How The Mountains Were Formed?
The mountains we see are big and grand. We think that these are unchanging and everlasting. The Geologists and Scientists have carried out studies. The result of this research reveals that they are undergoing some change and are not everlasting.
The mountains come about as a result of some change in the earth’s surface. The mountains are constantly being changed and destroyed. The soil and particles are washed away into streams. The boulders are broken, water is frozen. In result, in time even the highest mountains change into rolling hills and plains.
Geologists have classified these mountains. Accordingly there are four classifications of mountains. Million of years ago certain changes took place in earth’s surface. These changes were violent. The mountains were produced due to these changes.
The Folded mountains were made of layers of rock, squeezed by great pressure in large folds. At place we observe the curves in rock layers which are in the form of arches and dips, caused by the squeezing and pressure on the earth’s surface.
The Appalachian Mountains and the Alps of Europe are the folded mountains under this category.
There are dome mountains. The wet layers were forced up to make great blisters like rises. The molten lava under pressure from below the earth’s surface lifted these rock layers. In south Dakota, the Black Hills are of the type of dome mountains.
The breaks or faults in the earth’s crust are the result of Block mountains. The large part of earth’s surface that is, large and entire blocks of rock were raised up and tilted at one time. The Sierra Nevada Range of California is a large block of the size 640 kilometres long and about 1300 kilometres wide.
The volcanic mountains are, of course, built of Lava, cinders and ashes poured out from the earth. The common shape of these mountains is of a cone. A hole or crater is at their top. The Mounts Rainer Shasta and Hood in United States, Fujiyama in Japan and Vesuvius in Italy are the mountains under this heading.
Many a mountain ranges are formed in more than one way or a particular change followed by a subsequent different change. In the Rockies the mountains are made by folding, faulting, erosion of lava and doming.
