page_title: Mission Mountains
section_title: Uplift
hierarchical_section_title: Mission Mountains / Geology / Uplift
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mission Mountains seen from the National Bison Range, Montana
context_page_description: The Mission Mountains or Mission Range are a range of the Rocky Mountains located in northwestern Montana in the United States. They lie chiefly in Lake County and Missoula County and are south and east of Flathead Lake and west of the Swan Range. On the east side of the range is the Swan
  River Valley and on the west side the Mission Valley.
  The highest point in the Mission Mountains is McDonald Peak at 9,820 feet. The range is named for its proximity to the Jesuit St. Ignatius Mission, established in the mid-19th century in what is today St. Ignatius, Montana.
context_section_description: The features of the Mission Mountains strongly reflect work of the last few ice ages, the latest of those being just over 10,000 years ago. But the range is also the product of a much longer story, one that can be started with the breakup of the Pangaea super-continent. As the continents began to spread out, the North American Plate inched westward, grinding over and against the Pacific Plate as it went. This subduction of the Pacific Plate caused the rise of the Rocky Mountains and thereby the Missions.
  About 66 million years ago, this process of uplift began to slow. This time, called the Cenozoic Era, is when the area began to look much like it does today. Looking at the globe at that time, the continents would have been about where they are today and plant and animal life would be recognizable. At that time, however, the deep valleys of western Montana would not yet have formed.
  This development is believed to have come about 40 million years ago as the extensional forces that caused the uplift of the Rockies began to cause the crust to thin and crack. Near-vertical faults formed almost uniformly throughout the region, most trending northwest to southeast. The blocks then broke up, some dropping and creating valleys like the Flathead and the Swan. In all, the whole process took around 100 million years.
caption: Mission Mountains viewed from the National Bison Range
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