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Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:07 pm
by davebobk47
I was looking at the Peaks by State list and was wondering what the most mountainous state was so I put this little spread sheet together. I simply takes the # of peaks divided by the land area in square miles.

Peaks Area Pks/sqMi
WA 5689 66582 0.08544
VT 733 9249 0.07925
NH 648 8969 0.07225
CA 10983 155973 0.07042
ID 5723 82751 0.06916
WV 1597 24087 0.06630
AZ 7396 113642 0.06508
NV 6741 109806 0.06139
UT 4374 82168 0.05323
OR 4976 96003 0.05183
ME 1344 30865 0.04354
NY 1987 47224 0.04208
CO 4363 103730 0.04206
MT 5883 145556 0.04042
VA 1553 39598 0.03922
WY 3129 97105 0.03222
TN 1234 41220 0.02994
NC 1330 48708 0.02731
NM 3147 121365 0.02593
HI 145 6423 0.02258
CT 102 4845 0.02105
MA 154 7838 0.01965
PA 841 44820 0.01876
AR 493 52075 0.00947
GA 435 57919 0.00751
TX 1352 261914 0.00516
SD 272 75989 0.00358
OK 241 68679 0.00351
SC 89 30111 0.00296
RI 1 1045 0.00096
ND 60 68994 0.00087
NE 43 76878 0.00056

Not really suprising that WA is on top but I thought there were some interesting ones on this list.

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:04 pm
by TWorth
Nice piece of work. I wouldn't have guessed CA would be 4th in density given its large size.

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:15 pm
by Steve Knapp
That's pretty interesting! If only Colorado could cede all the land east of I-25 maybe we'd be #1. Guess we'd need to keep the Denver airport, though many already call it West Kansas International due to it's distance from populated areas.

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:55 am
by davebobk47
Yeah, with the eastern third of CO being so flat it really hurts the ranking. If you did reduce CO to 2/3 of its published area it would be 0.06309 which would rank it 8th, just after AZ.

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 8:32 am
by wayfarer
Cool. It is neat to see Vermont and New Hampshire rank second only to Washington among the Western states. I guess it's not really all that surprising about Vermont since it is narrow and mountains run its entire length. Kind of neat to see my home state of Virginia edge out above North Carolina too! As well as all the other Southeastern states except West Virginia. In fact, were it not the nature of the Alleghenies to have such long, relatively level ridgelines, West Virginia might well have came in first since the entire state is essentially mountainous.

Rick

states with densest high prom

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:05 pm
by hikenewhampshire
I have extended the table to include p1k and p2k - of course John could plot graphs for all prom values from the database

Among the top 10 states, WV has lots of p300 but fizzles at p1k and p2k while NV is just the opposite - MT and HI also do better at higher prom values

State Area Pks-p300 Pks/sqMi Pks-p1k Pks/sqMi Pks-p2k Pks/sqMi
WA 66582 5689 0.08544 819 0.01230 147 0.00221
VT 9249 733 0.07925 68 0.00735 13 0.00141
NH 8969 648 0.07225 70 0.00780 12 0.00134
CA 155973 10983 0.07042 1003 0.00643 167 0.00107
ID 82751 5723 0.06916 580 0.00701 101 0.00122
WV 24087 1597 0.06630 44 0.00183 2 0.00008
AZ 113642 7396 0.06508 449 0.00395 73 0.00064
NV 109806 6741 0.06139 645 0.00587 172 0.00157
UT 82168 4374 0.05323 361 0.00439 82 0.00100
OR 96003 4976 0.05183 472 0.00492 75 0.00078
ME 30865 1344 0.04354 100 0.00324 16 0.00052
NY 47224 1987 0.04208 123 0.00260 13 0.00028
CO 103730 4363 0.04206 425 0.00410 81 0.00078
MT 145556 5883 0.04042 742 0.00510 146 0.00100
VA 39598 1553 0.03922 106 0.00268 9 0.00023
WY 97105 3129 0.03222 263 0.00271 35 0.00036
TN 41220 1234 0.02994 55 0.00133 6 0.00015
NC 48708 1330 0.02731 95 0.00195 11 0.00023
NM 121365 3147 0.02593 218 0.00180 47 0.00039
HI 6423 145 0.02258 33 0.00514 11 0.00171
CT 4845 102 0.02105 0 0.00000 0 0.00000
MA 7838 154 0.01965 4 0.00051 1 0.00013
PA 44820 841 0.01876 25 0.00056 0 0.00000
AR 52075 493 0.00947 14 0.00027 1 0.00002
GA 57919 435 0.00751 22 0.00038 1 0.00002
TX 261914 1352 0.00516 89 0.00034 12 0.00005
SD 75989 272 0.00358 4 0.00005 1 0.00001
OK 68679 241 0.00351 8 0.00012 0 0.00000
SC 30111 89 0.00296 1 0.00003 0 0.00000
RI 1045 1 0.00096 0 0.00000 0 0.00000
ND 68994 60 0.00087 1 0.00001 0 0.00000
NE 76878 43 0.00056 0 0.00000 0 0.00000

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:47 pm
by wayfarer
Heh! Looks like Virginia comes out best for P1K density in the Southeast and ties for P2K density. Not that we have all that many of the latter - only 9. And can't equal the Northeast. Of course, I already knew that!

Rick

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:56 pm
by davebobk47
Cool idea extending out like that. I continued with it to do all Ultras (exculding AK). Not really suprising that HI dominates the list. WA drops to 3 although I feel this list is influence a lot more by land area since ultras aren't very common.

HI 0.000778
NH 0.000111
WA 0.000105
UT 0.000097
NV 0.000073
CA 0.000058
AZ 0.000044
OR 0.000042
ID 0.000036
WY 0.000031
CO 0.000029
MT 0.000027
NC 0.000021
NM 0.000008

Re: Most Mountainous States

PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:24 pm
by EricNoel
One thing, it is certainly true that the flat 1/3 of CO drags down the avg density. However, you can pretty much say the same thing about every Western state. For MT, WY and NM you have plains in the E just like in CO. In CA it is the central valley and in ID it is the Idaho Falls to Boise arcing corridor. In WA you have have few peaks in the SE and in AZ the area N of the Mogollon Rim is sparse for peaks. To a lesser extent even OR and UT have fewer peaks in their SE portions of the state. If you scroll through the P1000 maps for every state you can see that Nevada is really the only Western state that has fairly consistent density throughtout the state.