Appalachian_Mountains

context: The Appalachian Mountains (i/ˌæpəˈleɪʃᵻn/ or /ˌæpəˈlætʃᵻn/,[note 1] French: les Appalaches), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period and once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before they were eroded. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east-west travel as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to any road running east-west.
qas: answers: text: les Appalaches
question: What are the Appalachian mountains called in French?

answers: text: a system of mountains in eastern North America
question: What are the Appalachian mountains?

answers: text: roughly 480 million years ago
question: When did the Appalachian mountains form?

answers: text: Ordovician Period
question: In what era did the mountains form?

context: Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division as consisting of thirteen provinces: the Atlantic Coast Uplands, Eastern Newfoundland Atlantic, Maritime Acadian Highlands, Maritime Plain, Notre Dame and Mégantic Mountains, Western Newfoundland Mountains, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, Saint Lawrence Valley, Appalachian Plateaus, New England province, and the Adirondack provinces. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which geologically belong to the Grenville Orogeny and have a different geological history from the rest of the Appalachians.
qas: answers: text: thirteen provinces
question: How many provinces are in the mountain range?

answers: text: the Atlantic Coast Uplands
question: What is one of the provinces?

answers: text: the Adirondack provinces
question: Which province is often left out?

answers: text: the Adirondack Mountains
question: What set of mountains in the range have a different geological history?

context: The range is mostly located in the United States but extends into southeastern Canada, forming a zone from 100 to 300 mi (160 to 480 km) wide, running from the island of Newfoundland 1,500 mi (2,400 km) southwestward to Central Alabama in the United States.[discuss] The range covers parts of the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which comprise an overseas territory of France. The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (910 m). The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
qas: answers: text: Canada
question: What country do the Appalachian mountains extend into?

answers: text: 100 to 300 mi
question: How large is the zone in Canada?

answers: text: Newfoundland
question: Where does it start in Canada?

answers: text: Central Alabama
question: Where does it end in the US? 

answers: text: Saint Pierre and Miquelon
question: What island is included in the range?

context: The term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region. The term is often used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including areas in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina, as well as sometimes extending as far south as northern Alabama, Georgia and western South Carolina, and as far north as Pennsylvania, southern Ohio and parts of southern upstate New York.
qas: answers: text: several different regions associated with the mountain range
question: What does the term Appalachian refer to?

answers: text: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina
question: What states comprise of the southern Appalachian mountains?

context: While exploring inland along the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, found a Native American village near present-day Tallahassee, Florida whose name they transcribed as Apalchen or Apalachen [a.paˈla.tʃɛn]. The name was soon altered by the Spanish to Apalachee and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15, 1528, and applied the name. Now spelled "Appalachian," it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US.
qas: answers: text: northern coast of Florida
question: What area did the Narvaez expedition explore?

answers: text: 1528
question: When did the Narvaez expedition explore Florida?

answers: text: Apalchen
question: What did they transcribe Florida's name as? 

answers: text: as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north
question: What was the name eventually used for?

context: In addition to the true folded mountains, known as the ridge and valley province, the area of dissected plateau to the north and west of the mountains is usually grouped with the Appalachians. This includes the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York, the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and the Allegheny Plateau of southwestern New York, western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. This same plateau is known as the Cumberland Plateau in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and northern Alabama.
qas: answers: text: dissected plateau to the north and west of the mountains
question: What area is usually grouped with the Appalachians? 

answers: text: Catskill Mountains
question: What mountains does that region include?

answers: text: Cumberland Plateau
question: What is the plateau known as in West Virginia?

context: The Appalachian belt includes, with the ranges enumerated above, the plateaus sloping southward to the Atlantic Ocean in New England, and south-eastward to the border of the coastal plain through the central and southern Atlantic states; and on the north-west, the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus declining toward the Great Lakes and the interior plains. A remarkable feature of the belt is the longitudinal chain of broad valleys, including The Great Appalachian Valley, which in the southerly sections divides the mountain system into two unequal portions, but in the northernmost lies west of all the ranges possessing typical Appalachian features, and separates them from the Adirondack group. The mountain system has no axis of dominating altitudes, but in every portion the summits rise to rather uniform heights, and, especially in the central section, the various ridges and intermontane valleys have the same trend as the system itself. None of the summits reaches the region of perpetual snow.
qas: answers: text: divides the mountain system into two unequal portions
question: What does the Great Appalachian Valley do?

answers: text: has no axis of dominating altitudes, but in every portion the summits rise to rather uniform heights
question: What is common among all the mountains in the range?

