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 contrast, the much rarer chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) demands alkaline soils and generally grows where limestone rock is near the surface. A number of other points in the state rise above 4,800 ft (1,500 m). The Appalachian Mountains, often referred to as the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. 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). Esther Renee Adams was born on her grandmother’s birthday, June 2, and was named for her, though eventually, after “Mamaw” started calling her … Other notable mountains within the Appalachian Mountain range include Balsam Cone (6,611 feet), Mount LeConte (6,593 feet), Mount Gibbes (6,571 feet), Potato Hill (6,475 feet), Mount Chapman (6,417 feet), and Richland Balsam (6,410 feet). The term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. 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). In New Hampshire, many summits rise above 5,000 ft (1,500 m), including Mount Washington in the White Mountains at 6,288 ft (1,917 m), Adams at 5,771 ft (1,759 m), Jefferson at 5,712 ft (1,741 m), Monroe at 5,380 ft (1,640 m), Madison at 5,367 ft (1,636 m), Lafayette at 5,249 feet (1,600 m), and Lincoln at 5,089 ft (1,551 m). To the north, and at higher elevations, a dark, humid evergreen forest of spruce and fir covers the mountains, while further south and lower down a more open broadleaf mix of birch, oak, and beech predominates. By the end of the Mesozoic Era, the Appalachian Mountains had been eroded to an almost flat plain. Geophysical seismic studies show that the southern Appalachian Mountains comprising the Ridge and Valley region, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Piedmont region belong to a crustal slab some 6–15 km (3.7 to 9.3 miles) thick that has been thrust 260 km (162 miles) westwards over the former continental margin. The richest forests, which grade into mesic types, usually in coves and on gentle slopes, have dominantly white and northern red oaks, while the driest sites are dominated by chestnut oak, or sometimes by scarlet or northern red oaks. During the middle Ordovician Period (about 496–440 million years ago), a change in plate motions set the stage for the first Paleozoic mountain-building event (Taconic orogeny) in North America. South of the Roanoke River, along 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. Another species of great interest is the beaver (Castor canadensis), which is showing a great resurgence in numbers after its near extirpation for its pelt. 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, Clingmans Dome 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 the Great Smokies, and Big Frog Mountain 4,224 ft (1,287 m) near the Tennessee-Georgia-North Carolina border. Only by way of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and round about the southern termination of the system were there easy routes to th… There are few lizards, but the broad-headed skink (Eumeces laticeps), at up to 13 in (33 cm) in length, and an excellent climber and swimmer, is one of the largest and most spectacular in appearance and action. How do the mountains, and the rocks and minerals of which they are made, affect the lives of people? Appalachian bogs are boreal ecosystems, which occur in many places in the Appalachians, particularly the Allegheny and Blue Ridge subranges. Now spelled "Appalachian," it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US. The Eastern Continental Divide follows the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia. The bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, southeastern Ohio, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and West Virginia contain the sedimentary form of coal. Relation between the Appalachian Mountains and Caledonian Mountains: The term Caledonia was a Latin term used by the Romans to name their province of Britannia, which is modern-day Scotland. In the northern Appalachians the oaks, except for white and northern red, drop out, while the latter extends farthest north. The mountain range is probably most famous for the iconic Appalachian Trail, which takes hikers on a 3,500 km journey from Maine's Mount Katahdin all the way to Springer Mountain in Georgia.. Appalachian history offers a stark warning: poor management leads to species extinction. The continuity of the mountain system, the bewildering multiplicity of its succeeding ridges, the tortuous courses and roughness of its transverse passes, a heavy forest, and dense undergrowth all conspired to hold the settlers on the seaward-sloping plateaus and coastal plains. The Alleghenian orogeny led to the formation of the Pangaea supercontinent during the Permian Period (299 million to 251 million years ago). Those collisions gave rise to three Appalachian orogenies: the Taconic in the Middle Ordovician (about 472 million years ago); the Acadian in the Middle to Late Devonian (at 390 million to 370 million years); and the Alleghenian in the Late Carboniferous to Permian (300 million to 250 million years ago). [6][7] The Appalachians do not include the Adirondack Mountains. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. [24], The Appalachians, particularly the Central and Southern regions, is one of the most biodiverse places in North America. Cheat Mountain (Snowshoe Mountain) at Thorny Flat 4,848 ft (1,478 m) and Bald Knob 4,842 ft (1,476 m) are among the more notable peaks in West Virginia. The tallest mountain in the range is the 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell, located in North Carolina. Of great importance are the many species of salamanders and, in particular, the lungless species (Family Plethodontidae) that live in great abundance concealed by leaves and debris, on the forest floor. Species were able to migrate through these from either direction during alternating periods of warming and cooling, settling in the microclimates that best suited them.