Mountains often serve as geographic features that define natural borders of countries. Their height can influence weather patterns, stalling storms that roll off the oceans and squeezing water from the clouds. The other side is often much drier. The rugged landscapes even provide refuge—and protection—for fleeing and invading armies. All rights reserved. How Are Mountains Formed? Impact of Mountains on Habitats and Geopolitics Mountains often serve as geographic features that define natural borders of countries.
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Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help. Helens in Washington State. As the name suggests, fold mountains occur when two tectonic plates collide at a convergent plate boundary, causing the crust to overthicken. This process forces the less dense crust to float on top of the denser mantle rocks — with material being forced upwards to form hills, plateaus or mountains — while a greater volume of material is forced downward into the mantle.
The Jura Mountains, a series of sub-parallel mountain ridges located in the Alps, are an example of fold mountains. But perhaps most famous is the Himalayan mountain chain, located between northern India and Nepal. This chain formed as a result of the collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia some 25 million years ago, and has given rise to the tallest mountain in the world — Mt. Block mountains are caused by faults in the crust, a seam where rocks can move past each other.
Also known as rifting, this process occurs when rocks on one side of a fault rise relative to the other. The uplifted blocks become block mountains also known as horsts while the intervening dropped blocks are known as graben i. There is also the East African Rift, an active continental rift zone with several active volcanoes that extends from Eritrea to Mozambique.
As noted, the final way in which mountains are formed is through erosion. This occurs during and after an uplift, where a newly formed mountainous region is subjected to the effects of wind, water, ice, and gravity.
These forces actively shape the surface of mountain ranges, wearing down the exposed surfaces, depositing sediment in alluvial flows, and leading to the formation of characteristic landforms. Plateau mountains, such as the Catskills, are formed from the erosion of an uplifted plateau. Structural Geology 2nd ed. Geodynamics of the lithosphere: an introduction 2nd ed. Science matters: earth and beyond; module 4. Pearson South Africa. Encyclopedia of geomorphology; Volume 2. Planet Earth and the New Geoscience 4th ed.
Kendall Hunt. Science of Earth Systems. Mountain environments: an examination of the physical geography of mountains. MIT Press. Volcanoes 4th ed.
Holmes Principles of Physical Geology 4th ed. American Society of Civil Engineers. Wilson, Aaron Todd An Introduction to Physical Science 12th ed. Cengage Learning. Woodcock, Robin A. Strachan Geological history of Britain and Ireland.
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