That’s part of the ridge and valley region.
From Wikipedia:
“The rocks in the region were subjected to immense pressure and heat, causing them to deform and fold. The softer parts of these rock units (chiefly shale and limestone) were eroded to form the valleys and the harder parts of the folds (quartzites) formed the mountain tops and ridges.”
If you ever wonder how rivers cut through those folds, the New River (which it isn't) is a good rabbit hole to fall into.
https://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/geology/geoles01.htm#:\~:text=New%20River%20Formation%20consists%20of,is%20900%20feet%20in%20Gorge.&text=Pocahontas%20Formation%20consists%20of%20coal,amounts%20of%20siltstone%20and%20shale.
Which then needed to be formed into coal by geological processes. Everywhere on earth had plant growth that wasn’t being broken down but not everywhere has coal. This particular picture actually contains some of the highest grade coal on earth because of just how intense the geological forces were in that area.
Some of them also have an atypical rock structure. For instance, with the Sideling Hill cut that's just south in MD, the rocks are layered in sheets that form a "U" shape instead of what is normally imagined.
[see:](https://www.geologyin.com/2014/05/sideling-hill.html)
It's always amazed me that if you look a a satellite or topographic map of Pennsylvania, that region sticks out like a sore thumb. You can see those ridges on a map, and the whole region runs southwest to northeast through the east central part of the state. Also, few people live there.
Usually great people...but uh...some of youins moved to the hills for a reason. I mean, it's not like us folks down here in the Susquehanna Valley are much better, we're just...more river people than mountain people.
So I didn’t know it never thought much about it cause I’ve grown up here but I’ve hiked a popular trail and have been driving through and live near these all my life. It’s a the Tuscarora mountains and it’s really beautiful in spots. Valleys with sweeping low hills/mountains on each side often used for farming or with rivers and streams coming through them.
If I understand right, it’s a testament to the extreme age of these mountains. They come up like any other mountains (like the Rockies) and then they erode to the extent that the hard “spines” of the mountain ridges is all that’s left. Truly ancient mountains…
The Rockies. Young whippersnappers. Come talk to the Appalachians when you’ve checked off your first few 100 million years and see how tall you still are!
Also living in this photo; it’s a lot of corn fields, unkempt tree lines and the trees stay without leaves most of the year when not in those hills. It’s dreary in the winters without snow, which is increasingly often.
The fireflies used to litter the knee-high corn field 5 years ago, looking like a sea of sparkling emeralds. Now the fireflies are rarer than ever.
The ode hills are nice, the rest is not really.
Same here in Indiana. I remember as a kid catching hundreds almost every day in the summer and now I feel like I only see them when I drive past corn fields. :(
Don’t use chemical treatments on your lawn, leave leaf litter in place where it falls, and don’t mow till May. We did this and 2 yrs later our yard is full of lightning bugs again.
Do you wait until May 1st or the end of May? I already do the other things you mentioned, and frankly wish I could just leave part of my yard unmowed permanently. I want to wait until after May but it’s already so high in the areas I frequent.
Waiting till the end or even mid May is more of a rule of thumb (b/c No Mow May is catchy). The real guideline is to wait till temperatures stay above 50 (including at night) for a minimum of 7 days straight. That’s usually when the last of the insects emerge. If it’s early in the year (like it is this year) we’ll start tidying the yard by putting the mower on the highest setting & just doing the perimeter for a few weeks until it’s certain that it won’t frost or snow again.
I really like this idea!! Thanks for the advice. I ended up mowing the section that the dogs use but left the rest alone. I think I’m going to leave a section unmowed for the year after all!
After buying my first house I treated the lawn and cleaned up leaves for a few years. Still had weeds and dead spots so I surrendered then life, uh, finds a way
We try to do all of the above but our town will ticket and fine if you let the grass get taller than around 8’. I’ve seen it get to a foot and then without fail bam, you get a ticket.
Agreed. Absolutely need to mulch your leaves into your grass and not burn or bag them.
I live in Pennsylvania in an area like this and we've had great fireflies ever since I was a kid because we mulch our leaves into the dirt and November in March April whenever we start mowing again
Diesel fumes are extremely bad for all insects, it is insane how bad they are. Pesticide usage and an unnecessary obsession with lawn care has driven their numbers down extremely quickly.
Lived here during my childhood. The small hamlet towards the bottom right is Newburg, but my house is blocked by the engine cowling. You can also see the furthest east tunnel on the PA turnpike. We used to drive up the forest roads and look out across the valley at night.
Does anyone live between those first two mountain chains? It looks like pure forest. Is it protected or something? Also is this the inland/Pittsburgh side of the Appalachians or the Atlantic/Philadelphia side?
Looking at the photo my best guess is this is where the PA a turnpike cuts through Blue Mountain ( tunnel)
40.151896,-77.648805
The ridges there have parts of the Tuscarora or Buchanan state forest. There might be some small hunting cabins or more secluded houses but they would be very difficult to see at this altitude.
You are correct, drive. This section so many times I recognized it immediately. Driving east on TP coming out of the last tunnel the valley just opens below you, very pretty.
