The Longmen Mountains (), also tautologically referred to in English-language publications as the Longmenshan Mountains, are a mountain range in

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

province in southwestern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Geography

The range runs in a roughly northeast to southwest direction, roughly from

Guangyuan Guangyuan () is a prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province, China, bordering the provinces of Shaanxi to the northeast and Gansu to the northwest. The city has a population of 2,305,657 as of the 2020 census. Located roughly between the provin ...

near the province's northeastern border, to the western part of the

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese provin ...

Prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

, in the central part of the province, where it approaches the southern end of the Qionglai Range. The Longmen Mountains form the northwestern rim of the

Sichuan basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributar ...

. The uplift of the Longmen Mountains is a result of vertical slippage on the

Longmenshan Fault The Longmenshan Fault () is a thrust fault which runs along the base of the Longmen Mountains in Sichuan province in southwestern China. The strike of the fault plane is approximately NE. Motion on this fault is responsible for the uplift of th ...

. The Longmen Mountains represent the eastern rim of the immense

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

. Some maps use the name "Longmen Mountains" only for the northeastern section of the range, while the taller southwestern section is labeled Chaping Mountains ().E.g., 使用中国地图集 (''Shiyong Zhongguo Dituji'', "Practical Atlas of China"), 2008, ; map of Sichuan on pp. 142–143 The range's highest point is Mt. Jiudeng or Jiudengshan (), at above sea level.

References

External links

Scientists identified earthquake faults in Sichuan, China
Mountain ranges of Sichuan {{sichuan-geo-stub