Prelims ask
Highest peak is Mount Elbert. Country count is two. Pair Denali with Alaska Range, Elbert with Rockies.
North America · Young fold
Rockies
- Countries
- North to south: Canada and the United States. Mexico’s Sierra Madre is a separate system.
- Length
- About 4,800 km. Exam-safe figure.
- Orientation
- North–south, inland of the Pacific coast.
- Mountain type
- Young fold
- Plates
- Laramide belt on the North American plate, driven by flat-slab subduction of the Farallon plate. The Juan de Fuca plate is the surviving remnant offshore.
- Highest peak
- Mount Elbert, 4,401 m, Colorado. Denali is not in the Rockies.
- Rivers that rise here
- Missouri, Colorado, Rio Grande, Arkansas, Columbia and Saskatchewan draw headwaters here.
- Climate and rain shadow
- Leeward chinook winds warm the Great Plains in hours. The plains are drier than the western slopes. The barrier is incomplete: polar air still travels south on the open plains.
Mains use
Use as a north–south range that does not sit on today’s plate edge. Chinook is the local-wind example for the 2021 alignment question.