Long Range Mountains

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Long Range Mountains
Range
Western Brook Pond, a fjord in the Long Range Mountains. (Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland)
Country	Canada
Province	Newfoundland and Labrador
Highest point	The Cabox
- elevation	814 m (2,671 ft)

Coordinates: 50°25′N 57°10′W / 50.417, -57.167 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 late Precambrian time, 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, this is the only part of North America's east coast (south of Labrador and not including Somes Sound in Maine) that is indented by fjords)

Highest Peaks of the Long Range Mountains

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

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