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The Parks / Newfoundland & Labrador / Gros Morne National Park

The Long Range Mountains are considered to be about 20 times older than the Rocky Mountains. The Precambrian rock, which forms their base, exists as the result of continental collision some 1.2 billion years ago, at a time when Western Newfoundland was near the equator. Tectonic movement gradually brought ancient North America into collision with Europe and Africa, forming a ‘super-continent’, Pangaea creating the mountain range along North America's eastern coast. The Long Range Mountains are really part of that ancient Appalachian Range, which is continued Scotland.

Since the continent was first covered in ice about 3 million years ago, there have been 30 periods of glaciation, the last one disappearing some 10,000 years ago. So the ancient rocks of the Long Range Mountains have been worn down by successive waves of advancing and retreating ice; leaving the rounded summits of Gros Morne, Big Hill and Kildevil, and depositing most of Western Newfoundland's topsoil on the ocean floor.