Read Next
Western Cordillera
mountains, North America
- Also known as:
- North American Cordillera or Pacific Cordillera
Western Cordillera, in western North America, a system of mountain ranges extending from the U.S. state of Alaska through northwestern Canada, the western United States, and into Mexico. The largest range is the Canadian Rockies; others include the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and the Coast Ranges. The continent’s youngest mountains, they are in many places very high and rugged. Most of the Western Cordillera was built between about 170 million and 40 million years ago when lithospheric plates converged with North America at rapid rates of many tens to more than 100 millimetres (4 inches) per year. ...(100 of 1349 words)