Q 01/05

The Appalachian Mountains run from central Alabama northeast to which Canadian island?

A) Newfoundland

B) Anticosti Island

C) Cape Breton

D) Prince Edward Island

Answer · why

A) Newfoundland

Newfoundland: the range ends in its highlands, and the International Appalachian Trail is being extended along the island's mountainous west coast.

Q 02/05

The 1972 film Deliverance shot its canoe scenes on which southern Appalachian river?

A) Chattooga

B) Nantahala

C) Ocoee

D) French Broad

Answer · why

A) Chattooga

Chattooga: the film drew crowds of rafters and tourists to the river, and in 1974 Congress made it a Wild and Scenic River.

Q 03/05

Which French overseas territory means the Appalachians technically span three countries?

A) Saint Barthélemy

B) Wallis and Futuna

C) French Southern and Antarctic Lands

D) Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Answer · why

D) Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Saint Pierre and Miquelon went back to France under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, even as France gave up the rest of New France.

Q 04/05

The Appalachians are geologically related to which mountains across the Atlantic, from the same Pangean range?

A) The Swiss Alps

B) The Pyrenees

C) The Carpathian Mountains

D) The Scottish Highlands

Answer · why

D) The Scottish Highlands

The Scottish Highlands share that ancient chain's rocks, so the International Appalachian Trail now follows Scotland's West Highland Way.

Q 05/05

The three mountain-building orogenies that formed the modern Appalachians began roughly how long ago?

A) 480,000 years

B) 4.8 million years

C) 48 million years

D) 480 million years

Answer · why

D) 480 million years

480 million years: as an ancient ocean closed, colliding landmasses piled rock onto North America's edge and pushed up the range.