Blue Ridge Mountains

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The Blue Ridge Mountains is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian mountains. The province consists of the northern and southern physiographies, which are divided near the Roanoke River gap. These mountains are located in the eastern part of the United States, starting from the southernmost part of Georgia, then ending north in Pennsylvania. To the west of Blue Ridge, between it and most of the Appalachian, is located the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the provinces of Ridge and Valley in the Appalachian region.

The famous Blue Ridge Mountains have a bluish color when viewed from a distance. Trees place "blue" in Blue Ridge, from isoprene which is released into the atmosphere, thus contributing to the characteristic fog in the mountains and their distinctive colors.

Within the province of Blue Ridge there are two major national parks - the Shenandoah National Park in the north, and the Great Volcano National Park in the south - and eight national forests including George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, Monongahela National Forest, Daniel Boone National Forest, Forest National Cherokee, Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest and Chattahoochee National Forest. Blue Ridge also has the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469 mile (755 km) highway that connects two parks and is located along a hilltop with the Appalachian Trail.

Video Blue Ridge Mountains

Geografi Edit

Although the term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or the Appalachian mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley areas, including Great Smoky Mountains, Great Balsams, Roans, Blacks, Brushy Mountains "Blue Ridge) and other mountains.

The Blue Ridge stretches as far north as Pennsylvania as the South Mountain. While South Mountain shrank into hills between Gettysburg and Harrisburg, the ancient rock trails that form the core of Blue Ridge continue to the northeast through the highlands of New Jersey and Hudson River, eventually reaching The Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island. Approximately 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in height. The highest peak in Blue Ridge (and across the Appalachian chain) is Mt. Mitchell in North 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 part of the Appalachian chain just Mount New Hampshire. Washington rises above 6,000 feet. South Sixers is a term used by peak baggers for this group of mountains.

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles (755 km) along the Southern Appalachians peak and connects two national parks: Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains. In many places along the parkway, there is a metamorphic rock (gneiss) with colored and darkened bands of dark minerals, which sometimes look like creases and swirls in a marble cake.

Maps Blue Ridge Mountains

Geology Edit

Most of the rocks that make up the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancient granite charnockites, metamorphic volcanic formations, and sedimentary limestone. A recent study completed by Richard Tollo, a professor and geologist at George Washington University, provides a broader insight into the petrology and geochronological history of the basement of the Blue Ridge suite. Modern studies have found that the geology of the Blue Ridge basin is made up of unique composite geneisses and granitoids, including orthopyroxene-bearing charnockites. Analysis of zircon minerals in granite completed by John Aleinikoff in the US Geological Survey has provided a more detailed age of emplacement.

Many features are found in Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that rocks show many similar features in other North American terrain. The lack of kalk-alkaline and zircon affinity of less than 1,200 Ma indicates that Blue Ridge is different from the Adirondacks, Green Mountains, and possibly New York-New Jersey Highlands. Petrology and geochronological data show that the basement of Blue Ridge is a composite orogenic crust that is emplaced over several episodes from a source of crustal magma. The field relationship further illustrates that the stones emplaced before 1,078-1,064 Ma preserved the deformation feature. Those in power post-1,064 Ma generally have a large texture and skip the major episodes of Mesoproterozoic compression.

The Blue Ridge Mountains began to form during the Silurus Period more than 400 million years ago. Around 320 Mya, North America and Europe collided, pushing Blue Ridge. At the time of their emergence, Blue Ridge is one of the highest mountains in the world, and reaches a height comparable to the much younger Alps. Today, due to weathering and erosion for hundreds of millions of years, the highest peak in reach, Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, is only 6,684 feet high - still the highest peak east of the Rockies.

NC Blue Ridge - Visit the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains

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History Edit

The Englishman who settled in colonial Virginia in the early 17th century noted that Powhatan's real name for Blue Ridge was Quirank. At the foot of Blue Ridge, various tribes including Manahoac Siouan, Iroquois, and Shawnee hunt and fish. A German physician explorer, John Lederer, first reached the summit of Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year; he also recorded the name Virginia Siouan for Blue Ridge ( Ahkonshuck ).

In the Albany Agreement negotiated by Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood (1676-1740), from Virginia with Iroquois between 1718 and 1722, the Iroquois handed over land that they had conquered south of the Potomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Colony. This agreement makes Blue Ridge a new demarcation point between the tribes and tribes subject to the Six States, and the tributaries to the Colonies. When the colony began to ignore this by crossing the Blue Ridge and settling in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1730s, Iroquois began to object, eventually selling their rights to the Valley, on the western side of Blue Ridge, at the Lancaster Agreement in 1744.

During the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War, Northern Virginia Army, Robert E. Lee ruled, slipping across Potomac to begin a second invasion of the North. They move slowly across Blue Ridge, using mountains to filter their movements.

5 of the Best Blue Ridge Mountains Virginia Attractions | The Inn ...

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Flora and fauna Edit

The forest environment provides a natural habitat for many plants, trees, and animals.

Flora Edit

The Blue Ridge Mountains have oak and oak-hickory forest habitats, comprising most of the Appalachian slopes. Flora also includes grass, shrubs, hemlock and mixed oak pine forests.

While the Blue Ridge range includes the highest peaks in the eastern United States, this climate remains too warm to support the mountain zone, and thus the distance does not have tree lines found at lower altitudes in the northern part of the Appalachian range. The highest part of the Blue Ridge is generally grown in the thick Southern Appalachian forests.

Fauna Edit

This area hosts many animals, including:

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In music Edit

They are included in the lyrics of "Train Transport", an American folk song first written by Elizabeth Cotten in the early 20th century. ("To watch the long Blue Ridge Mountains as I drive Nine.")
The trail of Loneome Pine (as published in 1913) was recorded by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and featured in their 1937 movie Way Out West. This version of the song went up to number 2 on the British Top 40 charts in 1975.
The most famous song about Blue Ridge is "My Home's In The Blue Ridge Mountains", first recorded by Carolina Tar Heels (1929), then by Carter Family (1937), and still later by others, including Doc Watson and Joan Baez.
The hit John Denver, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971), mentions them in the line "Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River", a song about West Virginia. (This geographical feature only crosses a fraction of the easternmost tip of the state, but the song is written in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside the state, according to the author.)
The bluegrass song, "Blue Ridge Cabin Home", is featured and recorded by many artists, including Flatt and Scruggs.
The song, "Stonewall Jackson's Way", mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The bluegrass song, "My Little Georgia Rose", calls the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Clemson University alma mater opens with a line, "Where Blue Ridge is yawning oversize...", referring to the school location at the foot of the mountains
The bluegrass song "Blue Ridge Mountain" (2014) by American group Hore for Riff Raff mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains, along with a small aspect of the culture around it.
The song "Levi" from the album Old Crow Medicine Show Carry Me Back (2012), about First Lt., opened with a line, "Born on the Blue Ridge/At the Carolina line/New River ".
The song "Blue Ridge Mountains" from self-titled album Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes (2010) has the lyrics "I hear you missed your advanced flight, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, over near Tennessee."