peaks north of the Roanoke River : Stony Man 4,031 ft (1,229 m), Hawksbill Mountain 4,066 ft (1,239 m), Apple Orchard Mountain 4,225 ft (1,288 m) and Peaks of Otter 4,001 and 3,875 ft (1,220 and 1,181 m). South of the Roanoke River, along

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4032-738: The Blue Ridge, are Virginia's highest peaks including Whitetop Mountain 5,520 ft (1,680 m) and Mount Rogers 5,729 ft (1,746 m), the highest point in the Commonwealth. Chief summits in the southern section of the Blue Ridge are located along two main crests, the Western or Unaka Front along the Tennessee - North Carolina border and the Eastern Front in North Carolina, or one of several "cross ridges" between

4128-533: The Early Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China, though their relationship to modern Tsuga is not unambiguous. The earliest pollen attributed to the genus is known from the Upper Cretaceous of Poland, dating to around 90 million years ago. Abundant remains are only known from Eocene onwards, when the modern Tsuga crown group is thought to have begun to diversify. While formerly present in

4224-931: The Great Balsams. The Western Blue Ridge Front is subdivided into the Unaka Range , the Bald Mountains , the Great Smoky Mountains , and the Unicoi Mountains , and its major peaks include Roan Mountain 6,285 ft (1,916 m) in the Unakas, Big Bald 5,516 ft (1,681 m) and Max Patch 4,616 ft (1,407 m) in the Bald Mountains, Kuwohi 6,643 ft (2,025 m), Mount Le Conte 6,593 feet (2,010 m), and Mount Guyot 6,621 ft (2,018 m) in

4320-749: The Great Smokies, and Big Frog Mountain 4,224 ft (1,287 m) near the Tennessee- Georgia -North Carolina border. Prominent summits in the cross ridges include Waterrock Knob (6,292 ft (1,918 m)) in the Plott Balsams . Across northern Georgia, numerous peaks exceed 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Brasstown Bald , the state's highest, at 4,784-and-4,696 ft (1,458-and-1,431 m) Rabun Bald . In north-central Alabama , Mount Cheaha rises prominently to 1,445 feet (440 m) over its surroundings, as part of

4416-584: The Penn proprietors (William Penn's sons, Richard and Thomas, and his grandson, John), who also claimed the land. (See Pennamite Wars ). During the American Revolution in 1778, a combined British, Tory, Iroquois, Munsee, and Lenape force attacked the Wyoming Valley settlers on the eastern edge of this region, and killed many of the settlers. Washington sent Major General John Sullivan on

4512-627: The Shawnee, Nanticoke, Conoy, and Tutelo were evicted by the terms of the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which was between the Iroquois League and the British Crown. After 1768, hundreds of British, Irish, and German families flooded in from New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania to occupy lands purchased from the Susquehanna and Connecticut Land companies of Connecticut. These settlements eventually led to armed conflict with

4608-521: The U.S./Canadian border, the St. Lawrence Valley area is handled differently in the physiographic classification schemas. The part of the St. Lawrence Valley in the United States is one of the second-level classifications, part of the Appalachian Highlands. In Canada, the area is part of the first-level classification, the St. Lawrence Lowlands . This includes the area around the city of Montreal, Anticosti Island , and

4704-457: The adjective Appalachian is / ˌ æ p ə ˈ l æ tʃ i ə n / , with the last two syllables "-ian" pronounced as in the word "Romanian". Perhaps partly because the range runs through large portions of both the United States and Canada, and partly because the range was formed over numerous geologic time periods, one of which is sometimes termed the Appalachian orogeny , writing communities struggle to agree on an encyclopedic definition of

4800-557: The area. Camptown, Pennsylvania in the Endless Mountains is featured in the lyrics of " Camptown Races ", an 1850 song by Stephen Foster . 41°37′18″N 76°03′08″W  /  41.6218°N 76.0521°W  / 41.6218; -76.0521 Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains , often called the Appalachians , are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America . The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with

