Montesuvia

Montesuvia
Mount Montesuvia
Highest point
Peak	Mount Montesuvia
Elevation	3,312 m
Geography
Location	La Rossa
Length	140 km

Montesuvia is a mountain range in La Rossa, spanning through the center of the island. As its jagged peaks and great heights have made travel across it difficult, the island's population has mostly settled across the island's coastline. Its highest point, Mount Montesuvia, reaches the height of 3,312 m above sea level. With an area of around 6,400 square kilometers, the mountain range covers most of the island's land area. Believed to be stratovolcanic in origin, the mountains have remained inactive for all of recorded history. The mountain is featured prominently on the nation's flag, along with the flower of redbells, endemic to the mountains.

Geology

Mount Montesuvia, the tallest in the range, is believed to be of stratovolcanic origin, and has been shown to be composed of several layers of andesite and basalt below the surface sediments. A discovery only made in the years after the Second Calming which allowed for the investigation of active volcanos on the archipelago, the mountain's supposed history was met with surprise, as it had remained inactive throughout all of the nation's recorded history.

In 1296 TT, the mountains were discovered to contain large deposits of silver, leading to a 200-year period of the Silver Rush which saw warring between the island's city-states, ending after the nation's unification. With silver extraction from then on mediated by a centralized state, it would continue until 1 PC, during which, after years of declining yields, a complete depletion of the island's silver ore was proclaimed, causing the Silver Crisis, emerging from the nation's currency being tied to its reserves of silver.

The mountains closer to the nation's coastline have also been shown to possess significant amounts of halite, or rock salt. Although previously mined, mostly by the Giannone family of Salino, salt production has largely moved to evaporation extraction from the sea, today composing one of the island's most significant industries. Montesuvian rock salt remains a mostly luxurious product nowadays, with its extraction remaining at low levels, in order to escape the same fate as the nation's silver supply.

Able to sustain glaciers during summertime, the mountains' tallest peaks are covered with permanent ice caps. A phenomenon most noticably present on Mount Montesuvia, the mountain range's highest peak, the glaciers have slowly been eroding the mountain, dragging sediment down to the lower levels. Although the mountain's height has not decreased significantly since the first accurate measurements were made, it is believed that the mountains will decrease in size over longer periods of time, spanning thousands of millennia.

Flora

The outer mountains are covered in areas of evergreen forests, mostly of cypress and pine, covering an area of approximately 2,200 square kilometers, of the 6,400 square kilometers that compose the mountain range. The mountain is home to the flowers of redbells, native and endemic to the island. Their sweet and potent nectar, considered a delicacy on the island, is regularly sought out during the summer of each year, when it blooms. Sensitive to the local climate, it is found growing only in a narrow strip of the mountains, below the ice caps and above the forests that cover the lower heights.