answers: text: None of the summits reaches the region of perpetual snow.
question: What is the climate like on the summits?

context: Mountains of the Long Range in Newfoundland reach heights of nearly 3,000 ft (900 m). In the Chic-Choc and Notre Dame mountain ranges in Quebec, the higher summits rise to about 4,000 ft (1,200 m) elevation. Isolated peaks and small ranges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick vary from 1,000 to 2,700 ft (300 to 800 m). In Maine several peaks exceed 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Mount Katahdin at 5,267 feet (1,605 m). In New Hampshire, many summits rise above 5,000 ft (1,500 m), including Mount Washington in the White Mountains at 6,288 ft (1,917 m), Adams at 5,771 ft (1,759 m), Jefferson at 5,712 ft (1,741 m), Monroe at 5,380 ft (1,640 m), Madison at 5,367 ft (1,636 m), Lafayette at 5,249 feet (1,600 m), and Lincoln at 5,089 ft (1,551 m). In the Green Mountains the highest point, Mt. Mansfield, is 4,393 ft (1,339 m) in elevation; others include Killington Peak at 4,226 ft (1,288 m), Camel's Hump at 4,083 ft (1,244 m), Mt. Abraham at 4,006 ft (1,221 m), and a number of other heights exceeding 3,000 ft (900 m).
qas: answers: text: 3,000 ft
question: How tall are the mountains in Newfoundland?

answers: text: vary from 1,000 to 2,700 ft
question: How tall are the mountains in Nova Scotia?

answers: text: exceed 4,000 ft
question: How tall are the mountains in Maine?

answers: text: many summits rise above 5,000 ft
question: How tall are the mountains in New Hampshire?

context: In Pennsylvania, there are over sixty summits that rise over 2,500 ft (800 m); the summits of Mount Davis and Blue Knob rise over 3,000 ft (900 m). In Maryland, Eagle Rock and Dans Mountain are conspicuous points reaching 3,162 ft (964 m) and 2,882 ft (878 m) respectively. On the same side of the Great Valley, south of the Potomac, are the Pinnacle 3,007 feet (917 m) and Pidgeon Roost 3,400 ft (1,000 m). In West Virginia, more than 150 peaks rise above 4,000 ft (1,200 m), including Spruce Knob 4,863 ft (1,482 m), the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains. A number of other points in the state rise above 4,800 ft (1,500 m). Snowshoe Mountain at Thorny Flat 4,848 ft (1,478 m) and Bald Knob 4,842 ft (1,476 m) are among the more notable peaks in West Virginia.
qas: answers: text: over sixty summits
question: How many summits in PA are over 2,500 ft? 

answers: text: over 3,000 ft
question: How tall are the summits of Mount Davis and Blue Knob?

answers: text: 3,162 ft (964 m) and 2,882 ft
question: How tall are Eagle Rock and Dans Mountain?

answers: text: 3,007 feet
question: How tall is the Pinnacle?

answers: text: more than 150 peaks
question: How many peaks are over 4,000 feet in WV?

context: The Blue Ridge Mountains, rising in southern Pennsylvania and there known as South Mountain, attain elevations of about 2,000 ft (600 m) in that state. South Mountain achieves its highest point just below the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland at Quirauk Mountain 2,145 ft (654 m) and then diminishes in height southward to the Potomac River. Once in Virginia the Blue Ridge again reaches 2,000 ft (600 m) and higher. In the Virginia Blue Ridge, the following are some of the highest peaks north of the Roanoke River: Stony Man 4,031 ft (1,229 m), Hawksbill Mountain 4,066 ft (1,239 m), Apple Orchard Mountain 4,225 ft (1,288 m) and Peaks of Otter 4,001 and 3,875 ft (1,220 and 1,181 m). South of the Roanoke River, along the Blue Ridge, are Virginia's highest peaks including Whitetop Mountain 5,520 ft (1,680 m) and Mount Rogers 5,729 ft (1,746 m), the highest point in the Commonwealth.
qas: answers: text: southern Pennsylvania
question: Where do the Blue Ridge Mountains begin?

answers: text: 2,000 ft
question: What are the typical elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains?

answers: text: 2,145 ft
question: How tall is Quirauk Mountain?

answers: text: 2,000 ft
question: How tall are the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia?

answers: text: Mount Rogers
question: What is the tallest Appalachian mountain in Virginia?

