 Even if an isolated area of Cambrian and Precambrian rocks exist in an area of the Chic-Choc Mountains, the region belongs generally to the geologic province of the Appalachian Mountains, which covers an area of , between Alabama and Newfoundland.The marks of two episodes of mountain-building, the Acadian orogeny and the Taconic orogeny, have shaped the land.During the first orogeny, the subduction of the oceanic plate created a volcanic chain in the Iapetus Ocean, off the coast of Laurentia during the Cambrian period.