The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, are just like mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway (figure 2). Wegener concluded that they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents drifted.

The highest mountains on Earth today, the Himalayas, are so high because the full thickness of the Indian subcontinent is shoving beneath Asia. The Appalachian Mountains formed during a collision of continents 500 to 300 million years ago.

The ocean con tinued to shrink until, about 270 million years ago, the continents that were ances tral to North America and Africa collided. Huge masses of rocks were pushed west- ward along the margin of North America and piled up to form the mountains that we now know as the Appalachians.

The Caledonian Mountains in Norway and Sweden match up with the Canadian Appalachians.

They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. Along with the Biosphere reserve, the Great Smokies have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Great Smoky Mountains are a subrange of the Blue Ridge Mountain System. Thus, the Great Smokies are the Blue Ridge Mountains, but not all of the Blue Ridge Mountains are Great Smoky Mountains. The Blue Ridge Mountains stretch 615 miles from Carlisle, Pennsylvania southwestward into Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia.

The native Cherokee people traditionally called the Great Smoky Mountains Shaconage, which translates to “place of the blue smoke.” Euro-American settlers drew from this name in their own label of “Smoky Mountains,” with “Great” being added at some point or another to reflect the massiveness and grandeur of the range.

The Smokies are named for the blue mist that always seems to hover around the peaks and valleys. The Cherokee called them shaconage, (shah-con-ah-jey) or “place of the blue smoke”. As for the spelling, just as many folks call them “smokey” as do those who call them “smoky”. The dictionary says both are acceptable.

Popular wildlife in the Great Smoky Mountains include salamanders, coyotes, deer, black bears, bobcats, and elk.

Haze in the air is caused by small airborne particles — typically dust, soot, ash or smoke. Aerosols are particles so small that they are suspended in air and don’t settle out. Fog and steam can also be considered aerosols.

As noted by the Cherokee, the fog in the Smoky Mountains often takes on a blue appearance. The reason for this is that the vapor molecules released by the mountains’ vegetation scatter blue light from the sky.

This is because the sun is low on the horizon and the visible light from the sun has more atmosphere to pass through before reaching the surface. Colors such as violet, blue and green have shorter wavelengths, and air particles absorb and scatter that light before it can pass through.

Life at High Altitude When you get out to the mountains, you leave the city and all of its pollution behind. The air at high altitudes has less oxygen than that at sea level.

The haze in the air today is caused by smoke from the massive wildfire in New Mexico. News 4 Tucson meteorologist Jeff Beamish says winds will likely shift the smoke away from Arizona later today.

When particles, such as smoke or dust, fill the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths of light — which look red — scatter more effectively. If the air is cleaner, there are more air molecules, which scatter shorter wavelengths or light, or blue light, more effectively. (Think clear blue sky.)

The unusual colour of the sky and the redness of the sun today is likely to be due to smoke from wildfires occurring over northern Iberia along with desert dust high up in the atmosphere originating from North Africa.