context: Before the French and Indian War, the Appalachian Mountains laid on the indeterminate boundary between Britain's colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin. After the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement for Great Britain's thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains (except in the northern regions where the Great Lakes formed the boundary). Although the line was adjusted several times to take frontier settlements into account and was impossible to enforce as law, it was strongly resented by backcountry settlers throughout the Appalachians. The Proclamation Line can be seen as one of the grievances which led to the American Revolutionary War. Many frontier settlers held that the defeat of the French opened the land west of the mountains to English settlement, only to find settlement barred by the British King's proclamation. The backcountry settlers who fought in the Illinois campaign of George Rogers Clark were motivated to secure their settlement of Kentucky.
qas: answers: text: on the indeterminate boundary between Britain's colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin
question: Where did the mountains lay before the French and Indian War?

answers: text: the Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement for Great Britain's thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains
question: What happened after the French and Indian War?

answers: text: it was strongly resented by backcountry settlers throughout the Appalachians
question: What was the general opinion of the law?

answers: text: the American Revolutionary War
question: What did the law likely lead to?

answers: text: their settlement of Kentucky
question: What did the backcountry settlers want to secure?

context: In eastern Pennsylvania the Great Appalachian Valley, or Great Valley, was accessible by reason of a broad gateway between the end of South Mountain and the Highlands, and many Germans and Moravians settled here between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers forming the Pennsylvania Dutch community, some of whom even now speak a unique American dialect of German known as the "Pennsylvania German language" or "Pennsylvania Dutch." These latecomers to the New World were forced to the frontier to find cheap land. With their followers of both German, English and Scots-Irish origin, they worked their way southward and soon occupied all of the Shenandoah Valley, ceded by the Iroquois, and the upper reaches of the Great Valley tributaries of the Tennessee River, ceded by the Cherokee.
qas: answers: text: between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers
question: Where did a lot of Germans settle? 

answers: text: Pennsylvania German language
question: What dialect was created because of this?

answers: text: all of the Shenandoah Valley
question: Where did these Germans eventually occupy?

context: Characteristic birds of the forest are wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris), ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), common raven (Corvus corax), wood duck (Aix sponsa), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), barred owl (Strix varia), screech owl (Megascops asio), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), and northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), as well as a great variety of "songbirds" (Passeriformes), like the warblers in particular.
qas: answers: text: wild turkey
question: What is one typical bird found in the range?

context: Animals that characterize the Appalachian forests include five species of tree squirrels. The most commonly seen is the low to moderate elevation eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Occupying similar habitat is the slightly larger fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) and the much smaller southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans). More characteristic of cooler northern and high elevation habitat is the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), whereas the Appalachian northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus), which closely resembles the southern flying squirrel, is confined to northern hardwood and spruce-fir forests.
qas: answers: text: five species
question: How many species of tree squirrel are commonly found in the range?

answers: text: gray squirrel
question: What is the most commonly seen species?

answers: text: larger fox squirrel
question: What does the squirrel share its habitat with?

answers: text: red squirrel
question: What is found more in the northern portions?

answers: text: Appalachian northern flying squirrel
question: Which species is commonly found more in spruce-fir forests?

context: Dryer and rockier uplands and ridges are occupied by oak-chestnut type forests dominated by a variety of oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.) and, in the past, by the American chestnut (Castanea dentata). The American chestnut was virtually eliminated as a canopy species by the introduced fungal chestnut blight (Cryphonectaria parasitica), but lives on as sapling-sized sprouts that originate from roots, which are not killed by the fungus. In present-day forest canopies chestnut has been largely replaced by oaks.
qas: answers: text: oak
question: What trees are typically found in the dryer portions?

answers: text: The American chestnut
question: What species of tree was pretty much eliminated?

answers: text: sapling-sized sprouts
question: What does the tree live on?

answers: text: oaks
question: What trees replaced chestnut trees?

context: The oak forests of the southern and central Appalachians consist largely of black, northern red, white, chestnut and scarlet oaks (Quercus velutina, Q. rubra, Q. alba, Q. prinus and Q. coccinea) and hickories, such as the pignut (Carya glabra) in particular. The richest forests, which grade into mesic types, usually in coves and on gentle slopes, have dominantly white and northern red oaks, while the driest sites are dominated by chestnut oak, or sometimes by scarlet or northern red oaks. In the northern Appalachians the oaks, except for white and northern red, drop out, while the latter extends farthest north.
qas: answers: text: black, northern red, white, chestnut and scarlet oaks
question: What kind of oaks are in the central and southern portions?

answers: text: hickories
question: What other tree is common there?

answers: text: chestnut oak
question: What trees are located in drier portions?