How Are Mountains Formed

Mountains seem like they have been in place forever, and it can be difficult for kids to imagine how mountains were built over millions of years by processes continuing today. To make a mountain range, the Earth’s tectonic plates rub against or crash into each other. Kids will be interested to learn that something as seemingly steadfast as mountains can be built, and eroded away.

Even though Mount Everest measures 29,028 feet high, it may be growing about two inches a year. A mountain might be thousands of feet high, but it can still grow taller or shorter each year. Mountains are created when the huge plates that make up the earth's outer shell very slowly pull and push against one another. Read and find out about all the different kinds of mountains.

Mountains seem like they have been in place forever, and it can be difficult for kids to imagine how mountains were built over millions of years by processes continuing today. To make a mountain range, the Earth’s tectonic plates rub against or crash into each other. Kids will be interested to learn that something as seemingly steadfast as mountains can be built, and eroded away.

Mountains are in constant transition despite their apparent permanence. This book explains how mountains are formed, how they evolve, and what they tell us about the history of the earth.

Most young children are brimming with questions about the processes and events they observe at work around them every day. This new series, in which each title is in the form of a question, addresses the often mysterious phenomena of the natural world and the amazing behaviors and abilities of plants and animals. In simple, age-appropriate, easy-to-understand language, the five chapters that make up each book take the young reader on a journey of scientific discovery-from the formulation of a simple question to the revelation of the sometimes simple, sometimes startling, explanation. Bold charts, simple scientific illustrations, and dazzling four-color photography bring this process of inquiry vibrantly to life. Echoing the question-and-answer format of the series, each chapter features a challenge question to reinforce the concepts presented and to bolster reading comprehension. In addition, each book contains an activity related to the concepts learned in the text, so students can see for themselves science at work-yet another way of reinforcing the processes and phenomena central to each topic.

The Origins of Mountains approaches mountains from facts about mountain landscapes rather than theory. The book illustrates that almost everywhere, mountains arose by vertical uplift of a former plain, and by a mixture of cracking and warping by earth movements, and erosion by rivers and glaciers, the present mountainous landscapes were created. It also gives evidence that this uplift only occured in the last few million years, a time scale which does not fit the plate tectonics theory. Another fascinating part of the evidence, shows that mountain uplift correlates very well with climatic change. Mountain building could have been responsible for the onset of the ice age. It certainly resulted in the creation of new environments. Fossil plants and animals are used in places to work out the time of mountain uplift, which in turn helps to explain biogeographical distributions.

Mountains as we know them were formed by a wide range of processes. This vivid introduction explains the course of orogeny (mountain formation) and the resulting structures, the cycles of plate tectonics and the evolution of landforms. It also presents surprising findings from the latest research. Popular travel destinations are described in detail - ideal when preparing for a trip - while a wealth of photos and graphics illustrate the text. Why are mountains as tall as they are? How does high-pressure rock come to the surface? Is there feedback between tectonics and the climate? How can mountains form without continental collision, far away from any plate boundaries? And how do we know all this? These and many other questions will be answered.

Mountains cover a quarter of the Earth’s land surface and a quarter of the global population lives in or adjacent to these areas. The global importance of mountains is recognized particularly because they provide critical resources, such as water, food and wood; contain high levels of biological and cultural diversity; and are often places for tourism and recreation and/or of sacred significance. This major revision of Larry Price’s book Mountains and Man (1981) is both timely and highly appropriate. The past three decades have been a period of remarkable progress in our understanding of mountains from an academic point of view. Of even greater importance is that society at large now realizes that mountains and the people who reside in them are not isolated from the mainstream of world affairs, but are vital if we are to achieve an environmentally sustainable future. Mountain Geography is a comprehensive resource that gives readers an in-depth understanding of the geographical processes occurring in the world’s mountains and the overall impact of these regions on culture and society as a whole. The volume begins with an introduction to how mountains are defined, followed by a comprehensive treatment of their physical geography: origins, climatology, snow and ice, landforms and geomorphic processes, soils, vegetation, and wildlife. The concluding chapters provide an introduction to the human geography of mountains: attitudes toward mountains, people living in mountain regions and their livelihoods and interactions within dynamic environments, the diverse types of mountain agriculture, and the challenges of sustainable mountain development.