South Mountain | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Peak | Womelsdorf Benchmark [1] |
Elevation | 1,380 ft (420 m) |
Coordinates | 40°19′28″N76°11′44″W / 40.32444°N 76.19556°W |
Geography | |
Country | United States |
State | Pennsylvania |
Region | New England province |
Counties | Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Northampton and Lehigh |
Parent range | Appalachian Highlands |
Borders on | Lebanon Valley, Lehigh Valley and Piedmont |
Biome | Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians |
Geology | |
Orogeny | Grenville orogeny |
Age of rock | Proterozoic eon and about 570 to 1,600 million years ago |
Type of rock | Crystalline metamorphic rock and gneiss |
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 [2] and the northernmost end of the ridge on which Lehigh University is built, in Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley.
The mountain borders Emmaus just south of Allentown and comprises a ridge of low mountains passing east of Reading, and then extends due west. South Mountain is a continuation of the New England Province and is the southern end of the Hudson Highlands. [3] The mountain is a core geographic feature throughout much of the Pennsylvania side of the Lehigh Valley. The mountain is called the Reading Prong by geologists. [4]
Unlike Blue Mountain to its north, South Mountain does not follow a straight geographic line. The mountain ranges in elevation between 500 and 1,300 feet (150 and 400 m) above sea level. The ridge is made of metamorphic rocks and gneiss, which date to the Precambrian era and range from about 570 million to 1,600 million years old.
South Mountain is largely undeveloped in its northern extension due to conservation efforts and the mountain's steep slope. This makes it a beautiful backdrop to the viewpoints of the Lehigh Valley, including, at night, the city lights of Allentown. The southern end of the mountain extends west along U.S. Route 422 and the southeastern border of Berks County, providing views of Blue Mountain to the north, and Mount Penn, which comprises part of the prong and the city of Reading to the east.
The southernmost peaks were at one time home to many exclusive sanitariums and resorts, now all defunct except for the Caron Foundation. South Mountain serves as the transmitter site for several local radio and television stations, including the independent television station WFMZ-TV, which maintains both its transmitter and studio facilities on the mountain, south of Allentown.
Lehigh County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 374,557. Its county seat is Allentown, the state's third-largest city after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
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 Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.
U.S. Route 222 is a U.S. Highway that is a spur of US 22 in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It runs for 95 miles (153 km) from US 1 in Conowingo, Maryland, north to the junction of Interstate 78 (I-78) and Pennsylvania Route 309 in Dorneyville, Pennsylvania. US 222 is almost entirely in Pennsylvania, and serves as the state's principal artery between the Lancaster and Reading areas in the west and the Lehigh Valley in the east.
Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain Ridge, or the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania is a ridge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. Forming the southern and eastern edge of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians physiographic province in Pennsylvania, Blue Mountain extends 150 miles (240 km) from the Delaware Water Gap on the New Jersey border in the east to Big Gap in Franklin County in south-central Pennsylvania at its southwestern end.
Regions of Pennsylvania in the United States include:
Interstate 78 (I-78) is a major east–west Interstate Highway stretching from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in the west to the Holland Tunnel and New York City in the east. In Pennsylvania, I-78 runs for about 78 miles (126 km) from the western terminus at I-81 in Union Township east to the New Jersey state line near Easton in Northampton County.
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, they include: the Atlantic Plain 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.
The Reading Prong is a physiographic subprovince of the New England Uplands section of the New England province of the Appalachian Highlands. The prong consists of mountains made up of crystalline metamorphic rock.
The Lebanon Valley is a geographic region that lies between South Mountain and the Ridge and Valley Province of eastern Pennsylvania. The valley lies almost entirely within Lebanon and Berks counties in Pennsylvania. Portions of the valley lie in eastern Dauphin and northern Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania. It is bound to its southwest by the Susquehanna River and to its northeast by the adjoining Lehigh Valley.
Swabia Creek is a tributary of Little Lehigh Creek in Berks and Lehigh Counties in the eastern Pennsylvania region of the Lehigh Valley.
Pisgah Mountain, or Pisgah Ridge on older USGS maps, is a ridgeline running 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from Tamaqua to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania from the Little Schuylkill River water gap to the Lehigh River water gap.
The Trexler Nature Preserve is an 1,108-acre county park (448 ha) owned and maintained by Lehigh County in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. The preserve is situated in Lowhill Township and North Whitehall Township and the land that comprises the preserve was originally purchased between 1901 and 1911 by local industrialist General Harry Clay Trexler.
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.
Mauch Chunk Ridge or Mauch Chunk Mountain is a historically important barrier ridgeline north of the Blue Mountain escarpment and 3rd parallel ridgeline south of the Nesquehoning Creek after Nesquehoning Mountain and Pisgah Ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Lehigh Mountain is a mountain in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The main peak rises to 843 feet (257 m) and is located in Salisbury Township. Lehigh Mountain is located on the right bank of the Lehigh River, and is separated from South Mountain by the headwaters of Trout Creek. It is part of the Reading Prong of the Appalachian Mountains.
Applebutter Hill is a low mountain in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The main peak rises to 850 feet (259 m), and is located in Upper Saucon Township. Applebutter Hill is located to the west of Center Valley, and is north of Coopersburg.
Broad Mountain or Broad Ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in Carbon County and Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania is a steep-faced, anthracite-bearing barrier ridge just south of both Beaver Meadows and Weatherly, north of Nesquehoning and west and south of the Lehigh River basin west of the southwest border of the Poconos. The mountain ridge line is mostly flat and looks very similar to the man-made piles of culm in the region from the roads and towns looking up.