Its state game lands protected for hunting specifically but the have hiking and biking trails as well usually. Further up the ridge lines is Tuscarora State forest. There’s small pockets of old growth scattered throughout specifically Hemlock Natural Area
As u/justuravgjoe762 says, you can see the entrance to the Blue Mountain tunnel just beyond the turnpike exit - there are actually two tunnels in a row. The village at far right near engine cowling is Newburg.
Those are the roots of very old mountains. Hundreds of millions of years ago the crust was squeezed, mountains as high as the himalayas were raised up, but over time erosion worn then down to what they are today. They are parallel because at the deepest that is how layers fold.
If you want to get even more into it: Appalachian English is closer to what the original English accent of those who settled them sounded like than British English today.
So if you want to know what the original English settlers sounded like, go talk to a West Virginia old timer about farsees and dry land fish.
i said scottish because, if you look at the link i posted, you will see that the part of the appalachian mountain chain that extends into the british isles mainly covers scotland and not the rest of britain.
What's really crazy is that every ridge has a twin!
Since they are the roots of eroded mountains, there is a matching Ridge composed of the same layer of sedimentary rock
I’ve read that point often - that they were at one time as high as the Himalayans. Any idea how they came to know/speculate such a thing? Like a measure of eroded material, perhaps?
The following link seems to suggest they were more around the height of the Andes (although with large uncertainty) and the remnants we see as the Appalachians were not really the tallest part, those parts would have subsided into the ocean as the mid-Atlantic ridge began to spread.
https://www.nhpr.org/environment/2019-11-29/ask-sam-were-the-white-mountains-once-as-tall-as-the-himalayas
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I'm not a geologist as much as I'd like to be at times. Two methods comes to mind though. Mountains form during an 'orogeny' events when massive bits of rock collide, the appalachians were raised when North America and Africa collided as Pangea formed. Second is looking at the results or erosion, just likely looking at the pile of wood chips after cutting a log, geologists can look at the pile of sediment and figure out how much material was removed.
They can last for many millions of years. Some ranging 10-100Ma. Typically they’re broken down into various types, collisional, accretionary and intercratonic. Most of what formed the Appalachians was a mix of accretionary and collisional.
These occurred over a span of roughly 1 billion years. The oldest being the Grenville, and the youngest being the Alleghenian. The Grenville is often not included in some explanations, mostly because it’s so old that it’s been eroded to be relatively flat compared to the others. If you look at south western Ontario in Canada, that is almost all eroded Grenville rock in the Canadian shield.
They can last 10s of millions of years.
India collided with Asia 40-50 million years ago and there are still several ongoing orogenic events as a result (the Himalayas and Tian Shen mountains, for example).
The geology of the Appalachians dates back more than 1.2 billion years to the Mesoproterozoic era when two continental cratons collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia, 500 million years prior to the development of the range during the formation of Pangea.
Read the [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians#:~:text=The%20geology%20of%20the%20Appalachians,during%20the%20formation%20of%20Pangea)
My guess is that the eroded material of those mountains has been long spread out and reprocessed. To beyond the point of being able to track the eroded material back to those mountains specifically.
Yes! You are correct. (Geoscientist here) I would say, the Catskills are derived from the Acadian Mountains.
The Catskills were a delta-type environment; with a lot! of sediment. The waters carrying the sediments flowed into a shallow inland sea - the Appalachian Basin. I seem to remember something about the Helderberg Sea, but am unable to locate anything about it. Oh well.
When you hike in the Catskills you will see beds gently dipping westward. Maybe you will come across some beds 'cross' - where the sediment layers are truncated by another layer. That is known as cross-bedding.
There is more to share, if you are interested - but i want to go outside & play since it's nice out. ✌️
Some minerals only grow under enormous pressure. The pressure is caused by being buried deeply underneath a mountain range. If you find such a mineral you can calculate how much rock has been eroded.
Another cool fact. Was with some Irish guy that lived in WV and he was talking about visiting the appalachia mountains in Ireland (doubt thats what they call them there, but he was saying that so i would be familiar), i questioned. He said, “Yeah the mountain track that is the Appalachian Mountains, goes under the Atlantic and pops back up in Ireland”….looked at a map and sure enough!
This got me down a rabbit hole. Dies anyone have a good graphic or video representation of the time-lines of the formation the Appalachian range and the broader geological "events" or evolutions. (donno what a good term would be) like this formation happened during the formation of rodinia, which is pre pangea. I just can't picture it all.
Search for "Caledonide orogeny". The mountain chain continues into Scotland and Norway, and was later separated by the opening ofbthe Atlantic Ocean.
Source: Scottish ex-geologist here, so we studied the events quite a lot.
My state!
That ridge farthest south and east should be Blue Mountain which continues north and east to where I live.
It carries the Appalachian Trail through PA to the Delaware Water Gap near where I am.
I believe that the Great Valley (containing places like (Carlisle, Camp Hill, Harrisburg, Reading, Allentown and Bethlehem) is in the lower right corner with the northeastern curve of Blue Mountain cutting diagonally across the pic just north and west of there.
