| Blue Ridge Mountains | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Mount Mitchell |
| Elevation | 6,684 ft (2,037 m) |
| Coordinates | 35°45′53″N82°15′55″W / 35.76472°N 82.26528°W /35.76472; -82.26528 |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Country | United States |
| States | |
| Parent range | Appalachian Mountains |
| Geology | |
| Orogeny | Grenville orogeny |
| Rock types |
|
TheBlue Ridge Mountains are aphysiographic province of the largerAppalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in theEastern United States and extends 550 miles (885 km) southwest from southernPennsylvania throughMaryland,West Virginia,Virginia,North Carolina,South Carolina,Tennessee, andGeorgia.[1] The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near theRoanoke River gap.[2] To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies theGreat Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by theRidge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are known for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the "blue" in Blue Ridge, from theisoprene released into the atmosphere.[3] This contributes to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their perceived color.[4]
Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks:Shenandoah National Park in the northern section andGreat Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section. TheBlue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway, connects the two parks and runs along the ridge crest-lines, as does theAppalachian Trail.[5] Eight national forests includeGeorge Washington and Jefferson,Cherokee,Pisgah,Nantahala andChattahoochee.
Although the term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to theRidge and Valley area, encompassing theGreat Smoky Mountains, theGreat Balsams, theRoans, theBlacks, and other mountain ranges. In North Carolina, two lower elevation ranges to the east, referred to asfoothills, are also often included as "spurs" of the Blue Ridge: theBrushy Mountains and theSouth Mountains. In Virginia, theSouthwest Mountains are an anticlinal range that similarly parallels the Blue Ridge.
The Blue Ridge extends as far south asMount Oglethorpe inGeorgia and as far north intoPennsylvania asSouth Mountain. While South Mountain dwindles to hills betweenGettysburg andHarrisburg, the band of ancient rocks that form the core of the Blue Ridge continues northeast through theNew Jersey andHudson River highlands, eventually reaching theBerkshires ofMassachusetts and theGreen Mountains ofVermont.
The Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south ofBaffin Island. About 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in elevation.[6] The highest peak in the Blue Ridge (and in the entire Appalachian chain) isMount Mitchell inNorth Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m). There are 39 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 m); by comparison, in the northern portion of the Appalachian chain onlyNew Hampshire'sMount Washington rises above 6,000 feet (1,800 m).Southern Sixers is a term used bypeak baggers for this group of mountains.[7]
TheBlue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles (755 km) along crests of the southern Appalachians and links two national parks:Shenandoah andGreat Smoky Mountains. In many places along the parkway, there aremetamorphic rocks (gneiss) with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake.
Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancientgraniticcharnockites, metamorphosed volcanic formations, and sedimentary limestone. Recent studies completed by Richard Tollo, a professor and geologist atGeorge Washington University, provide greater insight into the petrologic and geochronologic history of the Blue Ridge basement suites. Modern studies have found that thebasement geology of the Blue Ridge is made of compositionally unique gneisses andgranitoids, including orthopyroxene-bearing charnockites. Analysis ofzircon minerals in the granite completed by John Aleinikoff at theU.S. Geological Survey has provided more detailed emplacement ages.
Many of the features found in the Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that the rocks exhibit many similar features in other North AmericanGrenville-ageterranes. The lack of a calc-alkaline affinity and zircon ages less than 1.2 billion years old suggest that the Blue Ridge is distinct from theAdirondacks, Green Mountains, and possibly theNew York–New Jersey Highlands. Thepetrologic andgeochronologic data suggest that the Blue Ridge basement is a composite orogenic crust that was emplaced during several episodes from a crustal magma source. Field relationships further illustrate that rocks emplaced prior to 1.078–1.064 billion years ago preserve deformational features. Those emplaced post-1.064 billion years ago generally have a massive texture and missed the main episode of Mesoproterozoic compression.[8]
At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world and reached heights comparable to the much youngerAlps.Weathering,erosion, andmass wasting over hundreds of millions of years has resulted in much shorter peaks.[9]
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At the foot of the Blue Ridge, various tribes including theSiouanManahoacs, theIroquois, and theShawnee hunted and fished. A German physician-explorer,John Lederer, first reached the crest of the Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year; he also recorded theVirginia Siouan name for the Blue Ridge (Ahkonshuck).
At theTreaty of Albany negotiated by Virginia Lieutenant GovernorAlexander Spotswood with the Iroquois between 1718 and 1722, the Iroquois ceded lands they had conquered south of thePotomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to theVirginia Colony. This treaty made the Blue Ridge the new demarcation point between the areas and tribes subject to the Six Nations, and those tributaries to the colony. When colonists began to disregard this by crossing the Blue Ridge and settling in theShenandoah Valley in the 1730s, the Iroquois began to object, finally selling their rights to the valley, on the west side of the Blue Ridge, at theTreaty of Lancaster in 1744.
The Blue Ridge Mountains have stunted oak andoak-hickory foresthabitats, which comprise most of the Appalachian slope forests. Flora also includes grass, shrubs, hemlock and mixed-oak pine forests.[10]
While the Blue Ridge range includes the highest summits in the eastern United States, the climate is nevertheless too warm to support analpine zone, and thus the range lacks thetree line found at lower elevations in the northern half of the Appalachian range. Statistical modelling predicts that the alpine tree line would exist at above 7,985 feet (2434 m) in the climate zone and latitude of the southern Appalachians.[11] The highest parts of the Blue Ridge are generally vegetated in denseSouthern Appalachian spruce-fir forests.[citation needed]
The area is host to many animals, including:
The largest city located in the Blue Ridge Mountains isRoanoke, located inSouthwest Virginia, while the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area is theGreenville metropolitan area inUpstate, South Carolina.[12] Other notable cities in the Blue Ridge Mountains includeCharlottesville,Frederick,Hagerstown,Chambersburg,Asheville,Johnson City, andLynchburg.
blue mountains chemical terpene.
Media related toBlue Ridge Mountains at Wikimedia Commons
Blue Ridge Mountains travel guide from Wikivoyage| International | |
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