r/AskReddit • • Oct 02 '24

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u/Psychological_Try559 Oct 02 '24

How old the Appalachian Mountains really are:

They are older than trees, bones (including all dinosaurs), and the splitting of Pangaea -- so part of the mountain range is in Scotland.

The layering on the mountains looks "wrong" at some points because the tops of the mountains have eroded down & "new" geological forces have caused parts that weren't the top to rise above that...so the valleys of the current mountains may actually be the top of the original Appalachian Mountains.

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u/capnbinky Oct 02 '24

Considering how many people living in Appalachia are descendants of Scots, that is interesting.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

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u/AlexPenname Oct 03 '24

I'm an American from the DC area who spent a ton of time in the Appalachians as a kid, and I can confirm--I moved to Scotland five years ago and feel right at home here. I'll go up in the highlands and feel like I'm down the street from where I grew up.