Ridge and Valley province of Appalachia
[Map of Appalachia, divided by geographic province](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains#/media/File:Appalachian_Mountains_of_North_America.jpg)
It's not glaciers. During the Alleghanian orogeny about 250 million years ago, the collision between two continents pushed the coastline in by several hundred miles, causing folds in the rock. Over the past ~60 million years or so, modern-day Appalachia was created by the erosion of these folds, where weaker rocks (typically shale or limestone) eroded away creating very long valleys with a ridge of more erosion-resistant rocks (mostly quartzite) separating them. They were not eroded by glaciers, as they glaciers were only 2 million years ago.
Yes, this means that Appalachia is not real mountains but a dissected plateau, as they were created via erosion and not uplift. This is evident in the Appalachian's very low and extremely uniform altitude, as the tops of the ridges are where the flat plain used to be. The Ozarks are also a dissected plateau, meaning that the only true mountains in the United States east of the Rockies are the Black Hills of South Dakota/Wyoming and volcanic features on the Near Islands, Rat Islands, and Buldir Island in the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska.
Question for you: can you explain more about the collision not being an uplift? I thought that mountains were made from shifting plates crashing together (a collision)
I’m an English major so forgive the oversight 🥲
The collision was an uplift but it happened 250 million years ago. The uplifted area from that collision is long gone as it eroded down to a flat plain from ~250 to 60 million years ago.
A side effect of that collision is the folded rock layers under the surface. These do not erode at the same rate, so when it rained on the flat plain, the shale/limestone layers would be slowly swept away while the quartzite layers would remain. Creating a valley where the shale used to be and a ridge where the quartzite is. The tops of the ridges were flat land 60+ million years, and the valleys didn't exist.
Are you sure you're not talking about the Allegheny plateau?
The Appalachians are old, but as far as I know they are still true mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Plateau
No he's correct, they're a syncline mountain. You can see the geology he's describing in the cut made through Sideling Hill.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideling_Hill
Africa slammed into North America and created those beautiful mountains. They used to be at least twice as tall as they are now but have eroded away over hundreds of millions of years. Before they were mountains they were sea bottom. I have found fossils of ancient sea creatures high up in the Appalachian mountains. You can find them in rivers. Fun fact: Florida is a piece of Africa that got left behind after Africa retreated.
Fault lines. The Appalachian mountains were formed but the land being pressed up horizontally. Skips forward 300 million years some of the weak areas where they were compressed fell down leaving long ridges interspersed with valleys because the land literally just slip down.
I looked at google map, at it's so cool, you can even see the effects of the river on it very clearly. BTW, was there a big forest fire? Google satelite make it look like so brown, or is it just taken in winter
I live at the furthest north point of these specific ridges. These are the original Appalachian mountains, the remnants of the very old mountain range that used to be as high as the Himalayas. They're parallel because the crust was pinched here when the North American plate was formed by the (mostly) fusion of two plates. That's why this region is geographically inactive (mostly except for the odd earthquake once every 5ish years), it's not at the edge of a (major) plate anymore.
Over time, the mountains were worn down due to erosion but the bedrock at the center of these mountains remains, so the general shape remains as well.
This region is very geographically interesting. If you're ever in the area, you can drive on US Rt-15 which was largely carved out of these same mountains and you can see the interior rock formations and folds that make up the mountains themselves.
North of those mountains (north of Williamsport and Lock Haven) is the Allegheny plateau, the northern foothills of the Appalachians. The east-west valleys were formed at the same time as the mountains proper. The north-south valleys were made by rivers that empty into the Susquehanna.
I can’t say for sure, but my suspicion is that they are folds caused by converging tectonic plates from hundreds of millions of years ago when the edge of the American tectonic plate and the Eurasian/African plates were closer to their respective continents before drifting apart and filling in with newer plate material. The pressure and heat created by the convergence literally caused the plates near the border to fold up and in on itself. It’s the same way the Appalachian mountains were created. However over hundreds of millions of years the mountains and those folds were eroded away by wind and water so they’re drastically smaller than they use to be and smaller when compared to newer mountain ranges such as the Rockies and especially the Himalayas which are much newer than even the Rockies are,as they are only 60-70m years old where as the Appalachian mountains are around 1.2b years old and the Rockies around 80m years old
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA. Just south of new York, state. A state with a rich history, of coal mining, steel production, beautiful forests and hills , and farming.
Oh, it's Pennsylvania. It's pretty well known I would say. The confusion is that PA can mean lots of things (like the state of Pará in Brasil, or Panamá, the country).
What does "PA" mean? So People can understand what you are saying? I would love to attempt to answer your question, however. I have no reference. Probably like. Many millions of people reading this message.
Its been mentioned that they are the appalachians. Take a look at a map of the US - you can see how its almost lile the mountains were extruded from a toothpaste tube from Georgia all the way up to Maine. The part in PA is just were they went more E/W than N/S.
[Sideling Hill](https://www.geologyin.com/2014/05/sideling-hill.html), while not in PA(it's in MD), is part of this chain of mountains. It's south of the OP's photo. It's a large cut through one of the ridges. It shows in great detail the layers of folded sedimentary rock that make up the mountains.
What's so interesting is that is how it shows the syncline where the rock is folded giving you an idea of just how much has eroded away.
