Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Mountain.s. (Randy Wells/Tony Stone Images)... 

The transport of injurious concentrations of ozone and other oxidants to rural areas downwind from urban centers at numerous locations in the United States appears to be on the increase. Blumenthal et al. conservatively estimated that the urban plume from the Los Angeles area could cause ozone concentrations to exceed the Federal standard of 0.08 ppm at locations as far as 260 km. Other areas where significant rural concentrations of oxidant have been observed are Salt Lake City, Denver, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Similar results were reported in the literature for most European (Scandinavia, UK, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic) and North American (Ontario, Vermont, Quebec, Adirondack Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains) freshwater sites, where monitoring of the effects of long-range transboundary air pollution on acidification occurs [23]. 

Similar results were observed in most European countries (UK, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic) and North American sites (Adirondack mountains, Blue ridge mountains, Maine, Atlantic Canada, Ontario). Significant trends were only found in Scandinavian countries and in the Appalachians Mountains, Vermont and Quebec. However, independently of the presence or not of a significant trend, at most smdied sites concentrations of base cations tend to decrease, phenomena that cannot be observed in the Alps [23]. 

In the northeastern United States, sulfate deposition has also been reduced substantially since the 1980s. The average annual wet deposition of sulfates dropped in three environmentally sensitive areas (the Adirondacks, Mid-Appalachian, and Southern Blue Ridge mountains) by 26, 23, and 9 percent, respectively, from the period 1983-94 to the period 1995-98. That trend is also reflected in data collected from monitoring stations throughout the eastern United States, which show a 26 percent decrease in sulfate deposition between the two monitoring periods, 1983-94 and 1995-98. 

Ferrnan, M. A., G. T. Wolff, and N. A. Kelly, The Nature and Sources of Haze in the Shenandoah Valley Blue Ridge Mountains Area, J. Air Pollut, Control Assoc., 31, 1074-1082 (1981). 

County (the former north and the latter south of the Albemarle-Nelson outcrops but along the Blue Ridge Mountains) appear to have been utilized in a manner very similar to that of the Albemarle-Nelson quarries. In other words the artifacts were found south and west of the quarries. On the other hand, artifacts from quarries in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. were distributed more like the Chula materials (Figure 8). 

Isoprene, the common name for 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is given off by plants as the temperature rises, a process thought to increase a plant s tolerance for heat stress. Isoprene is a component of the blue haze seen above forested hillsides, such as Virginia s Blue Ridge Mountains. 

The use of concentrations precludes the calculation of weathering rates for landscapes or for individual minerals. Bricker et al. (1968) and Cleaves et al. (1970, 1974) modeled changes in solute fluxes, enabling them to calculate weathering rates for the catchment and rates for individual mineral reactions. Velbel extended this type of calculation to a variety of rocks and minerals of the southern Blue Ridge mountains (Velbel, 1985, 1992), and other investigators have used this method to examine rock and mineral weathering rates in the field (Paces, 1983 Berner, 1981 Sverdrup, 1990 Creasey et al., 1986 Dethier, 1986 Marchand, 1971 Yuretich and Batchelder, 1988 White et al., 2001). 

I owe a special word of thanks to Scott Stewart who spotted some of the more egregious errors in the manuscript the ones remaining can only be called my own. Scott also sustained me over the years with a stalwart friendship and the warm hospitality of his - and Laura s - home nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains ofVirginia. 

Cook P, Herczeg AL (eds) Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, p 441-478 Plummer LN, Busenberg E, Bohlke JK, Nelms DL, Michel RL, Schlosser P (2001) Gronnd water residence times in Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia, USA a mnlti-tracer approach. ChemGeol 179 93-111... 

The Blue Ridge Mountain next to Palmerton, Pennsylvania, was decimated by SO2 pollution from the zinc refinery located there. The roasting of the ZnS ore to produce ZnO (used to produce Zn metal] also made SO2 most of which was captured to generate sulfuric acid. But cumulative SO2 releases over many years killed most of the vegetation on the mountain next to the refinery. The refinery is now shut down, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing extensive remediation of the mountain with acid- and zinc-resistant plants. 

The Blue Ridge Mountains in the United States are part of the Appalachian Mountain chain extending from Georgia into Pennsylvania. They are noted for the blue haze that envelops the mountains. What is the chemical process that makes these mountains blue and why were they blue even in times when anthropogenic air pollution was not a factor ... 

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