Jump to content

Western Cordillera (North America): Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Thompsma (talk | contribs)
7,018 edits
Editing and reworking lead. Getting rid of orgeny context - better to build context as article develops.
adding OR and synthesis tags, since that's where this is going now.....(at one editor's insistence....)
Line 3: Line 3:
{{NPOV}} <!-- US bias -->
{{NPOV}} <!-- US bias -->
{{NPOV-title}} <!-- "Western Pacific Cordillera" is ORIGINAL RESEARCH/SYNTHESIS - there are only 2 valid google hits for this phrase, both from Wikipedia --->
{{NPOV-title}} <!-- "Western Pacific Cordillera" is ORIGINAL RESEARCH/SYNTHESIS - there are only 2 valid google hits for this phrase, both from Wikipedia --->
{{article issues|original research=yes|synthesis=yes}}
{{merge|Pacific Cordillera}}
{{merge|Pacific Cordillera}}
{{Merge|Pacific Coast Ranges}}
{{Merge|Pacific Coast Ranges}}

Revision as of 06:33, 11 January 2009

Template:Globalize/US

Template:NPOV-title

The Western Cordillera (North America) covers an extensive area of mountain ranges, basins, and provinces in Western North America. The area is loosely defined in geographic scope as it has evolved through a dynamic geological history of tectonic activity, colliding terranes, orogeny, erosion, and weathering.[1] The area covers much of western North America east of the Western Great Plains. Mountain ranges, provinces, or contiguous intermontane basins and plateus are included in the geographical context of this article. The Western or Pacific Cordillera is oftentimes used to define or refer to areas within the Western Cordillera of North America.[2][3] However, Western Cordillera may also be used to refer to mountain ranges running throughout the South American Andes[4][5], and Pacific Cordillera can also refer to mountain ranges in Indonesia.[6] Hence, the geographic scope of this article refers specifically to the Western Cordillera (North America), which covers a wide a range of geographic features, research topics, and geological history.[7][8][9][10][11]

The Western Cordillera (North America) extends from Alaska and south to Mexico. Mountains ranges generally run longitudinally along three main belts, including the Coast Range belt, along the Pacific Margin, the central Nevadan Belt, and the inland Laramide belt.[12][13][14] The northern extent begins in the Western Brooks Range, De Long Mountains and and Lisburne Hills of Northern Alaska.[15]. The area extends south through the diverse topography of British Columbia's Coastal Mountains spanning east across the Interior Plateau to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. In the United States major features of the region include the Cascade Ranges, Central Oregon Highlands, the Colorado Plateau, and the Sierra Nevada in California.[16][17] The southern extent of the Western Cordillera (North America) ends in the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre del Sur of Mexico.[18]

Pacific Maritime Coastal Mountains

Pacific Coast Ranges

Main article: Pacific Coast Ranges

Strong mountain ranges follow the trend of the Pacific coast, 150 or 200 miles inland. The Cascade Range enters from Canada, where it is known as the Cascade Mountains, beginning on the south and east bank of the Fraser River, trending southward across the international boundary through Washington and Oregon to latitude 41°. The Sierra Nevada extends thence south-eastward through California to latitude 35°. The lower coast ranges, nearer the ocean, continue a little farther southward than the Sierra Nevada, before giving way to that part of the Basin Range province which reaches the Pacific in southernmost California. The Coast Mountains continue north north and west of the Fraser roughly parallel with the British Columbia Coast, with two major subdivisions, the Pacific Ranges and the Kitimat Ranges, until they form the Alaska-British Columbia border as the Boundary Ranges, terminating in the aera ofthe Chllkoot Pass.[19] From there northwards the Alsek Ranges and Saint Elias and Chugach Mountains form the northern end of the set of coastal ranges.

Cascade Range

Main article: Cascade Range

The Cascade Range is in essence a maturely dissected highland, composed in part of upwarped Colombian lavas, in part of older rocks, and crowned with several dissected volcanoes, of which the chief are (beginning in the north) Mount Baker (10,778 ft), Mount Rainier (14,410 ft), Mount Adams (12,276 ft.), Mount St. Helens (8,364 ft.), and Mount Hood (11,239 ft).


Sierra Nevada

Main article: Sierra Nevada (U.S.)

Generally speaking, the Sierra Nevada is a great mountain block, largely composed of granite and deformed metamorphosed rocks, reduced to moderate relief in an earlier (Cretaceous and Tertiary) cycle of erosion.