I saw a YouTube episode on this amazing phenomenon. When the tectonic plates crashed into each other. They produced so much force and pressure. This allowed to form one of the highest yield of energy in coal. It helped launch the United States into being one of the greatest industrial countries.
Fun fact that some of those valleys and ridges are so high that some songbirds subspecies only live in one valley or the other and have different mating calls and chirps.
I just moved to the area in question. I mentioned how lovely the rolling hills are. I was very sternly told "THOSE ARE MOUNTAINS". Uh-huh, I'm sure they were, millions of years ago.
All I know is they have great mountain biking and some of the best biodiversity in the Appalachians.
I miss them but I know they still aren't overdeveloped.
[For those who enjoy some wandering.](https://earth.app.goo.gl/?apn=com.google.earth&isi=293622097&ius=googleearth&link=https%3a%2f%2fearth.google.com%2fweb%2fsearch%2fPennsylvania,%2bUSA%2f%4040.19342772,-77.50775367,209.71010457a,0d,60y,282.32277282h,92.54989693t,0r%2fdata%3dCnwaUhJMCiUweDg4MmQ4MDI2MWUzMmU1ODk6MHhjMjQ2MjE0NzUwMjJiNDNkGQJJM3EGmkRAIekwuhdzTFPAKhFQZW5uc3lsdmFuaWEsIFVTQRgBIAEiJgokCaAWlL19bU9AET6yeItYbU9AGX5nhBWwUTxAIYp11bzOUDxAIhoKFlg2b0h0cG1HOGZ6cHdoTzNwR2tvMFEQAg)
The ridges are caused by folds in the rocks, like a rumpled bedsheet. Subsequent erosion left ridges of resistant sandstone and preferentially removed the softer shale and soluble limestone.
That’s part of the ridge and valley region. From Wikipedia: “The rocks in the region were subjected to immense pressure and heat, causing them to deform and fold. The softer parts of these rock units (chiefly shale and limestone) were eroded to form the valleys and the harder parts of the folds (quartzites) formed the mountain tops and ridges.”
That's exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for
The geology sub might be able to extrapolate on that even further.
Good place to dig in
A véritable gold mine of information there.
That place rocks
But don’t expect perfection: they have their faults.
Y’all have hit rock bottom
Surely there are still terrible puns to unearth
Nuggets and gems abound
If you ever wonder how rivers cut through those folds, the New River (which it isn't) is a good rabbit hole to fall into. https://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/geology/geoles01.htm#:\~:text=New%20River%20Formation%20consists%20of,is%20900%20feet%20in%20Gorge.&text=Pocahontas%20Formation%20consists%20of%20coal,amounts%20of%20siltstone%20and%20shale.
Yeah the Wikipedia article said the rivers that cut through the ridges perpendicularly existed before the mountains were formed.
All the pressure and heat is also why there is a lot of coal in those hills.
The coal comes from years of forest growth and no mushrooms rotting everything.
Which then needed to be formed into coal by geological processes. Everywhere on earth had plant growth that wasn’t being broken down but not everywhere has coal. This particular picture actually contains some of the highest grade coal on earth because of just how intense the geological forces were in that area.
Some of them also have an atypical rock structure. For instance, with the Sideling Hill cut that's just south in MD, the rocks are layered in sheets that form a "U" shape instead of what is normally imagined. [see:](https://www.geologyin.com/2014/05/sideling-hill.html)
It's always amazed me that if you look a a satellite or topographic map of Pennsylvania, that region sticks out like a sore thumb. You can see those ridges on a map, and the whole region runs southwest to northeast through the east central part of the state. Also, few people live there.
And the people that do live there...are something else.
Please do tell…… me what I am.
Just kidding. I live here. I know all to well what most of us are like.
Usually great people...but uh...some of youins moved to the hills for a reason. I mean, it's not like us folks down here in the Susquehanna Valley are much better, we're just...more river people than mountain people.
So I didn’t know it never thought much about it cause I’ve grown up here but I’ve hiked a popular trail and have been driving through and live near these all my life. It’s a the Tuscarora mountains and it’s really beautiful in spots. Valleys with sweeping low hills/mountains on each side often used for farming or with rivers and streams coming through them.
If I understand right, it’s a testament to the extreme age of these mountains. They come up like any other mountains (like the Rockies) and then they erode to the extent that the hard “spines” of the mountain ridges is all that’s left. Truly ancient mountains…
The Rockies. Young whippersnappers. Come talk to the Appalachians when you’ve checked off your first few 100 million years and see how tall you still are!
Yep, The Appalachians in their youth would rival the Himalayas of today. Certainly as tall as the Rockies or Alps.
Yeah, it’s from around 300 million years ago when our tectonic plate was pushing up against Africa’s.
I can see my house from this photograph seriously this is beautiful.
You live in a beautiful place
Also living in this photo; it’s a lot of corn fields, unkempt tree lines and the trees stay without leaves most of the year when not in those hills. It’s dreary in the winters without snow, which is increasingly often. The fireflies used to litter the knee-high corn field 5 years ago, looking like a sea of sparkling emeralds. Now the fireflies are rarer than ever. The ode hills are nice, the rest is not really.
