Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a zone of the bigger Appalachian Mountains series. This zone consists of southern and northern physiographic areas, which divide close to the gap of the Roanoke River. The Blue Ridge Mountain range is situated in the eastern part of the United States, beginning at its southernmost part of the Georgia State, and then concluding on the northern side of the Pennsylvania State. On the western side of the Blue Ridge, the Great Appalachian Valley lies between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the mass of the Appalachian Mountains, bounded by the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachian range on the west.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are renowned for possessing a bluish color when observed from a distance. Trees on the mountain range put the blue color, from the isoprene discharged into the atmosphere, thereby accounting for the characteristic mist on the mountains and their distinguishing color.

Inside the Blue Ridge province, there are two foremost national parks, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located in the southern part and the Shenandoah National Park, situated in the northern part. The Blue Ridge Mountains also includes the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is a 755-km (469-mile) long picturesque highway that unites the two parks and is situated down the ridge crest lines with the Appalachian track.

Topography

Even though the expression "Blue Ridge" is occasionally applied wholly to the Front Range or the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains, the geographical definition of the Blue Ridge region widens western side of the Ridge and Valley region, surrounding the Great Balsams, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Brushy Mountains, the Roans, and other mountain collections.

The Blue Ridge Mountains extend to the extreme north into the Pennsylvania State as South Mountain. As the South Mountain declines to merge hills between Harrisburg and Gettysburg, the group of ancient rocks that structures the core of the Blue Ridge Mountains continues northeast throughout the Hudson River and New Jersey Highlands, finally reaching the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.

The Blue Ridge Mountains include the highest peaks in the eastern part of North America in the south of the Baffin Island. There are about 125 mountains that go beyond 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in height. The highest mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains is Mt. Mitchell, situated in North Carolina, with a height of 6,684 feet (2,037 meters). There are 39 peaks in Tennessee and North Carolina, which are higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). By contrast, only Mt. Washington in New Hampshire ascends more than 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in the northern part of the Appalachian series.

The Parkway in the Blue Ridge Mountains runs 755 km (469 miles) along the crests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and connects two state parks, such as Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah. In several places down the parkway, there are metamorphic rocks with crinkled bands of pale-and dark-colored stones, which occasionally look as if the swirls and folds in a marble slab.

The majority of the rocks that structure the Blue Ridge Mountains are antique metamorphosed volcanic formations, granitic charnockites and sedimentary lime stones.