top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 202 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Man in a few million years that tweet is gonna look hella dumb

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 175 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    The Appalachians have been mountains longer than North America has been a continent

  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 124 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    To the extent that a portion of the mountain chain that formed the Appalachian Mountains is in Europe. The Appalachians were a part of the Central Pangean mountain system, which makes them older than the Atlantic Ocean.

    They’ve seen some shit.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 38 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    That's kind of awesome to think about.

    I'm picturing myself on Pangea. The mountains in front of me are taller than the Himalayas today. These are the Appalachians. Oh no, a dinosaur! Look out, duck! Huh, that's not a duck that's a QUETZALCOATLUS! Everybody run! How can we outrun a QUETZALCOATLUS?!?!?! AAAHHHHHH.

    Isn't it beautiful?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 24 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

    Wikipedia says they date back 480 million years, during the Ordovician period. I think the atmosphere would have been pretty breathable, but plants wouldn't conquer the land in a serious way for at least another 60 million years or so, with bugs following them. Nothing saw those mountains. If you time-traveled to the Pangean mountains, you would be the only being to ever observe them in their formative years. Eons would pass before the first plant set root at their feet. The sterile and desolate emptiness would be beyond human experience.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • load more comments (8 replies)
  • [–] 29 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    They're the bones of the world dawg. It's why there's so much spooky scary shit here (I live in Appalachia.)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Not just the bones of the world, they're older than bones.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 34 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 child)

    Older than trees.

    Older than bones.

    Drones from land masses that don’t exist anymore.

    There is rock in the Appalachian mountains without coal seams, because many formed in places before the land biomass that made coal and oil existed.

    They contain layers of fossils from ancient whales back to small crustaceans.

    480 million years ago trilobites were being heft out of the sea by the Appalachians.

    The Appalachians existed for 20 million years before bearing witness to a million year long meteor shower from the L-chondrite debris that gave the earth temporary rings.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 74 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Its not the height, it's the age. Thar be eldritch monsters in the Appalachians. Rockies is just aliens and (Gay) Bigfoot

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 65 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Western trails: Ascend on nicely-graded switchbacks.

    Eastern trails: Ascend straight up a seasonal creek bed.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 47 points 3 weeks ago* (8 children)

    Thats cute.

    Look at the danish mountains and despair!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himmelbjerget

    Sky Mountain! a whopping peak height of 140m elevation. A hike so deadly that it is a time honored tradition to let our kindergarten aged children 'climb' it. Takes an afternoon (barely) and theres a small giftshop selling icecream and knick knacks on top of it.

    Try and best that yanks! 😎

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • load more comments (8 replies)
    [–] 44 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    I love my Cascades and the Rockies are majestic and impressive, but the Appalachians are basically the wizened old crones of mountains. They're weird and mysterious. They're full of forests and traditions and stories. They demand respect.

    Also, listen, folks from the eastern Midwest are barely used to hills then having to drive through them is scary.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • load more comments (6 replies)
    [–] 43 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    if "my mountains can beat up your mountains" is some element of the conversation, i'm not talking at all, i'm walking the other direction

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 41 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    They're both gorgeous. Why do we have to pit two queens against one another?

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 30 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    The thing about mountains is that they're all big when you're at the bottom of them

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 29 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    We get it, people from the west coast, you're better than us, we fucking get it.

    Y'all can find something else to jack off about now.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (6 children)

    Hey, while you might not win on education, healthcare, quality of life or cultural attitudes towards racism, you can always come at the west coast over this BS:

    "It'S tHe IcE tHaTs ThE pRoBlEm" sure, and the fact there's eight whole plows in the entire state and nobody even understands the concept of winter tires is just totally unrelated...

    (/j ❤️)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • load more comments (6 replies)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 27 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    whatever you do, just don't live down there

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 19 points 3 weeks ago

    Sometimes it's not the moutains that get you, it's the smaller hills and valleys surrounding them because there are actually people and roads there.

    Sometimes if you make a wrong turn in Pittsburgh, you are not just going the wrong direction but are also at the wrong elevation or on the wrong layer, and there's no looping around the block to get back to where you started.

    Disclaimer: This thread led me to read the Wikipedia article about Appalachia. Some definitions of the region do not include Pittsburgh or even parts of Pennsylvania, but at the same time there's a photo of downtown Pittsburgh at the top of the article, so I went with it.

  • source
  • [–] 17 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    The highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth until 1996 was on Mt. Washington, NH. That's gotta count for some cool points.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 17 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

    It's true, got no mountains here. Go vacation somewhere else.

  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • load more comments (10 replies)
    [–] 17 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    The geographical feature that you have no control over is for losers.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago

    Ours are older and were taller.

  • source
  • [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    The Sierra Nevadas are no joke. If you drive through them in wintertime you are absolutely taking a risk, not only because you're driving on windy (if well-maintained) mountain highways, but you may get stuck in snow despite your chains and will freeze to death.

    If you are lucky, a CHP or forest ranger may see you and help you out.

    Heaven forbid you have engine trouble or run out of fuel.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago

    The Nepalese: Oh you Americans are so cute.

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›