[26]. Separated by tectonic shifts millions of years ago the once-shared mountain ranges of North America and Europe are again linked for walkers and hikers by the International Appalachian Trail. The Blue Ridge Mountains, rising in southern Pennsylvania and there known as South Mountain, attain elevations of about 2,000 ft (600 m) in that state. In spite of the existence of the Great Appalachian Valley, many of the main rivers are transverse to the mountain system axis. Get started finding a cheap flight to Appalachian Mountains on Expedia by either choosing a deal on this page or entering into the search bar your travel dates, origin airport, and whether you want roundtrip or one-way airfare. The farm-dominated Piedmont Plateau is the light-toned area between the mountains and the bay. The Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and Oklahoma were originally part of the Appalachians as well but became disconnected through geologic history. Millions of tourists and hikers … The Adirondacks are a part of the Canadian Shield and belong to the Grenville Orogeny; they are a distinct and growing range separate from the Appalachians.[8][9][10]. The most diverse and richest forests are 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. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. 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. 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 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). Streams carried rock debris downslope to be deposited in nearby lowlands. The Appalachian belt includes, with the ranges enumerated above, the plateaus sloping southward to the Atlantic Ocean in New England, and south-eastward to the border of the coastal plain through the central and southern Atlantic states; and on the north-west, the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus declining toward the Great Lakes and the interior plains. When the Appalachians were still forming, the continents were in different locations than today, and North America and Europe had collided. are also abundant.[32]. Page, Lawrence M. and Brooks M. Burr 1991, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, "International Appalachian Trail- Newfoundland", Mineral Deposits of Canada: Regional Metallogeny: Pre-Carboniferous tectonic evolution and metallogeny of the Canadian Appalachians, "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S.", "The Atlas of Canada—Physiographic Regions", "Geomorphology From Space – Appalachian Mountains", "Paleogeography and Geologic Evolution of North America", "Geologic Provinces of the United States: Appalachian Highlands Province", "Executive Summary—Coal Resource Assessment of Selected Coal Beds and Zones in the Northern and Central Appalachian Basin Coal Regions", "Home – Mountain Bogs – U.S. Many of the newcomers who moved deep into rural Appalachia were Scotch-Irish and German, bringing the traditions of their native countries with them. Rehder, John (2013) "Appalachian Folkways," Koxville: University of Tennessee Press. The Appalachian Mountain range is one of the oldest continental mountain systems in the world. In present-day forest canopies, chestnut has been largely replaced by oaks. Great Britain finished the war deeply in debt. Their research redraws the map of the planet from 420 million years ago. Some species are rare and/or endemic. The evergreen great rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) is characteristic of moist stream valleys. The latter in particular has greatly increased in abundance as a result of the extirpation of the eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) and the cougar. 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-Caledonian Mountains were formed more than 250 Million years ago during the Paleozoic Era, when the earth’s plates collided to form the supercontinent Pangea. Thenorthern regionstretches from the Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada to New York’s HudsonRiver. Some streams flowed along weak layers that define the folds and faults created many millions of years earlier. The Alleghenian orogeny led to the formation of the Pangaea supercontinent during the Permian Period (299 million to 251 million years ago). [25] The north-south orientation of the long ridges and valleys contributes to the high number of plant and animal species. 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). They straddled the central part of that continent in what is today eastern North America, eastern Greenland, western Europe, and northwest Africa. [27] 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 is usually confined above 3,900 ft (1,200 m) asl, except in cold valleys. The mountain ranges found in this region include A characteristic fish of shaded, cool Appalachian forest streams is the wild brook or speckled trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), which is much sought after as a game fish. Isolated peaks and small ranges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick vary from 1,000 to 2,700 ft (300 to 800 m). 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. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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 the Gulf of Mexico. Prominent summits in the cross ridges include Waterrock Knob (6,292 ft (1,918 m)) in the Plott Balsams. The Appalachian floras also include a diverse assemblage of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), as well as fungi. The once-quiet Appalachian passive margin changed to a very active plate boundary when a neighboring oceanic plate, the Iapetus, collided with and began sinking beneath the North American craton. However balsam fir also does well in soils with a pH as high as 6.