Mountains

Topic Seven:

Most mountains arelarge areas that havebeen uplifted due to the movement orheating of plates

Plates can converge,diverge or slide pasteach other. Thismovement can creategreat heat and pressure.The pressure can causerocks to fold and fault,creating mountains.Sometimes the heatcan melt the rock andcause it to rise to formvolcanoes.

Rocks can fold if they arehot enough to be soft.

Sometimes the rocks in Earth’s crust are too brittle tofold. When pressure is exerted on them, they break,forming a fault. This can form slabs that move up andover each other like shingles on a roof. The older rockmay end up on top of the younger rock. These are calledfault-block mountains.

Complex mountains are formed by a combination of different processes such as plates converging and subduction.

The Himalayan Mountains in India (Mount Everest) are theyoungest and highest mountains in the world. How do you know if mountains are young or old?

Are the Rocky Mountainsyoung or old?

Are the Laurentian Mountainsin Quebec young or old?

Mount Rundle, near Banff, has been uplifted and thentilted.

Castle Mountain, between Banff and Jasper, has upliftedrock that is nearly horizontal.

Rockies

Andes

Himalayas

Alps

Urals

Appalachians

Cascades

Earthquake Zones

Volcano Zones