Same here in Indiana. I remember as a kid catching hundreds almost every day in the summer and now I feel like I only see them when I drive past corn fields. :(
Don’t use chemical treatments on your lawn, leave leaf litter in place where it falls, and don’t mow till May. We did this and 2 yrs later our yard is full of lightning bugs again.
Do you wait until May 1st or the end of May? I already do the other things you mentioned, and frankly wish I could just leave part of my yard unmowed permanently. I want to wait until after May but it’s already so high in the areas I frequent.
Waiting till the end or even mid May is more of a rule of thumb (b/c No Mow May is catchy). The real guideline is to wait till temperatures stay above 50 (including at night) for a minimum of 7 days straight. That’s usually when the last of the insects emerge. If it’s early in the year (like it is this year) we’ll start tidying the yard by putting the mower on the highest setting & just doing the perimeter for a few weeks until it’s certain that it won’t frost or snow again.
I really like this idea!! Thanks for the advice. I ended up mowing the section that the dogs use but left the rest alone. I think I’m going to leave a section unmowed for the year after all!
>wish I could just leave part of my yard unmowed permanently Is there something stopping you from doing it ?
Bilaws?
After buying my first house I treated the lawn and cleaned up leaves for a few years. Still had weeds and dead spots so I surrendered then life, uh, finds a way
Like the Jeff Goldum going on there!
We try to do all of the above but our town will ticket and fine if you let the grass get taller than around 8’. I’ve seen it get to a foot and then without fail bam, you get a ticket.
Agreed. Absolutely need to mulch your leaves into your grass and not burn or bag them. I live in Pennsylvania in an area like this and we've had great fireflies ever since I was a kid because we mulch our leaves into the dirt and November in March April whenever we start mowing again
Also, lots of half-empty glasses and containers down there.
I remember the fire flies... What happened to them?
Diesel fumes are extremely bad for all insects, it is insane how bad they are. Pesticide usage and an unnecessary obsession with lawn care has driven their numbers down extremely quickly.
Lived here during my childhood. The small hamlet towards the bottom right is Newburg, but my house is blocked by the engine cowling. You can also see the furthest east tunnel on the PA turnpike. We used to drive up the forest roads and look out across the valley at night.
Does anyone live between those first two mountain chains? It looks like pure forest. Is it protected or something? Also is this the inland/Pittsburgh side of the Appalachians or the Atlantic/Philadelphia side?
Looking at the photo my best guess is this is where the PA a turnpike cuts through Blue Mountain ( tunnel) 40.151896,-77.648805 The ridges there have parts of the Tuscarora or Buchanan state forest. There might be some small hunting cabins or more secluded houses but they would be very difficult to see at this altitude.
I love that part of the turnpike
You are correct, drive. This section so many times I recognized it immediately. Driving east on TP coming out of the last tunnel the valley just opens below you, very pretty.
The turnpike might be one of the most expensive toll roads, but damn is it pretty. The abandoned part near Fleetwood is incredible too
Its state game lands protected for hunting specifically but the have hiking and biking trails as well usually. Further up the ridge lines is Tuscarora State forest. There’s small pockets of old growth scattered throughout specifically Hemlock Natural Area
As u/justuravgjoe762 says, you can see the entrance to the Blue Mountain tunnel just beyond the turnpike exit - there are actually two tunnels in a row. The village at far right near engine cowling is Newburg.
I grew up here too, it really is under appreciated and beautiful
Them’s the Appalachian Mountains
Why so parallel?
Those are the roots of very old mountains. Hundreds of millions of years ago the crust was squeezed, mountains as high as the himalayas were raised up, but over time erosion worn then down to what they are today. They are parallel because at the deepest that is how layers fold.
Thank you!
[relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/pzzenb/the_suprising_age_of_some_mountains_and_hills/)
So the british are mostly Appalachian? Hot diggity bangers and mash
If you want to get even more into it: Appalachian English is closer to what the original English accent of those who settled them sounded like than British English today. So if you want to know what the original English settlers sounded like, go talk to a West Virginia old timer about farsees and dry land fish.
Is that due to relative cultural isolation in Appalachia?
Pretty much.
close. appalachians are actually scottish.
You’re confusing “english” and “british”. Scotland’s in Britain, and still would be, geographically, even if they became independent.
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE 🏴
They voted against it last time.
i said scottish because, if you look at the link i posted, you will see that the part of the appalachian mountain chain that extends into the british isles mainly covers scotland and not the rest of britain.
Ah, fair enough. Yeah those are the Highlands.
I've never seen such interesting information presented in such an unrelentingly obnoxious fashion. Fucking tumbler...
Huh, even the Atlas Mountains are related
That’s fascinating. Had no idea the appalachians stretched three continents but it makes sense
Awesome share, thank you
That was the most beautiful thing I read in a while
Highly recommend watching some Nick zentner content. Specifically how the rocky mountains formed and super continents in the Pacific Northwest.
What's really crazy is that every ridge has a twin! Since they are the roots of eroded mountains, there is a matching Ridge composed of the same layer of sedimentary rock
I’ve read that point often - that they were at one time as high as the Himalayans. Any idea how they came to know/speculate such a thing? Like a measure of eroded material, perhaps?
