Mountain Time Zone is generically called Mountain Time (MT). Specifically, it is Mountain Standard Time (MST) when observing standard time, and Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) when observing daylight saving time. The term refers to how the Rocky Mountains, which range from northwestern Canada to the US state of New Mexico, are located almost entirely in the time zone. In Mexico, this time zone is known as the Zona Pacífico (Pacific Zone). In the US and Canada, the Mountain Time Zone is to the east of the Pacific Time Zone and to the west of the Central Time Zone. In some areas, starting in
Geology of the United States streams downcut so rapidly that they cut right across the resistant folded rocks of the mountain core, carving canyons across rock layers and geologic structures. Most of Alaska consists of terranes accreted by collisions with island arcs carried in over the last 160 million years. These terranes were caused by the subduction of the Farallon, Kula, and Pacific plates sequentially. Currently, the Pacific plate is subducting beneath Alaska, producing the Aleutian arc series of volcanoes through the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. One of the sutures left by terrane addition is the Denali Fault, which curves through south-central Alaska. The