The Atlas Mountains

The majestic Atlas Mountains surround the Emerald City region like a massive fence, stretching in a roughly northsouth range some distance eastward of the peninsulas and the mouth of the Albian River. The Arcadian Peaks, forming the middle of the Outer Peninsula, are a spur of the Atlas Mountains, smaller than their eastern cousins. The natural barrier of the mountains keeps clouds and weather formations moving in from the ocean trapped over the Emerald City area, contributing to its famous rainy and often overcast weather. On the eastern side of the mountains, precipitation drops off considerably, leaving miles of arid plain in the range’s “rain shadow”.
The Atlas Mountains are part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” formed by the meeting of two great continental plates. A great many of them are volcanic, although most of the volcanic mountains in the Atlas Range have been mostly dormant for decades, if not centuries, and eruptions are relatively rare. Precipitation in the upper reaches of the mountains is typically snow, the only regular snowfall in the region. Well over a hundred inches of snowfall in the high mountains is not unusual in one year, and the tallest Atlas Mountains remain snow-capped year-round.
The volcanic nature of the Atlas Range makes the surrounding terrain and soil especially rich. Below the snow-line of the mountains stretches the verdant expanse of the Elysian Forest, and the mountain slopes are home to a variety of plant and animal life, from wild cats and owls to other species of birds, rodents, wild sheep and goats, bears, and more.
The volcanic peaks offer another largely untapped resource: vast stores of geothermal energy. The United States government has an experimental geothermal generator plant high on the slopes of Mt. Forge, a dormant volcano in the range. The project is to prove a design to tap subterranean sources of magma for heat energy to generate electricity.
Mount Stanley, named for the explorer Charles H. Stanley, is the tallest and most visible peak in the Atlas Range. On a clear day, it is visible from across the Albian River area. Mt. Stanley is also one of the range’s volcanically active peaks, although it has not erupted in the history of Emerald City. Hakawi legends, however, talk of tremendous eruptions from the mountain in the past.

Type

Mountain Range

Location under

Emerald City