Mountain formation

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/mountain-formation

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the geological timescales?Mountain formation processes operate over millions to tens of millions of years
2. What makes mountains grow taller?When tectonic plates push together or pull apart, the Earth's crust can fold, fault, or rise. Volcanoes can add new layers of rock, making mountains taller.
3. Why do some mountains have volcanoes while others don't?When two oceanic plates meet, one dives under the other and melts, creating volcanoes like the Andes. When two land plates collide, they fold and thicken instead, forming mountains like the Himalayas.

Subduction: The process where one tectonic plate slides beneath another into the Earth's mantle.
Orogenic Belt: A large-scale region of the Earth's crust that has been deformed and thickened during mountain building.
Asthenosphere: The highly viscous, mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth.