PACIFIC MOUNTAIN SYSTEM

Physical features of western North America.

Coast Mountains along the Torres Channel, an arm of Atlin Lake, northern British Columbia.
Copyright E. Otto/Comstock

The Pacific mountain system is a general term for the series of mountain ranges that stretches along the Pacific coast of North America from northern British Columbia (Canada) to northwestern Mexico. These ranges may be divided into eight sections. Roughly from north to south they are the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, the mountains of Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Cascade Range (itself divided into North, Middle, and South ranges), the Olympic Mountains, the Coast Ranges of Washington and Oregon, the Klamath Mountains, the Coast Ranges of California, and the Transverse Ranges.

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