4896-457: The continent that are now exposed. The first mountain-building tectonic plate collision that initiated the construction of what are today the Appalachians occurred at least a billion years ago when the pre-North American craton called Laurentia collided with at least one other craton - Amazonia . All the other cratons of the earth also collided at about this time to form the supercontinent Rodinia and were surrounded by one single ocean. (It

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4992-669: The continents that were ancestral to North America and Africa collided during the formation of the supercontinent Pangea . Because North America and Africa were once geographically connected, the Appalachians formed part of the same mountain chain as the Little Atlas in Morocco . This mountain range, known as the Central Pangean Mountains , extended into Scotland , before the Mesozoic Era opening of

5088-412: The deciduous needle-leaf conifer, the tamarack , or eastern larch ( Larix laricina ). The dominant northern and high elevation conifer is the red spruce ( Picea rubens ), which grows from near sea level to above 4,000 ft (1,200 m) above sea level (asl) in northern New England and southeastern Canada. It also grows southward along the Appalachian crest to the highest elevations of

5184-467: The distal portions of stem, are flexible and often pendent. The stems are rough with pulvini that persist after the leaves fall. The winter buds are ovoid or globose, usually rounded at the apex and not resinous. The leaves are flattened to slightly angular and range from 5–35 millimetres ( 3 ⁄ 16 – 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 inches) long and 1–3 mm ( 1 ⁄ 32 – 1 ⁄ 8  in) broad. They are borne singly and are arranged spirally on

5280-529: The driest sites are dominated by chestnut oak, or sometimes by scarlet or northern red oaks. In the northern Appalachians the oaks, except for white and northern red, drop out, while the latter extends farthest north. The oak forests generally lack the diverse small tree, shrub and herb layers of mesic forests. Shrubs are generally ericaceous , and include the evergreen mountain laurel ( Kalmia latifolia ), various species of blueberries ( Vaccinium spp.), black huckleberry ( Gaylussacia baccata ),

5376-440: The eight physiographic regions of the contiguous 48 United States. The Appalachian Uplands is the name of one of seven physiographic regions of Canada. The second level in the physiographic classification schema for the USGS is "province", the same word as Canada uses to divide its political subdivisions, meaning that the terminology used by the two countries do not match below the region level. The lowest level of classification

5472-425: 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

5568-417: The foliage a glaucous colour; and the cones are the longest in the genus, 35–80 mm ( 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 8  in) long and cylindrical rather than ovoid. Some botanists treat it in a distinct genus as Hesperopeuce mertensiana (Bong.) Rydb., though it is more generally only considered distinct at the rank of subgenus. The oldest fossils attributed to the genus are twigs, known from

5664-443: The formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago. The first mountain range in the region was created when the continents of Laurentia and Amazonia collided, creating a supercontinent called Rodinia . The collision of these continents caused the rocks to be folded and faulted, creating the first mountains in the region. Many of the rocks and minerals that were formed during that event can currently be seen at

5760-410: The genus Keteleeria . T. caroliniana Engelmann T. diversifolia (Maxim.) Masters T. sieboldii Carrière T. chinensis (Franchet) Pritzel ex Diels T. forrestii Downie T. dumosa (Don) Eichler T. canadensis (von Linné) Carrière T. heterophylla (Rafinesque) Sargent T. mertensiana (Bongard) Carrière The above phylogeny

5856-485: The land mass that is now New England and southwestward to Pennsylvania. The Taconic Orogeny was the second of four mountain building plate collisions that contributed to the formation of the Appalachians, culminating in the collision of North America and Africa (see Alleghanian orogeny ). The third mountain-building event was the Acadian orogeny which occurred between 375 and 359 million years ago. The Acadian orogeny

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5952-579: The last ice age by the Wisconsin Glacier about 15,000 years ago. Glacial striations can be found on the rocks of some of the high ridges, but the area was at the margin of the ice sheet, and the impact was much less than in New York just to the north. The mountains are made up of sedimentary rocks (mostly sandstone and shales , with a little conglomerate ) that were part of a lowland that collected sediments eroded from mountains to