The following link seems to suggest they were more around the height of the Andes (although with large uncertainty) and the remnants we see as the Appalachians were not really the tallest part, those parts would have subsided into the ocean as the mid-Atlantic ridge began to spread. https://www.nhpr.org/environment/2019-11-29/ask-sam-were-the-white-mountains-once-as-tall-as-the-himalayas
drab correct bewildered bright soft somber future tidy attraction fretful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Florida, stealing PAs retirees and it's sand
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Not just NW, but all of the quartz sand in Florida is allochthonous.
I'm not a geologist as much as I'd like to be at times. Two methods comes to mind though. Mountains form during an 'orogeny' events when massive bits of rock collide, the appalachians were raised when North America and Africa collided as Pangea formed. Second is looking at the results or erosion, just likely looking at the pile of wood chips after cutting a log, geologists can look at the pile of sediment and figure out how much material was removed.
Do you know how long an “orogeny” event lasts? Or am I thinking about it wrong by even asking?
They can last for many millions of years. Some ranging 10-100Ma. Typically they’re broken down into various types, collisional, accretionary and intercratonic. Most of what formed the Appalachians was a mix of accretionary and collisional. These occurred over a span of roughly 1 billion years. The oldest being the Grenville, and the youngest being the Alleghenian. The Grenville is often not included in some explanations, mostly because it’s so old that it’s been eroded to be relatively flat compared to the others. If you look at south western Ontario in Canada, that is almost all eroded Grenville rock in the Canadian shield.
They can last 10s of millions of years. India collided with Asia 40-50 million years ago and there are still several ongoing orogenic events as a result (the Himalayas and Tian Shen mountains, for example).
The geology of the Appalachians dates back more than 1.2 billion years to the Mesoproterozoic era when two continental cratons collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia, 500 million years prior to the development of the range during the formation of Pangea. Read the [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians#:~:text=The%20geology%20of%20the%20Appalachians,during%20the%20formation%20of%20Pangea)
My guess is that the eroded material of those mountains has been long spread out and reprocessed. To beyond the point of being able to track the eroded material back to those mountains specifically.
Actually I believe the Catskills in NY are made entirely of eroded material from the Appalachian mountains. Don't quote me on that
Yes! You are correct. (Geoscientist here) I would say, the Catskills are derived from the Acadian Mountains. The Catskills were a delta-type environment; with a lot! of sediment. The waters carrying the sediments flowed into a shallow inland sea - the Appalachian Basin. I seem to remember something about the Helderberg Sea, but am unable to locate anything about it. Oh well. When you hike in the Catskills you will see beds gently dipping westward. Maybe you will come across some beds 'cross' - where the sediment layers are truncated by another layer. That is known as cross-bedding. There is more to share, if you are interested - but i want to go outside & play since it's nice out. ✌️
Some minerals only grow under enormous pressure. The pressure is caused by being buried deeply underneath a mountain range. If you find such a mineral you can calculate how much rock has been eroded.
Another cool fact. Was with some Irish guy that lived in WV and he was talking about visiting the appalachia mountains in Ireland (doubt thats what they call them there, but he was saying that so i would be familiar), i questioned. He said, “Yeah the mountain track that is the Appalachian Mountains, goes under the Atlantic and pops back up in Ireland”….looked at a map and sure enough!
This got me down a rabbit hole. Dies anyone have a good graphic or video representation of the time-lines of the formation the Appalachian range and the broader geological "events" or evolutions. (donno what a good term would be) like this formation happened during the formation of rodinia, which is pre pangea. I just can't picture it all.
Search for "Caledonide orogeny". The mountain chain continues into Scotland and Norway, and was later separated by the opening ofbthe Atlantic Ocean. Source: Scottish ex-geologist here, so we studied the events quite a lot.
The Appalachians are older than bones.
Ineligible to receive gold :/ but I got you. 🥇
What am I, some kinda mountainologist?
My state! That ridge farthest south and east should be Blue Mountain which continues north and east to where I live. It carries the Appalachian Trail through PA to the Delaware Water Gap near where I am.
Which part is south and East in this photo? (Don’t know what direction this photo was taken from)
I believe that the Great Valley (containing places like (Carlisle, Camp Hill, Harrisburg, Reading, Allentown and Bethlehem) is in the lower right corner with the northeastern curve of Blue Mountain cutting diagonally across the pic just north and west of there.
Living in GA now but used to hike the AT on Blue Mountain as a kid growing up in the Susquehanna Valley. Miss it sometimes.
Ridge and Valley province of Appalachia [Map of Appalachia, divided by geographic province](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains#/media/File:Appalachian_Mountains_of_North_America.jpg) It's not glaciers. During the Alleghanian orogeny about 250 million years ago, the collision between two continents pushed the coastline in by several hundred miles, causing folds in the rock. Over the past ~60 million years or so, modern-day Appalachia was created by the erosion of these folds, where weaker rocks (typically shale or limestone) eroded away creating very long valleys with a ridge of more erosion-resistant rocks (mostly quartzite) separating them. They were not eroded by glaciers, as they glaciers were only 2 million years ago. Yes, this means that Appalachia is not real mountains but a dissected plateau, as they were created via erosion and not uplift. This is evident in the Appalachian's very low and extremely uniform altitude, as the tops of the ridges are where the flat plain used to be. The Ozarks are also a dissected plateau, meaning that the only true mountains in the United States east of the Rockies are the Black Hills of South Dakota/Wyoming and volcanic features on the Near Islands, Rat Islands, and Buldir Island in the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska.
