At 817m, Mount Carleton, in

Mount Carleton Provincial Park Mount Carleton Provincial Park, established in 1970, is the largest provincial park in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. It encompasses in the remote highlands of north-central New Brunswick. The park is a lesser-known gem of the Atlanti ...

is the highest peak in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nort ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic Canad ...

, and the

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. It is one of the highlights of the Canadian portion of the

International Appalachian Trail The International Appalachian Trail (IAT; french: Sentier international des Appalaches, SIA) was originally a hiking trail which ran from Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, in Maine, through New Brunswick, to the Gaspé Peninsula of ...

. It is also part of the eighth and final section of the

Nepisiguit Mi'gmaq Trail The Sentier Nepisiguit Mi'gmaq Trail is a 147 kilometre wilderness hiking and backpacking trail in New Brunswick, Canada that follows the Nepisiguit River from the Daly Point’s Nature Reserve in Bathurst to Mount Carleton Provincial Park. Offic ...

. The mountain was named after Thomas Carleton, New Brunswick's first

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

, and forms part of the Notre Dame Mountains chain, which is visible on Map 24 of the NB Atlas. Before aerial surveillance was extensively used, a hut was maintained on the summit for fire-spotting in the remote north-central part of the province. A very similar hut was maintained on Big Bald Mountain.

Triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle ...

among these huts and other

fire tower A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a " fire lookout" whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. It is a small building, usually on the summit of a mountain o ...

s allowed the locations of

wildfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

to be determined quickly and easily. Mount Carleton is a monadnock, an erosional remnant of resistant

igneous rocks Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or l ...

that remained after an ancient

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Creta ...

peneplain 390px, Sketch of a hypothetical peneplain formation after an orogeny. In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion. This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage ...

surface was uplifted in the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

to form a

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

, and subsequently dissected via millions of years of erosion by wind, water and glacial ice.Roland, A. E. 1982. Geological Background and Physiography of Nova Scotia. Halifax: The Nova Scotian Institute of Science.Mount Carleton Provincial Park
Retrieved on 2007-08-18 It consists of 400 million-year-old rhyolitic and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

ic volcanics.

References

External links

Carleton Landforms of Northumberland County, New Brunswick Mountains of Canada under 1000 metres {{NewBrunswick-geo-stub

See also

References

External links