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The Appalachians rise
The Appalachians are the mountain chain running down the eastern side of North America, from Alabama to Newfoundland. The Alleghanian collision completed the assembly of Pangaea and drove whole stacks of sediment westward along near-horizontal faults — the fold belt of Pennsylvania and Virginia is those thrust sheets seen from above. The chain was physically continuous with the Anti-Atlas in Morocco and with the Caledonides of Scotland and Norway; they were separated only when the Atlantic opened. The mountains also trapped rain and created the humid lowlands in which the coal formed.
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