The Rocky Mountains are a large mountain system in North America. They are part of a very large chain of mountains called The North American Cordillera, which also includes the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges.
The North American Cordillera was formed in Cenozoic and Mesozoic eras, and the various ranges in it are formed by the movements of the Pacific and North American crustal plates, either by shear crustal plate movements (horizontal) or converging movements (the convergence of two plates in a vertical fault line). The shear movements resulted in the Aleutian chain in Alaska, the mountains of British Columbia, and the Cascades in Washington State and Oregon. The converging movements resulted in fault lines such as the famous San Andreas Fault in California.
The Rockies are 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) long, and vary from one hundred to four hundred miles (160 kilometers to 640 kilometers) wide.
The Rockies have four major divisions, the Arctic Rockies,
the Northern Rockies, the Middle Rockies, and the Southern
Rockies. The highest peaks are in Colorado; the highest
of which is Mt. Elbert at 14,331 feet elevation. The
Arctic Rockies are located in northwestern Canada and
northern Alaska. The Brooks Range in Alaska is the northern
edge of this group. The Northern Rockies stretch from northern
British Columbia through Alberta to northern and central
Idaho and Montana. The Middle Rockies are in south central
Montana, western Wyoming, and north central Utah. The Teton
Range in Wyoming is a spectacular small range within this
group, whose mountains are steep, and without foothills.
The Southern Rockies extend from Wyoming through Colorado
to northern New Mexico.
The Continental Divide is an important geographical feature of the Rocky Mountains. The Continental Divide is the line which separates the basins of streams draining into the Atlantic Ocean from the basins of streams draining into the Pacific Ocean.
Web Sites
Catalog
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