North Mountain (Nova Scotia)

North Mountain
North Mountain ridge above Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia
Highest point
Peak	Mount Rose
Elevation	235 m (771 ft)
Coordinates	45°6′0″N 64°45′0″W / 45.10000°N 64.75000°W / 45.10000; -64.75000Coordinates: 45°6′0″N 64°45′0″W / 45.10000°N 64.75000°W / 45.10000; -64.75000
Geography
Location of North Mountain
Country	Canada
Provinces	Nova Scotia
Geology
Age of rock	Triassic
Type of rock	Igneous

North Mountain (French: Montagne du Nord; Gaelic: Beinn a Tuath) is a narrow southwest-northeast trending volcanic ridge on the mainland portion of southwestern Nova Scotia, stretching from Brier Island to Cape Split. It forms the northern edge of the Annapolis Valley along the shore of the Bay of Fundy. Together with South Mountain, the two ranges form the Annapolis Highlands region.

North Mountain rises dramatically from the valley floor and tapers somewhat more gradually to the north and west where it meets the coast, although many parts of this coast have vertical cliffs rising higher than 30 metres, most notably at Cape Split. A break occurs at Digby Gut where a gap in the mountain ridge is filled by a deep tidal channel separating the eastern end of the mountain from Digby Neck.

The highest point on the ridge is at Mount Rose in Annapolis County, north of Lawrencetown.

The ridge traces its history to the Triassic period when this part of Nova Scotia occupied the center of the supercontinent Pangaea. It is a 201 million year old sequence of tholeiitic basalts, which contains columnar jointing. The basalts also extend under the Bay of Fundy and parts of it are exposed on the shore at Five Islands, east of Parrsboro on the north side of the bay. Numerous sediment-filled fissures are present near the upper surface of North Mountain. The hard ridge of basalt resisted the grinding of ice sheets that flowed over the region during past ice ages, and now forms one side of the Annapolis Valley in western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula.