The Long Range Mountains are a series of mountains along the west coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. They also form the northernmost section of the Appalachian chain on the eastern seaboard of North America. In 2003 it was announced that the International Appalachian Trail would be extended through the Long Range Mountains. Around 1,200 million years ago, in the Precambrian era, the ancient core of what is now eastern North America collided slowly with another continent to form a vast mountain range. All that remains today are the deeply eroded granites and gneisses of the Long Range mountains.
In the Precambrian, the supercontinent began to break apart. As it split, steep fractures formed and filled with molten rock from below. This magma cooled into the diabase dykes seen in the cliffs of Western Brook Pond and Ten Mile Pond.
By 570 million years ago the continent finally rifted apart, and the resulting basin became an ocean called the Iapetus Ocean. Some of the rocks of Gros Morne National Park were part of the continental margin on the western side of this new ocean, south of the Equator.
Running along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the range comprises the following sections:
- Anguille Mountains,
- Lewis Hills,
- Tablelands (a section of the Earth's mantle exposed at the surface)
- main section of the Long Range Mountains (running northeast from the Tablelands through Gros Morne National Park
| Rank | Name | m | ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Cabox | 814 | 2671 |
| 2 | Gros Morne | 807 | 2644 |
| 3 | Blue Mountain | 800 | 2625 |
| 4 | Big Level | 795 | 2608 |
| 5 | Round Hill | 763 | 2653 |
| 6 | Rocky Harbour Hill | 756 | 2480 |
| 7 | Mount Saint Gregory | 686 | 2251 |
| 8 | Gros Paté | 673 | 2208 |
| 9 | Big Hill | 659 | 2162 |
| 10 | Old Crow | 649 | 2129 |
Famous quotes containing the words long, range and/or mountains:
“As for the possible hereafter of the whales; a creature eighty feet long without stockings, and thirty feet round the waist before dinner, is not inconsiderately to be consigned to annihilation.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is the sorrow; shall it melt? Ah, water
Would gush, flush, green these mountains and these valleys
And we rebuild our cities, not dream of islands.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)