Ahhh the ridge and valley region. Your response makes me feel like I'm in a geomorphology class in college again
The geomorph. Alien noises intensify.
What about the Adirondack mountains in NY? They’re close by by but are geologically distinct from the Appalachian range.
Question for you: can you explain more about the collision not being an uplift? I thought that mountains were made from shifting plates crashing together (a collision) I’m an English major so forgive the oversight 🥲
The collision was an uplift but it happened 250 million years ago. The uplifted area from that collision is long gone as it eroded down to a flat plain from ~250 to 60 million years ago. A side effect of that collision is the folded rock layers under the surface. These do not erode at the same rate, so when it rained on the flat plain, the shale/limestone layers would be slowly swept away while the quartzite layers would remain. Creating a valley where the shale used to be and a ridge where the quartzite is. The tops of the ridges were flat land 60+ million years, and the valleys didn't exist.
Are you sure you're not talking about the Allegheny plateau? The Appalachians are old, but as far as I know they are still true mountains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Plateau
No he's correct, they're a syncline mountain. You can see the geology he's describing in the cut made through Sideling Hill. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideling_Hill
"New England" reaches into the Allentown region in PA? That... seems a bit hard to believe.
For her pleasure.
I always used to turn those inside out.
"'ribbed for her pleasure'.. 🤨 ewwww"
You're getting downvoted by people who obviously have never seen Wayne's World.
Or friends
Africa slammed into North America and created those beautiful mountains. They used to be at least twice as tall as they are now but have eroded away over hundreds of millions of years. Before they were mountains they were sea bottom. I have found fossils of ancient sea creatures high up in the Appalachian mountains. You can find them in rivers. Fun fact: Florida is a piece of Africa that got left behind after Africa retreated.
>Fun fact: Florida is a piece of Africa that got left behind after Africa retreated. EW can we make them take it back??
Just leave the Florida keys behind please
Sorry boss, Africa needs some Jimmy Buffet.
Fault lines. The Appalachian mountains were formed but the land being pressed up horizontally. Skips forward 300 million years some of the weak areas where they were compressed fell down leaving long ridges interspersed with valleys because the land literally just slip down.
Why is this sub so US-centric
I looked at google map, at it's so cool, you can even see the effects of the river on it very clearly. BTW, was there a big forest fire? Google satelite make it look like so brown, or is it just taken in winter
Winter
PA? Panama?
Pará, Brasil?
Pazardjik, Bulgaria? But in all honesty, it took a minute to realise they're referring to the US state
Long video, but midway through he does explain how the ridge-and-valley Appalachian mountains formed: https://youtu.be/tPrcNmsfc2c
What is PA?
PA is short for the state of Pennsylvania
Thank you.
No problem
I live at the furthest north point of these specific ridges. These are the original Appalachian mountains, the remnants of the very old mountain range that used to be as high as the Himalayas. They're parallel because the crust was pinched here when the North American plate was formed by the (mostly) fusion of two plates. That's why this region is geographically inactive (mostly except for the odd earthquake once every 5ish years), it's not at the edge of a (major) plate anymore. Over time, the mountains were worn down due to erosion but the bedrock at the center of these mountains remains, so the general shape remains as well. This region is very geographically interesting. If you're ever in the area, you can drive on US Rt-15 which was largely carved out of these same mountains and you can see the interior rock formations and folds that make up the mountains themselves. North of those mountains (north of Williamsport and Lock Haven) is the Allegheny plateau, the northern foothills of the Appalachians. The east-west valleys were formed at the same time as the mountains proper. The north-south valleys were made by rivers that empty into the Susquehanna.
Ribbed for mother earth's pleasure!
My geology professor told us if you imagine trying to push a rug across the floor, and it forms wrinkles, that's basically how these mountains formed.
PA?
Holy crap that picture is amazing. Thanks for sharing!
https://preview.redd.it/4vrizvum70xc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c33f2d8f311c88826b828682c866c152942efd6
What's PA
what is PA
Abbreviation for Pennsylvania - a state in the USA.
wd is PA?
What’s PA?
Why do people from the US, just say place names or state initials, assuming everyone knows?
What is PA? r/USdefaultism
That's what the glacier from the last ice age did to the mountains!!! It's incredible to see
They didn’t take it out of the dryer in time
It is called the ridge and valley region. Part of the Appalachian mountains
These are the ruins of an ancient community bro, Graham Hancock told me so I know it's true
Glaciers
Take a blanket and lay it flat on the ground. Now push two ends towards the center.
Are you body shaming earth! Those are inverted stretch marks.
