In Landform Regions you met the big mountain regions. Now learn the ranges by name and where each one runs.
Key idea
The Appalachians run near the East Coast, from Alabama to Maine. The Rockies run from New Mexico north through Colorado, Wyoming and Montana into Canada. Near the Pacific rise the Sierra Nevada (California), the Cascades (Washington, Oregon and northern California) and the Coast Ranges. Alaska has the Alaska Range and the Brooks Range.
Why it works
Why do ranges run in long lines instead of round clumps? A range forms along the edge where two pieces of Earth's crust meet, or where one slides under another. That edge is a long line, so the mountains pushed up along it form a long line too. The Cascades are a line of volcanoes, such as Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens, above a place where one plate sinks under another.
Worked example: Which range?
Yosemite's granite cliffs and Mount Whitney are in which range?
- Both are in eastern California.
- That is not the Rockies; it is a separate range near the Pacific.
- It is the Sierra Nevada.
Answer: The Sierra Nevada.
Common mistake
The Sierra Nevada is not part of the Rockies. It is its own range in California, with the Great Basin between it and the Rockies. And the Appalachians are in the East, not the West: if a range is near the Atlantic, it is the Appalachians.