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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
The appalachians are very, very old.. and they start in the ozarks, which got cut off from the main part of the chain by the mississippi. (all of this is from general reading and US geological Info survey(GIS)-) In the US, they extendt to Maine, but continue onto cananda -- the same coal that is mined in West Virgina, is mined in Nova Scotia, (and Canada has its own 'coal miners daughter' in Anne Murray) but they don't end in canada.
Long, long ago, the north american main land was connected to europe (in one of the phases of what is now called Gai) and the same geological structures that make for coal mines in WV, also exist in Wales and Scotland. The geological layers there, mimic the ones in the appalachians, (with the same rich coal layer) so it seem geologically, ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, where once part of the same land mass as east coast of North America.. but every 50 miles or so, the mountains change names.
So far
(Ozark)
Smokey
Blue Ridge
Kittatinny
Poconos
Catskills
Taconic
(that is more or less, going from south west to North east)
i know at least 5 other local names.. (Massachusets, NH, Pennsylvanian, --if you count foot hills (like the Ramapo or Watchangs,(Whit, you for got the Watchangs!-- i was leaving the Taconic's for some one up state NY!)
they are much more eroded in the south that in the north, the mountains of NY are hoo-hum, but the moutains of Nova Scotia are mountains and i under stand to Canadians, the mountains of Nova Scotia are hills compared to New Brunswick..
Even in NH (where are you Wow?) the Appalachins are mountains by any ones estimation (snow covered in summer, steep rocky crags, highest point of elevation on the east coast, worst weather (some say world, but at least in NA).
One of the continuing features is the Serpentine (which Dr Bill above give more details about.) Anthrocite coal is an other. the fosiles in shale between the layers of coal also are very similar.
and finally WW, the appalachian trail starts in Georgia. Parts of West Virginia are called Appalachia, but the but the Appalachian mountains are a huge, old, eroded chain.. and not limited to West Virginia. they shape my land scape (well 50 miles away) too.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 36
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 36 |
The Catoctin Mountains are a small chain that go between Frederick, MD into southern Pennsylvania; Camp David is located near Thurmont, MD, about 15 miles north and a little west of Frederick. Aren't they just about the last gasp of anything that could be called mountains before reaching the Chesapeake Bay?
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
of Troy,
I'm just trying to determine whether the Appalachians or the Appalachian Trail "starting" in Georgia is a matter of semantics or geology.
You wrote:
and finally WW, the appalachian trail starts in Georgia. Parts of West Virginia are called Appalachia, but the but the Appalachian mountains are a huge, old, eroded chain.. and not limited to West Virginia. they shape my land scape (well 50 miles away) too.
Again, is the start of the trail in Georgia just something everybody agrees is the "start"? Why not start the trail in the north? Don't people who walk the trail do it from north to south, and, in so doing, believe the trail starts for them in Maine? Or is there something more to this starting than I'm aware of? Did the Appalachians burst forth from south to north?
Not trying to be difficult here. Honestly.
Birth of a Trail Regards,
WW
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
Or is there something more to this starting than I'm aware of?from http://www.appalachiantrail.org/hike/thru_hike/start.html: The majority of thru-hikers start at Springer Mountain in Georgia and hike north towards Katahdin in Maine. In the past several years, ATC has received approximately nine northbound "2,000-miler" completion reports for every one southbound report.
. . .
A southbound hike will allow you much more solitude, but you will be "breaking in" on the most rugged part of the Trail. A Maine-to-Georgia hike also requires that you traverse long distances between resupply points in the early part of your trek. In many ways it's a tougher hike than a northbound thru-hike. Fewer than 400 people have reported completion of the A.T. southbound.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Thanks, Jazz. Well, I guess that explains that.
Wordwind
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
with apologies to Daniel Webster I paraphrase :Up here in New Hampshire's White Mountains God has hung out a sign to show that in New Hampshire He makes men! See photo proof at : http://njcc.com/~dam/photo/pcd3890/img0017.html
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Wow: The head has deteriorated sadly since I saw it as a boy.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
(Whit, you forgot the Watchungs)Well, as Popeye would say: Goshk, but dat's embarraskin'!   Yeah, actually®, I grew up with the Watchung Mountains, they bordered the Plainfields just across "Death's Highway," good ol' Route 22. I always kid these flatlanders down here in South Jersey who think they know how to drive that " I learned to drive in the Watchung Mountains (some deadly curves there) and Route 22, so go and cry about your inch of snow on somebody else's shoulder" (people get an inch or two down here they panic 'cause they're used to relatively mild winters since the Jersey Cape extends out into the water, they call out of work and everything!  ). I used to go camping and hiking with the Boyscouts at Camp Watchung in the Watchung Reservation, used to frequent the nature trails at Surprise Lake and the Trailside Museum (found one of my most prized fossils, an Equus tooth from the Pleistocene, there), and had a girlfriend who went to Watchung High (and we loved it when Watchung High teams showed up on the schedule, 'cause Plainfield killed 'em in every sport). Not to mention many sojourns to Washington Rock where Gen. Washington reputedly watched the Revolutionary War "Battle of Plainfield" from a perch overlooking the valley (I think you Brits licked us on my hometown turf, mates  ). So how could I forget the Watchung Mountains? Dunno, Helen. I guess they were so close, and so much a part of my life (and so close to suburbia), that I just didn't think of them as mountians anymore...we'd just call 'em the Watchungs. Real mountains were always somewhere else...at least the hour's drive to the Kittatinnys in Sussex County, the Poconos, the Catskills, the Adirondacks (add to list), the Blue Ridge, the Alleghenies (add to list)...those were mountains, not those hills in your own backyard. Now ain't that a lot of rationalizing words just to get to saying this... I forgot, okay!? So sue me!  and don't go to the "S"-moment, I ain't buyin' that, yet!
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