The geology of the Appalachians dates back more than 1.1 billion years to the Mesoproterozoic era when two continental cratons collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia, 500 million years prior to the later development of the range during the formation of the supercontinent Pangea. The rocks exposed in today's Appalachian Mountains reveal elongate belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor – strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangea with the Appalachians and neighboring Anti-Atlas mountains near the center. These mountain ranges likely once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before they were eroded.
The Great Appalachian Valley, also called The Great Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough, including a chain of valley lowlands, and the central feature of the Appalachian Mountains system. The trough stretches about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from Quebec in the north to Alabama in the south and has been an important north–south route of travel since prehistoric times.
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three sections: the Hudson Valley, the Central, and the Tennessee.
The Hudson Highlands are mountains on both sides of the Hudson River in New York state lying primarily in Putnam County on its east bank and Orange County on its west. They continue somewhat to the south in Westchester County and Rockland County, respectively. The highlands are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Skylands Region is a region of New Jersey located in the northern and central parts of the state. It is one of six tourism regions established by the New Jersey State Department of Tourism; the others are Gateway Region, Greater Atlantic City Region, the Southern Shore Region, the Delaware River Region, and the Shore Region.
South Mountain is a colloquial name applied to an Appalachian Mountain range extending north and northeast along the south side of Lebanon Valley to the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. South Mountain includes the southernmost cluster of peaks that straddle Berks, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties and the northernmost end of the ridge on which Lehigh University is built, in Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley.
The Appalachian Highlands is one of eight government-defined physiographic divisions of the contiguous United States. The links with the Appalachian Uplands in Canada to make up the Appalachian Mountains. The Highlands includes seven physiographic provinces, which is the second level in the physiographic classification system in the United States. At the next level of physiographic classification, called section/subsection, there are 20 unique land areas with one of the provinces having no sections.
The Geology of Pennsylvania consists of six distinct physiographic provinces, three of which are subdivided into different sections. Each province has its own economic advantages and geologic hazards and plays an important role in shaping everyday life in the state. From the southeast corner to the northwest corner of the state, the include: the Atlantic Plain Province province, the Piedmont Province, the New England Province, the Ridge and Valley Province, the Appalachain Province, and the Central Lowlands Province.
New Jersey is a very geologically and geographically diverse region in the United States' Middle Atlantic region, offering variety from the Appalachian Mountains and the Highlands in the state's northwest, to the Atlantic Coastal Plain region that encompasses both the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Shore. The state's geological features have impacted the course of settlement, development, commerce and industry over the past four centuries.
Pochuck Mountain is a ridge in the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. Pochuck Mountain's summit and most of its peaks lie within Vernon Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, although the south-western portion of the ridge lies within Hardyston Township, and the north-eastern tip of the ridge extends over the New York state line into Orange County. The ridge marks the eastern edge of the Great Appalachian Valley, and it divides the watersheds of the Wallkill River and its tributary Pochuck Creek. The two rivers meet at Pochuck Neck, marking the terminus of the ridge.
Pignut Mountain is a mountain in Rappahannock County, Virginia. It is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its summit lies within Shenandoah National Park.
Wawayanda Mountain is a ridge in the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.
The Kittatinny Valley is a section of the Great Appalachian Valley in Sussex and Warren counties in northwestern New Jersey that is bounded on the northwest by Kittatinny Mountain, and in the southeast by the New Jersey Highlands region. The valley is roughly 40 miles (64 km) long, with a breadth of 10 to 13 miles.
The New York – New Jersey Highlands is a geological formation composed primarily of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock running from the Delaware River near Musconetcong Mountain, northeast through the Skylands Region of New Jersey along the Bearfort Ridge and the Ramapo Mountains, Sterling Forest, Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks in New York, to the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain. The northern region is also known as the Hudson Highlands and the southern as the New Jersey Highlands. A broader definition would extend the region west to Reading, Pennsylvania, and east to the Housatonic River in Connecticut, encompassing the Reading Prong. The highlands are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Hamburg Mountains are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,473 feet (449 m), lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.
The Pimple Hills are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,122 feet (342 m), lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.
The Sparta Mountains are a range of the New York-New Jersey Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit, reaching a height of 1,230 feet, lies within Sussex County, New Jersey.
The Trenton Prong is a physiographic subprovince of the Piedmont Uplands section of the Piedmont province of the Appalachian Mountains. The prong consists of crystalline metamorphic rock.
The topography of the New England Uplands section is that of a maturely-dissected plateau with narrow valleys, and the entire area is greatly modified by glaciation. It is the most widespread of the geomorphic sections in the New England Province, extending from Canada through New England down to the Seaboard section and extending southwestward through New York and New Jersey as two narrow upland projections, the Reading Prong and the Manhattan Prong. Numerous hills and mountains rise above the general level of the upland; except in the presence of mountains, the horizon of the regional landscape is fairly level. Glaciation has resulted in the erosion and rounding off of the bedrock topography and numerous rock basin lakes. Glacial drift is thin, patchy, and stony, and ice-contact features such as kames, kame terraces, and eskers are abundant. The surface of the New England Uplands slopes southeast from maximum inland altitudes around 670 meters, excluding the other mountainous sections of the province, to about 122 to 152 meters along its seaward edge at the narrow coastal Seaboard section, which goes down to sea level.
In the United States, the Manhattan Prong of the New England Uplands is a smaller belt of ancient rock in southern New York, parts of Westchester County, and upland portions of southwestern Connecticut.
