| North American Cordillera | |
|---|---|
.JPG) A mountain in Denali National Park | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Denali |
| Elevation | 6,168 m (20,236 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 6,400 km (4,000 mi) |
| Geography | |
 The mountainous western part of North America is called a "cordillera". | |
| Countries |
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The North American Cordillera, sometimes also called the Western Cordillera of North America, the Western Cordillera, or the Pacific Cordillera,[1][2] is the North American portion of the American Cordillera, the mountain chain system along the Pacific coast of the Americas. The North American Cordillera covers an extensive area of mountain ranges, intermontane basins, and plateaus in Western and Northwestern Canada, Western United States, and Mexico, including much of the territory west of the Great Plains.
The precise boundaries of this cordillera and its subregions, as well as the names of its various features, may differ depending on the definitions in each country or jurisdiction, and also depending on the scientific field; this cordillera is a particularly prominent subject in the scientific field of physical geography.[3][4]
- ^ R. Saager & F. Bianconi (1971). "The Mount Nansen gold–silver deposit, Yukon territory, Canada". Mineralium Deposita. 6 (3). doi:10.1007/BF00208030. S2CID 129092271.
- ^ D. S. Cowan (1985). "Structural styles in Mesozoic and Cenozoic melanges in the Western Cordillera of North America". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 96 (4): 451. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1985)96<451:SSIMAC>2.0.CO;2.
- ^ Melanie Ostopowich (2005) The Cordillera, Weigl Educational Publishers Limited, ISBN 1553881494, pp. 6, 12, and 20: "The Cordillera is one of the seven geographic regions in Canada".
- ^ The Encyclopedia Americana: a library of universal knowledge, Encyclopedia Americana Corp., 1918, ISBN 0717201333, p. 687: "[N]ame from the Spanish....It is used particularly in physical geography, although in geology also it is sometimes applied...."