Fold Mountains Flashcards
How does folding occur?
Folding occurs when plates collide and put great pressure on rocks in the crust. The pressure creates heat, the heat softens the rocks so that they become more bendable. The heat lasts for millions of years as the plates collide until eventually the rocks are folded and pushed up making fold mountains.
What’s an anticline?
The are unfolds in fold mountains.
What’s a syncline?
They are downfolds in fold mountains.
Give an example of a Caledonian Fold Mountain?
Wicklow Mountains, formed 400 million years ago.
Give an example of Armorican Fold Mountains?
The mountains of Cork and Kerry (Macgillycuddy Reeks) formed 250 million years ago.
Give an example of Alpine Fold Mountains.
The Alps, The Himalayas, The Rockies, formed 50 million years ago.
Long answer: describe how fold mountains are formed.
Folding occurs at destructive plate boundaries. Great pressure leads to extreme heat. This softens the layers of rock, making them bendable. Over million of years, slowly the rocks are pushed up and folded, creating fold mountains. Upward folds of rock are called anticlines, downwards are called sync lines. Eg. The Himalayas where the Indian and Eurasian plates collided.