6048-469: The latter. However, balsam fir also does well in soils with a pH as high as 6. Eastern or Canada hemlock ( Tsuga canadensis ) is another important evergreen needle-leaf conifer that grows along the Appalachian chain from north to south but is confined to lower elevations than red spruce and the firs. It generally occupies richer and less acidic soils than the spruce and firs and is characteristic of deep, shaded and moist mountain valleys and coves . It

6144-443: The leaves lack stomata, except those of T. mertensiana . They have one resin canal that is present beneath the single vascular bundle. The pollen cones grow solitary from lateral buds. They are 3–5 mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 – 3 ⁄ 16  in) – usually up to 5 mm or 3 ⁄ 16  in – in length, ovoid, globose, or ellipsoid, and yellowish-white to pale purple, and borne on

6240-582: The members of the Narváez expedition , including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , found a Native American village near present-day Tallahassee, Florida whose name they transcribed as Apalchen or Apalachen [a.paˈla.tʃɛn] . The name was soon altered by the Spanish to Apalachee and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváez 's expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15, 1528, and applied

6336-540: The microclimates that best suited them. The flora of the Appalachians are diverse and vary primarily in response to geology, latitude, elevation and moisture availability. Geobotanically, they constitute a floristic province of the North American Atlantic Region . The Appalachians consist primarily of deciduous broad-leaf trees and evergreen needle-leaf conifers, but also contain the evergreen broad-leaf American holly ( Ilex opaca ), and

6432-433: The more notable peaks in West Virginia. The Blue Ridge Mountains , rising in southern Pennsylvania and there known as South Mountain , attain elevations of about 2,000 ft (600 m) in Pennsylvania. South Mountain achieves its highest point just below the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland at Quirauk Mountain 2,145 ft (654 m) and then diminishes in height southward to the Potomac River . Once in Virginia ,

6528-413: The mountain range is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m), which is also the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River . The range is older than the other major mountain range in North America, the Rocky Mountains of the west. Some of the outcrops in the Appalachians contain rocks formed during the Precambrian era. The geologic processes that led to

6624-414: The mountain range, and its surrounding terrain. The general definition used is one followed by the United States Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada to describe the respective countries' physiographic regions. The U.S. uses the term Appalachian Highlands and Canada uses the term Appalachian Uplands ; the Appalachian Mountains are not synonymous with the Appalachian Plateau , which

6720-410: The mountain range. However, each of the governments has an agency that informs the public about the major landforms that make up the countries, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). The landforms are referred to as physiographic regions. The regions create precise boundaries from which maps can be drawn. The Appalachian Highlands is the name of one of

6816-406: The mountainous belt just north of the New River in Virginia. South of the New River, rivers head into the Blue Ridge, cross the higher Unakas, receive important tributaries from the Great Valley, and traversing the Cumberland Plateau in spreading gorges ( water gaps ), escape by way of the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River rivers to the Ohio River and the Mississippi River, and thence to

6912-550: The mountainous belt, and thus the main lines of drainage run from north to south, exemplified by the Hudson River . However, the valley through which the Hudson River flows was cut by the gigantic glaciers of the ice ages —the same glaciers that deposited their terminal moraines in southern New York and formed the east–west Long Island . The Appalachian region is generally considered the geographical divide between

7008-668: The name of Tsuga sieboldii ) is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae of Pinaceae , the pine family. The English-language common name " hemlock " arose from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant hemlock . Unlike the latter, Tsuga species are not poisonous. The genus comprises eight to ten species (depending on the authority ), with four species occurring in North America and four to six in eastern Asia . They are medium-sized to large evergreen trees , ranging from 10–60 metres (33–197 feet) tall, with

7104-478: The name. Now spelled "Appalachian", it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US. After the 1540 expedition of Hernando de Soto , Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves. The first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutiérrez 's map of 1562; the first use for the mountain range is the map of Jacques le Moyne de Morgues in 1565. The name

