Did you have airspeed excursions? Did it knock things off the seats?
If not, it wasn't moderate.
Light turbulence can be pretty substantial for people not used to it.
I heard a PIREP for "severe" turbulence not long ago, due to significant winds at 3000 over terrain. I experienced it myself some 20 minutes later, and I'd characterize it as rather unpleasant moderate. It wasn't enough to knock the flight bag off the seat, but took constant correction to stay out of Class B and more than 1000 above the surface, due to continuous airspeed and altitude excursions. Now, it may have changed in that time, but I think it was just over-reported. It calmed down substantially as I got more than 10 miles downwind from the mountains.
As for what to research, look at the Skew-T. rucsoundings.noaa.gov . If temperature changes faster with altitude than the adiabats, expect convection. If the wind changes over a short altitude change, expect wind shear. If there is a lot of wind over terrain, expect mechanical turbulence. And so on.