Interior Montane Cordillera, plateaus, and trenches

Rocky Mountains and Trench

Main articles: Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Trench, and Canadian Rockies

Columbia Mountains

Main article: Columbia Mountains

Selkirk Mountains

Main article: Selkirk Mountains

Purcell Mountains

Main article: Purcell Mountains

Monashee Mountains

Main article: Monashee Mountains

Cariboo Mountains

Main article: Cariboo Mountains

Interior Plateau

Main article: Interior Plateau

Thompson Plateau

Main article: Thompson Plateau

Okanagan Highland

Main article: Okanagan Highland

Shuswap Highland

Main article: Shuswap Highland

Quesnel Highland

Main article: Quesnel Highland

Fraser Plateau

Main article: Fraser Plateau

Nechako Plateau

Main article: Nechako Plateau

McGregor Plateau

Main article: McGregor Plateau

Interior Mountains

Main article: Interior Mountains

Hazelton Mountains

Main article: Hazelton Mountains

Stikine Ranges

Main article: Stikine Ranges
Omineca Mountains
Main article: Omineca Mountains
Cassiar Mountains
Main article: Cassiar Mountains

Basins and Plateaus

Colorado Plateau

Main article: Colorado Plateau

Columbia Basin

Main article: Columbia Basin



Mexican Cordillera

Sierra Madre Occidental

Main article: Sierra Madre Occidental

Sierra Madre del Sur

Main article: Sierra Madre del Sur

See also

References

  1. ^ Cannings, R. J.; Cannings, S. (1999). Geology of British Columbia. Greystone. p. 128. ISBN 10:1550547046, 13:9781550547047. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  2. ^ R. Saager and F. Bianconi. (1971). The Mount Nansen gold-silver deposit, Yukon territory, Canada. Mineralium Deposita, 6(3): 209-224
  3. ^ D. S. Cowan. (1985). Structural styles in Mesozoic and Cenozoic melanges in the western Cordillera of North America. Geological Society of America Bulletin 96, no. 4: 451-462.
  4. ^ E. H. McKee, and D. C. Noble. (1982). Miocene volcanism and deformation in the western Cordillera and high plateaus of south-central Peru. Geological Society of America Bulletin 93, no. 8: 657-662.
  5. ^ C. N. Garzione, G. D. Hoke, J. C. Libarkin, S. Withers, B. MacFadden, J. Eiler, P. Ghosh, and A. Mulch. (2008). Rise of the Andes. Science 320, no. 5881: 1304-1307.
  6. ^ M. Pubelliera, A. G. Badera, C. Rangina, B. Deffontaines and R. Quebralc. 1999. Upper plate deformation induced by subduction of a volcanic arc: the Snellius Plateau (Molucca Sea, Indonesia and Mindanao, Philippines). Tectonophysics, 304(4): 345-368. [1]
  7. ^ D. S. Cowan. (1985). Structural styles in Mesozoic and Cenozoic melanges in the western Cordillera of North America. Geological Society of America Bulletin 96, no. 4: 451-462.
  8. ^ J. R. Unruh. (1991). The uplift of the Sierra Nevada and implications for late Cenozoic epeirogeny in the western Cordillera. Geological Society of America Bulletin 103, no. 11: 1395-1404.
  9. ^ C. Maurice, M. J. Warren, and R. A. Price. (1998). Selkirk fan structure, southeastern Canadian Cordillera: Tectonic wedging against an inherited basement ramp. Geological Society of America Bulletin 110, no. 8: 1060-1074.
  10. ^ O. A. Callahan and J. G. Crider. (2008). An elevated geothermal gradient prior to early Cenozoic collapse of the North American Cordillera: evidence and implications. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 10: 1607-7962.[2]
  11. ^ Brunsfeld, S., Sullivan, J., Soltis, D., Sotis, P., 2001. Comparative phylogeography of north-western north america: A synthesis. In: Silverton, J., Antonovics, J. (Eds.), Integrating Ecology and Evolution in a Spatial Context. The 14th Special Symposium of the British Ecological Society. British Ecolological Society, Blackwell Science Ltd., Ch. 15, pp. 319–339.
  12. ^ A. J. Eardley. (1967). Western Cordillera--Alaska to Mexico: ABSTRACT. AAPG Bulletin, Volume 51.
  13. ^ T. O. Tobisch, S. R. Paterson, S. Longiaru, T. Bhattacharyya. (1987). Extent of the Nevadan orogeny, central Sierra Nevada, California. Geology, 15(2):132
  14. ^ P. J. Coney and T. A. Harms. (1984). Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes: Cenozoic extensional relics of Mesozoic compression. Geology, 12:550-554. [3]
  15. ^ A. J. Martin. (1970). Structure and Tectonic History of the Western Brooks Range, De Long Mountains and Lisburne Hills, Northern Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, no. 12: 3605-3622.
  16. ^ A. J. Eardley. (1967). Western Cordillera--Alaska to Mexico: ABSTRACT. AAPG Bulletin, Volume 51.
  17. ^ T. O. Tobisch, S. R. Paterson, S. Longiaru, T. Bhattacharyya. (1987). Extent of the Nevadan orogeny, central Sierra Nevada, California. Geology, 15(2):132
  18. ^ E. C. Cano, D. J. M. Zenteno, J. U. Fucugauchi. (1986). Paleomagnetismo Y terrenos tectonoestratigraficos de Mexico. 89-102. [4]
  19. ^ S. Holland, Landforms of British Columbia, BC Govt, 1976
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Cordillera_(North_America)&oldid=263331501"