Southwest Mountains

Southwest Mountains
The Southwest Mountains, northern Albemarle County
Highest point
Peak	Carters Mountain
Elevation	1,573 feet (479 m)
Dimensions
Length	70 mi (110 km)
Width	3.5 mi (5.6 km)
Geography
Country	United States
State	Virginia
Region	Piedmont
Parent range	Appalachian Mountains

The Southwest Mountains of Virginia are a mountain range centered on Charlottesville, parallel to and geologically associated with the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lie about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. Some of the more prominent peaks include Carters Mountains, Fan Mountain, Brush Mountain, Peters Mountain, Walton's Mountain, and Hightop Mountain.

The Southwest Mountains are not particularly large. They are one of the easternmost ranges in Virginia (along with the geologically associated Bull Run Mountains and ) and the viewshed for the Blue Ridge Mountains through Nelson and Albemarle Counties.

The range bisects Nelson, Albemarle, and Orange counties. A portion of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle County has been designated a Rural Historic District by the National Park Service, though none of the range is designated as state or national parkland. Mineral resources of soapstone and vermiculite continue to be mined here.

The Southwest Mountains are underlain by a belt of Catoctin greenstone, which forms the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium. The Catoctin Greenstone belt extends north into Maryland and also supports the Bull Run and Catoctin Mountains. The basalt flows which were metamorphised to greenstone were deposited during the latest Precambrian age and first uplifted during Grenville Orogeny then again during the Alleghenian Orogeny, in which they were also transported westward to their present location.