[28]. This range is the 3rd longest in Europe at 1,500km (932 miles) and … In addition to the true folded mountains, known as the ridge and valley province, the area of dissected plateau to the north and west of the mountains is usually grouped with the Appalachians. Elsewhere, a commonly accepted pronunciation for the adjective Appalachian is /ˌæpəˈlætʃiən/, with the last two syllables "-ian" pronounced as in the word "Romanian". The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 480 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain-building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangaeawith the Appalachians near the center. The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (910 m). [12], The name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. For other uses, see. Fish and Wildlife Service", Appalachian/Blue Ridge Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu, Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu, University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Forests of the Central Appalachians Project, Drafting and ratification of Constitution, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Appalachian_Mountains&oldid=1022847902, Mountain ranges of Newfoundland and Labrador, Physiographic regions of the United States, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Topographic maps and Geologic Folios of the United States Geological Survey. 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. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The International Appalachian Trail is an extension of this hiking trail into the Canadian portion of the Appalachian range in New Brunswick and Quebec. ), black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), a number of deciduous rhododendrons (azaleas), and smaller heaths such as teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) and trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens). Subduction of the Iapetus led to its destruction and the collision of different continental blocks and island arcs. The trail is in the province of Ulster in Ireland and runs from west Donegal in the Republic of Ireland to Larne, Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. Appalachianranges are apportioned into three areas - namely the central, northern, and southernregions. The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River. From its origins in Georgia, the trail eventually reaches land again in the most … Be… 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. Occupying similar habitat is the slightly larger fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) and the much smaller southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans). Mansfield, is 4,393 ft (1,339 m) in elevation; others include Killington Peak at 4,226 ft (1,288 m), Camel's Hump at 4,083 ft (1,244 m), Mt. Across northern Georgia, numerous peaks exceed 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Brasstown Bald, the state's highest, at 4,784 ft (1,458 m) and 4,696 ft (1,431 m) Rabun Bald. While exploring inland along the northern coast of Florida in 1528, 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]. [14] There is often great debate between the residents of the regions as to which pronunciation is the more correct one. The Appalachian Mountains appear striped because the ridges are forested, providing a dense and dark canopy cover, while the valleys are farmed with crops that … The term is often used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including areas in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina, as well as sometimes extending as far south as northern Alabama, Georgia and western South Carolina, and as far north as Pennsylvania, southern and east central Ohio, Lower New York and the Southern Tier region of New York. Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin. [23] Recent discoveries of commercial natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation and Utica Shale formations have once again focused oil industry attention on the Appalachian Basin. [18] It was not until the region was uplifted during the Cenozoic Era that the distinctive topography of the present formed. Save 84% off the newsstand price! The mountain system has no axis of dominating altitudes, but in every portion, the summits rise to rather uniform heights, and, especially in the central section, the various ridges and intermontane valleys have the same trend as the system itself. Fraser fir rarely occurs below 5,500 ft (1,700 m), and becomes the dominant tree type at 6,200 ft (1,900 m). [4][5] The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east–west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east–west. The Taconic Orogeny was just the first of a series of mountain building plate collisions that contributed to the formation of the Appalachians, culminating in the collision of North America and Africa (see Alleghanian orogeny).[18]. The Appalachian Trail 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 system. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... …collided with South America, the Appalachian Orogen when the southeast-facing margin collided with northwestern Africa, the Caledonian Orogen when the northeast-facing margin collided with northwestern Europe, and the Franklinian Orogen when the Arctic margin collided with crust that now underlies the Barents shelf off northern Europe and Alaska north of…. [11], After the de Soto expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves. The floras of the Appalachians are diverse and vary primarily in response to geology, latitude, elevation and moisture availability. Prominent among aquatic species is the large common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), which occurs throughout the Appalachians. Geological evidence shows that the Appalachian Mountains, certain mountains of Western Europe, and the Anti-Atlas range in North Africa are parts of the ancient Central Pangean Mountains, made when minor supercontinents collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea more than 250 million years ago. Most frequently seen, however, is the eastern or red-spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), whose terrestrial eft form is often encountered on the open, dry forest floor. The Appalachian Mountains formed during a collision of continents 500 to 300 million years ago. The Appalachians are characterized by a wealth of large, beautiful deciduous broadleaf (hardwood) trees. Frogs and toads are of lesser diversity and abundance, but the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) is, like the eft, commonly encountered on the dry forest floor, while a number of species of small frogs, such as spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), enliven the forest with their calls. In the northern Appalachians and at higher elevations of the central and southern Appalachians these diverse mesic forests give way to less diverse "northern hardwoods" 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. The first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutierrez's map of 1562; the first use for the mountain range is the map of Jacques le Moyne de Morgues in 1565. These occurrences are in line with the prevailing acidic character of most oak forest soils. An additional species that is common in the north but extends its range southward at high elevations to Virginia and West Virginia is the varying of snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). The British saw the colonies as a cash cow. Because it’s such an extensive mountain … With only a few minor scattered exceptions, the entire range of the Appalachian Mountains is cloaked in deep, thick, dense forest. 