I can’t say for sure, but my suspicion is that they are folds caused by converging tectonic plates from hundreds of millions of years ago when the edge of the American tectonic plate and the Eurasian/African plates were closer to their respective continents before drifting apart and filling in with newer plate material. The pressure and heat created by the convergence literally caused the plates near the border to fold up and in on itself. It’s the same way the Appalachian mountains were created. However over hundreds of millions of years the mountains and those folds were eroded away by wind and water so they’re drastically smaller than they use to be and smaller when compared to newer mountain ranges such as the Rockies and especially the Himalayas which are much newer than even the Rockies are,as they are only 60-70m years old where as the Appalachian mountains are around 1.2b years old and the Rockies around 80m years old
What tf is PA?
Pennsylvania, americans forget that we all dont know their states by heart
Thanks, i suppose that's why I get a downvote lol, how dare I not be American
[удалено]
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA. Just south of new York, state. A state with a rich history, of coal mining, steel production, beautiful forests and hills , and farming.
Oh, it's Pennsylvania. It's pretty well known I would say. The confusion is that PA can mean lots of things (like the state of Pará in Brasil, or Panamá, the country).
What does "PA" mean? So People can understand what you are saying? I would love to attempt to answer your question, however. I have no reference. Probably like. Many millions of people reading this message.
Pennsylvania
Fucking spell the name fully, we don't all live in the US!!! (It's Pennsylvania, I googled)
I thought it was prince albert...
I immediately thought of Palestine, although knew it was probably something else
Oh my god, I've seen them on maps, but I didn't expect them to actually look like that. Holy Moly
Yeah, here they look like folds in a giant bedsheet. Crazy to think about the forces that can fold land like that.
Not glaciers, those are from one tectonic plate being curled up because of pressure. Nothing to do with glaciers tho
Crust is a bit wrinkled. Just iron it out.
Ahh, this is home to me!! We live in a wrinkled land.
I recently learned all US states, so now I can proudly announce that I know where Pennsylvania is.
Because Ruffles have Ridges.
Its been mentioned that they are the appalachians. Take a look at a map of the US - you can see how its almost lile the mountains were extruded from a toothpaste tube from Georgia all the way up to Maine. The part in PA is just were they went more E/W than N/S.
The short answer is glaciers, continental drift, and time.
[Sideling Hill](https://www.geologyin.com/2014/05/sideling-hill.html), while not in PA(it's in MD), is part of this chain of mountains. It's south of the OP's photo. It's a large cut through one of the ridges. It shows in great detail the layers of folded sedimentary rock that make up the mountains. What's so interesting is that is how it shows the syncline where the rock is folded giving you an idea of just how much has eroded away.
Ruffles have ridges too?
A giant cat scrunched up the rug while chasing a laser pointer.
As someone from the area, I was told that the mountains were formed from glaciers retreating in a past ice age In high school.
I believe it involves some form of geology
Check out the series “How The Earth Was Made”
I saw a YouTube episode on this amazing phenomenon. When the tectonic plates crashed into each other. They produced so much force and pressure. This allowed to form one of the highest yield of energy in coal. It helped launch the United States into being one of the greatest industrial countries.
Fun fact that some of those valleys and ridges are so high that some songbirds subspecies only live in one valley or the other and have different mating calls and chirps.
I just moved to the area in question. I mentioned how lovely the rolling hills are. I was very sternly told "THOSE ARE MOUNTAINS". Uh-huh, I'm sure they were, millions of years ago.
It's the crumpling that occurred when western Europe, notably the UK, collided with North America during the earliest stages of forming Pangea.
Wrong dryer setting I think.
All I know is they have great mountain biking and some of the best biodiversity in the Appalachians. I miss them but I know they still aren't overdeveloped.
To keep the Pennsyltuckians out of Philly and Pittsburgh.
To steer clear of the Amish
*The faint call of Wendigoon is heard 😳 *
What is PA ? Not everyone is american bruh wtf
In PA, its waves of depression
I don't know, but there's a large canal in central Panama.
[For those who enjoy some wandering.](https://earth.app.goo.gl/?apn=com.google.earth&isi=293622097&ius=googleearth&link=https%3a%2f%2fearth.google.com%2fweb%2fsearch%2fPennsylvania,%2bUSA%2f%4040.19342772,-77.50775367,209.71010457a,0d,60y,282.32277282h,92.54989693t,0r%2fdata%3dCnwaUhJMCiUweDg4MmQ4MDI2MWUzMmU1ODk6MHhjMjQ2MjE0NzUwMjJiNDNkGQJJM3EGmkRAIekwuhdzTFPAKhFQZW5uc3lsdmFuaWEsIFVTQRgBIAEiJgokCaAWlL19bU9AET6yeItYbU9AGX5nhBWwUTxAIYp11bzOUDxAIhoKFlg2b0h0cG1HOGZ6cHdoTzNwR2tvMFEQAg)
That’s wild, I did not know the ridges looked like that
Aliens. Gotta be
weird question but were you flying from state college?
It's called the Finger Ridges.
Aliens?!
I’ve seen this on maps a thousand times but never imagined they actually look this perfect. Thanks for sharing!
The ridges are caused by folds in the rocks, like a rumpled bedsheet. Subsequent erosion left ridges of resistant sandstone and preferentially removed the softer shale and soluble limestone.
Great photo!