This shaded-relief map shows the location and extent of the St. Francois Mountains.

Taum Sauk Mountain is the highest point in Missouri.

The Saint Francois Mountains, or in French, Montagnes du St-François, a range located in southeast Missouri, is an outcrop of Precambrian igneous rock mountains rising over the Ozark Plateau. This range is one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America. The range is often misspelled as St. Francis to match the local pronunciation. Description: A shaded relief map showing the St. ... Description: A shaded relief map showing the St. ... Description: View from Proffit Mountain to Taum Sauk Mountain in the St. ... Description: View from Proffit Mountain to Taum Sauk Mountain in the St. ... Missouri, named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning canoe, is a Midwestern state of the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. ... The Precambrian or Cryptozoic is the period of the geologic timescale from the formation of Earth around 4500 million years before the present (BP) to the evolution of abundant macroscopic hard-shelled fossils, which marked the beginning of the Cambrian, some 542 million years BP. Remarkably little is known about... Volcanic rock on North America Plutonic rock on North America Igneous rocks are formed when molten rock (magma) cools and solidifies, with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. ... Ozark redirects here. ...

Formed through volcanic and intrusive activity over 1.4 billion (1.4 x 10⁹) years ago, nothing is left of these mountains but the roots. By comparison, the Appalachians started forming about 460 million years ago, and the Rockies a mere 70 million years ago. When the Appalachians started forming, the St. Francois range was already twice as old as the Appalachians are today. This article is about volcanoes in geology. ... Pluton redirects here. ... The Appalachian Mountains are a system of North American mountains running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. ... Rocky Mountain National Park (photo courtesy of NPS) The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a broad mountain range in western North America. ...

Unlike the rest of the mountainous areas in the Ozarks, the Saint Francois Mountains were formed by true volcanic activity. The localized vertical relief observed in most of the Ozarks, a dissected plateau, was caused by erosion. The volcanic activity that formed this mountain range is also thought to be the geological cause of the uplift of the Ozark Plateau. Geologists talk of the "Ozark dome" wherein elevations and stratigraphic inclines generally radiate down from the Saint Francois mountains. These elevations may be the only area in the American Midwest never to have been submerged, existing as an island archipelago in the Paleozoic seas. Fossilized coral, the remains of ancient reefs, can be found among the rocks around the flanks of the mountains. These ancient reef complexes formed the localizing structures for the mineralizing fluids that resulted in the rich ore deposits of the area. Shaded relief map of Cumberland Plateau and Ridge and Valley Appalachians on the Virginia/West Virginia border A dissected plateau is an area that has been uplifted, then severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. ... Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, is basically the study of rock layers and layering (stratification). ... Midwest States (United States of America, ND to OH) The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ... An archipelago is a landform which consists of a chain or cluster of islands. ... The Paleozoic is a major division of the geologic timescale, one of four geologic eras. ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ... Orders see Anthozoa zsnobordinkid505@aol. ... A reef surrounding an islet. ... Sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ... An ore is a mineral deposit containing a metal or other valuable resource in economically viable concentrations. ...

The St. Francois Mountains are the center of the Missouri mining region yielding; iron, lead, barite, zinc, silver, manganese, cobalt, and nickel ores as well as granite and limestone quarries. Historic Mine La Motte near Fredericktown was the site of lead mining activity by the French as early as 1720. An old granite quarry lies on the edge of Elephant Rocks State Park which is a spectacular outcropping of huge weathered granite boulders. The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metal Group, Period, Block 8 (VIIIB), 4, d Density, Hardness 7874 kg/m3, 4. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series Poor metals Group, Period, Block 14(IVA), 6 , p Density, Hardness 11340 kg/m3, 1. ... Baryte with Cerussite from Morocco Baryte with Galena and Hematite from Poland Barite (BaSO4) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. ... General Name, Symbol, Number zinc, Zn, 30 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 4, d Density, Hardness 7140 kg/m3, 2. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series Transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Density, Hardness 10490 kg/m3, 2. ... General Name, Symbol, Number manganese, Mn, 25 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 7 , 4, d Density, Hardness 7470 kg/m3, 6. ... General Name, Symbol, Number cobalt, Co, 27 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 9 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8908 kg/m³, 4. ... Granite is a common and widely-occurring group of intrusive felsic igneous rocks that form at great depths and pressures under continents. ... Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ... Fredericktown is a city located in Madison County, Missouri, United States. ... Events January 6 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings February 11 - Sweden and Prussia sign the (2nd Treaty of Stockholm) declaring peace. ... The largest of the parks elephants, named Dumbo, leads a train at the top of the hill. ...

Mountains in this range include; Taum Sauk Mountain, Bell Mountain, Proffit Mountain, Pilot Knob Mountain, Hughes Mountain, Goggin Mountain, and Lead Hill Mountain. The elevations range from 500 feet to 1,772 feet (167 to 540 meters). Taum Sauk Mountain is the highest peak in the range, and the highest point in the state, with an elevation of 1772 ft. (540 m). Taum Sauk Mountain is part of a large parks-and-wilderness area. ...

Hughes Mountain contains a good example of columnar jointing in igneous rhyolite, the same process that formed Devils Tower. The columnar jointing in this area is called the Devil's Honeycomb. Rhyolite Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. ... Devils Tower is a monolith (more technically, an igneous intrusion) located near Hulett and Sundance in eastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. ...

A part of the Ozark Trail winds through parts of the St. Francois Mountains, including a popular section that crosses Taum Sauk and Proffit mountains.

See also

• Geography_of_Missouri
• Missouri National and State Parks
• Taum Sauk pumped storage plant

Missouri, a state near the geographical center of the United States, has three distinct physiographic divisions: a north-western upland plain or prairie region part of the Interior Plains Central Lowland (areas Osage Plain 12f and Dissected Til Plains 12e) known as the northern plains a lowland in the extreme... National Parks and Recreation Areas Missouri is home to many national forests, parks and recreational areas as well as state parks. ... Water stored in the upper reservoir is available for hydroelectric generation during times of peak demand. ...

References

Unklesbay, A.G; & Vineyard, Jerry D. (1992). Missouri Geology — Three Billion Years of Volcanoes, Seas, Sediments, and Erosion. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-0836-3.