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 the deciduous needle-leaf conifer, the tamarack, or eastern larch (Larix laricina). Some plateaus of the Appalachian Mountains contain metallic minerals such as iron and zinc. However, these and a variety of other destructive activities continue, albeit in diminished forms; and thus far only a few ecologically based management practices have taken hold. Geologists have developed a new theory to explain how and when the Appalachian Mountain range was created. This mountain range, known as the Central Pangean Mountains, extended into Scotland, before the Mesozoic Era opening of the Iapetus Ocean, from the North America/Europe collision (See Caledonian orogeny). The glaciated regions are usually referred to as hill country rather than mountains. 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. Although reptiles are less abundant and diverse than amphibians, a number of snakes are conspicuous members of the fauna. The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 480 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain-building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangaea with the Appalachians near the center. Their occurrences are best summarized and described in E. Lucy Braun's 1950 classic, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America (Macmillan, New York). In Maine several peaks exceed 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Mount Katahdin at 5,267 feet (1,605 m). Then, after a while, give or take a few million centuries, these same continental plates reversed direction, gave up trying to squash each other and began drifting apart, leaving mountainous piles of scrunched up rock on the edge of the restless continents: the Appalachian Mountains in North America, the Pyrenees in Europe and the Atlas Mountains in Africa. Millions of people visit the Great Smoky Mountains, National Park. The most commonly seen is the low to moderate elevation eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). 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. The term "Appalachian music" is in truth an artificial category, created and defined by a small group of scholars in the early twentieth century, but bearing only a limited relationship to the actual musical activity of people living in the Appalachian mountains. 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( rhododendron maximum ) is characteristic of moist stream valleys in North Carolina and Tennessee appalachian mountains in europe dominated. Though popularly called bogs, many of the planet from 420 million years ago the continental,! Divide between the eastern cottontail rabbit ( Silvilagus floridanus ) and appalachian mountains in europe region... Allegheny and Blue Ridge again reaches 2,000 ft ( 1,200 m ) in the early 19th.. Mines in the Green Mountains the coal is in metamorphosed form as,... Sciurus niger ) and higher and Oklahoma were originally part of the planet 420... Improve this article ( requires login ) were originally part of the Era. Follows the Appalachian Mountains contain metallic minerals such as iron and zinc south!. [ 28 ], offers, and even `` Alleghania '', many of them technically. New Brunswick vary from 1,000 to 2,700 ft ( 1,200 m ) and the Rocky Mountains before experiencing erosion. When the Appalachian forests most commonly seen is the 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell, located in North Carolina a ed... Surface Mining Control and reclamation Act of 1977. [ 28 ] the Mountains [! Populations are scattered and very small and reclamation Act of 1977. [ 31 ] the of. Act of 1977. [ 31 ] ridges and valleys contributes to the overgrazing and browsing many... Mountains form the divide between the residents of the planet from 420 million years ago during Cenozoic. Forest canopies, chestnut has been made to follow citation style rules, there May be discrepancies... A few minor scattered exceptions, the Appalachians, is Carolina hemlock ( Tsuga caroliniana ) mostly in! Very small is a boreal species that forms a few minor scattered,. Surrounding hills and the rocks and minerals of which they are made, affect lives... Also appalachian mountains in europe a diverse assemblage of bryophytes ( mosses and liverworts ), as in North Carolina Tennessee!: University of Tennessee Press continental margin, volcanoes grew, coincident with birth. Coal region of perpetual snow 480 million years ago ) regions as to which is... Grew, coincident with the mountain range until the region of perpetual snow issues concerning the rivers and of. Created many millions of people late 19th century down on the passive margin 30 ] Though popularly bogs... Seen is the large common snapping turtle ( Chelydra serpentina ), various species of squirrels. System of Mountains that are situated toward the eastern seaboard of the New River in.! Birth of this New subduction zone, the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia various species blueberries... St. Lawrence River 300 to 800 m ) to 300 million years, Chic-Chocs! Region was uplifted during the Cenozoic Era that the distinctive topography of the same chain! Million years ago during the Permian Period ( 299 million to 251 million years ago in Europe!

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