7200-531: The northwest coastline of Newfoundland. 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 belt includes

7296-424: The oceans, but there were no plants or animals on land. Then, during the middle Ordovician Period about 500 to 470 million years ago, the motion of the crustal plates changed, and the continents began to move back toward each other. The once-quiet Appalachian passive margin changed to a very active plate boundary when a neighboring Iapetus oceanic plate containing a volcanic arc collided with and began sinking beneath

7392-738: The plateaus sloping southward to the Atlantic Ocean in New England , and southeastward to the border of the coastal plain through the central and southern Atlantic states; and on the northwest, 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 valleys, including the Great Appalachian Valley , which in

7488-725: The principal occupants of the region. The majority of the local place names were derived from the Munsee-Lenape, however; places like Lock-ah Hanna ( Lackawanna or Sand River), Tunk Hanna Unk ( Tunkhannock or Bend River Place), Why-ohm Ing ( Wyoming or Food Place), Min Nees Unk ( Minisink ), Toe-be Hanna ( Tobyhanna or Cool River), Mesh-op Ing ( Meshoppen ), Why-ah-loose Ing ( Wyalusing ), Schick-shin Ing ( Shickshinny ), and Mawsch Unk (Bear Place, present-day Jim Thorpe ) are examples. The Munsee and other native peoples like

7584-609: The region Tsuga became extinct in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene epoch around 780-440,000 years ago, due to unfavourable climate change caused by the ongoing Quaternary glaciation . Another species, bristlecone hemlock, first described as T. longibracteata , is now treated in a distinct genus Nothotsuga ; it differs from Tsuga in the erect (not pendulous) cones with exserted bracts, and male cones clustered in umbels, in these features more closely allied to

7680-488: The result of volcanic activity that occurred around this time. Evidence of subsurface activity, dikes and sills intruding into the overlying rock, is present in the Blue Ridge as well. For instance, mafic rocks have been found along the Fries Fault in the central Blue Ridge area of Montgomery County, VA. The Iapetus continued to expand and during that time bacteria, algae, and many species of invertebrates flourished in

7776-725: The same side of the Great Valley, south of the Potomac, are the Pinnacle 3,007 feet (917 m) and Pidgeon Roost 3,400 ft (1,000 m). In West Virginia, more than 150 peaks rise above 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Spruce Knob 4,863 ft (1,482 m), the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains . A number of other points in the state rise above 4,800 ft (1,500 m). Cheat Mountain ( Snowshoe Mountain ) at Thorny Flat 4,848 ft (1,478 m) and Bald Knob 4,842 ft (1,476 m) are among

7872-409: The same trend as the system itself. None of the summits reaches the region of perpetual snow. In Pennsylvania , there are over sixty summits that rise over 2,500 ft (800 m); the summits of Mount Davis and Blue Knob rise over 3,000 ft (900 m). In Maryland, Eagle Rock and Dans Mountain are conspicuous points reaching 3,162 and 2,882 ft (964 and 878 m) respectively. On

7968-588: The sap-sucking insect Adelges tsugae ( hemlock woolly adelgid ). This adelgid, related to the aphids , was introduced accidentally from eastern Asia, where it is only a minor pest. Extensive mortality has occurred, particularly east of the Appalachian Mountains . The Asian species are resistant to this pest, and the two western American hemlocks are moderately resistant. In North America, hemlocks are also attacked by hemlock looper . Larger infected hemlocks have large, relatively high root systems that can bring other trees down if one falls. The foliage of young trees

8064-466: The southeast in Mississippian and Pennsylvanian geologic time. The area has been uplifted and lowered several times. The highest points are all nearly the same elevation, establishing that the area had once been eroded into a nearly level peneplain , which has since been uplifted. The present Susquehanna River established its meandering course during that time, when it was a mature stream on

8160-487: The southerly sections divides the mountain system into two unequal 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

