Pacific Coast Ranges: Difference between revisions

'''The''' '''Pacific Coast Ranges''' (officially gazetted as the '''Pacific Mountain System'''<ref>[http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/physio.xml ''Physiographic regions of the United States'', USGS]</ref> in the [[United States]] but referred to as the '''Pacific Coast Ranges'''),<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=V2d12iZkgOwC&pg=PA361 Merriam-Webster's collegiate encyclopedia]'', page 361 (Merriam-Webster, 2000).</ref> are the series of [[mountain range]]s that stretch along the West Coast of [[North America]] from [[Alaska]] south to Northern and Central [[Mexico]]. Although they are commonly thought to be the westernmost mountain range of the continental United States and Canada, the geologically distinct [[Insular Mountains]] of [[Vancouver Island]] lie further west.