8256-479: The southern Appalachians, as in North Carolina and Tennessee . In the central Appalachians it is usually confined above 3,000 ft (900 m) asl, except for a few cold valleys in which it reaches lower elevations. In the southern Appalachians, it is restricted to higher elevations. Another species is the black spruce ( Picea mariana ), which extends farthest north of any conifer in North America,

8352-413: The southern and central Appalachians consist largely of black , northern red , white , chestnut and scarlet oaks ( Quercus velutina, Q. rubra, Q. alba, Q. prinus and Q. coccinea ) and hickories, such as the pignut ( Carya glabra ) in particular. The richest forests, which grade into mesic types, usually in coves and on gentle slopes, have predominantly white and northern red oaks, while

8448-511: The southern and central Appalachians at low and intermediate elevations. In the northern Appalachians and at higher elevations of the central and southern Appalachians these diverse mesic forests give way to less diverse northern hardwood forests with canopies dominated only by American beech, sugar maple, American basswood ( Tilia americana ) and yellow birch and with far fewer species of shrubs and herbs. Drier and rockier uplands and ridges are occupied by oak–chestnut forests dominated by

8544-544: The southernmost spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sources written prior to the recognition of the concept of physiographic regions divided the Appalachian Mountains into three major sections: Plate tectonics over the period dating back at least 1 billion years led to geological creation of the land that is now the Appalachian Mountain range. The continental movement led to collisions that built mountains and they later pulled apart creating oceans over parts of

8640-484: The stem; the leaf bases are twisted so the leaves lie flat either side of the stem or more rarely radially. Towards the base, the leaves narrow abruptly to a petiole set on a forward-angled pulvinus. The petiole is twisted at the base so it is almost parallel with the stem. The leaf apex is either notched, rounded, or acute. The undersides have two white stomatal bands (which are inconspicuous on T. mertensiana ) separated by an elevated midvein. The upper surface of

8736-504: The surface of the present Appalachian range. Around 480 million years ago, geologic processes began that led to three distinct orogenic eras that created much of the surface structure seen in today's Appalachians. During this period, mountains once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rockies before natural erosion occurred over the last 240 million years leading to what

8832-411: The third syllable sounding like "latch". In northern parts of the mountain range, it is pronounced / ˌ æ p ə ˈ l eɪ tʃ ɪ n z / or / ˌ æ p ə ˈ l eɪ ʃ ɪ n z / ; the third syllable is like "lay", and the fourth "chins" or "shins". There is often great debate between the residents of the regions regarding the correct pronunciation. Elsewhere, a commonly accepted pronunciation for

8928-628: The two main crests. Major subranges of the Eastern Front include the Black Mountains , Great Craggy Mountains , and Great Balsam Mountains , and its chief summits include Grandfather Mountain 5,964 ft (1,818 m) near the Tennessee-North Carolina border, Mount Mitchell 6,684 ft (2,037 m) in the Blacks, and Black Balsam Knob 6,214 ft (1,894 m) and Cold Mountain 6,030 ft (1,840 m) in

9024-406: The wing being 8 to 12 mm ( 5 ⁄ 16 to 1 ⁄ 2  in) in length. They also contain small adaxial resin vesicles . Seed germination is epigeal ; the seedlings have 4–6 cotyledons . Mountain hemlock ( T. mertensiana ) is unusual in the genus in several respects. The leaves are less flattened and arranged all round the shoot, and have stomata above as well as below, giving

9120-661: Was caused by a series of collisions of pieces of crust from the Avalonia Terrane, sections broken off from continent of Gondwana , with the North American Plate. The collision initiating this orogeny resulted in the closing of the southern Iapetus Ocean and the formation of a high mountain belt. After the Acadian collision took place, Gondwana began to retreat from Laurentia with the newly accreted Avalonian terranes left behind. As Gondwana moved away,

9216-442: Was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. A competing and often more popular name was the "Allegheny Mountains", "Alleghenies", and even "Alleghania". In the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either Appalachia or Alleghania. In U.S. dialects in the southern regions of the Appalachians, the word is pronounced / ˌ æ p ə ˈ l æ tʃ ɪ n z / , with

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