1. Mountain Building

2. Vocabulary Orogenesis Lithosphere Accretion Oros—mountain
Genesis—to come into being
Lithosphere
The rigid outer layer of Earth, including the crust and upper mantle
Accretion
the increase in size of a tectonic plate by addition of material along a convergent boundary

3. Crustal Uplift Evidence Isostasy
Marine fossils often found in high elevations in mountains
Terraces hundreds of meters above sea level
Isostasy
A floating crust in gravitational balance
Example: blocks of wood floating in water
Mountain belts stand higher above the surface of the Earth and have roots that extend deeper into the supporting material below.
Crustal thicknesses for some mountain chains are twice as much as the average for the continental crust

4. Crustal Uplift
Crust beneath the oceans is thinner than that beneath the continents
Oceanic rocks are denser than continental rocks
**adding weight to the crust makes it subside
**when weight is removed, crustal uplifting occurs (ex.: cargo ship)

5. Crustal Uplift Isostatic Adjustment
Ice Age glaciers added weight to the continents, making them downwarp by hundreds of meters
When glaciers melted, uplift occurred
Erosion of mountains causes uplift, also

6. Rock Deformation Elastic deformation Plastic deformation
When stress is applied, rocks bend, but will snap back if the stress is relieved
Plastic deformation
When the elastic limit is surpassed, rocks deform plastically or break (earthquakes)
They are permanently altered through folding and flowing

7. Rock Deformation Folds
When flat-lying sedimentary and volcanic rocks are bent into a series of wavelike undulations
Example: pushing on one edge of a carpet until it folds
Anticline
Upfolding or arching of rock layers
Syncline
Downfolds, or troughs

8. Rock Deformation Dome Basin
When upwarping produces a circular or somewhat elongated structure
Basin
When downwarping produces a circular or somewhat elongated structure

9. Rock Deformation Faults and Joints Fractures in the Earth’s crust
Dip-slip faults
Vertical movement
Hanging wall—rock that is higher than the fault surface
Footwall—rock that is lower than the fault surface
Normal—hanging wall moves downward relative to the footwall
Reverse—hanging wall moves upward relative to the footwall
Thrust faults—have a very low angle

10. Rock Deformation Strike-slip faults
The dominant displacement is along the strike or trend, of the fault (horizontal)
Transform faults—associated with plate boundaries
Oblique-slip faults—both vertical and horizontal movement
Tensional forces—pull the crust apart
Graben—central block bounded by normal faults; drop as the plates separate
Horsts—upfaulted structures that are adjacent to graben
Compressional forces—sections of crust are displaced toward one another

11. Rock Deformation Joints
Fractures along which no appreciable displacement has occurred
Columnar joints form when igneous rocks cool and develop shrinkage fractures, producing elongated, pillarlike columns
Sheeting produces a pattern of gently curved joints that develop more or less parallel to the surface of large exposed igneous bodies.

12. Mountain Types Fault-block mountains
Tensional stresses elongate and fracture the crust into numerous blocks. Movement along the fractures tilt the blocks producing parallel mountain ranges.

13. Mountain Types Folded mountains (complex mountains) Upwarped mountains
Caused by a broad arching of the crust or because of great vertical displacement along a high-angle fault
Volcanic mountains

14. Mountain Building Convergent boundaries
Volcanic arcs are forming in most modern-day subduction zones
Aleutian-type subduction zones occur where two oceanic plates converge

15. Mountain Building Andean type subduction zones
Passive continental margin—part of the same plate as the adjoining oceanic crust
Becomes active—subduction zone forms and the deformation process begins
The oceanic plate descends and becomes magma while there is an accumulation of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks along the subduction zone (accretionary wedge)

16. Mountain Building Continents converge
Continental lithosphere is too buoyant to undergo subduction, a collision eventually results
Example: India colliding with the Eurasian plate

17. Mountain Building Mountain Building and Continental Accretion
Smaller crustal fragments collide and accrete to continental margins
Example: mountainous regions rimming the Pacific
As oceanic plates move, they carry with them embedded oceanic plateaus or microcontinents
The upper portions of these thickened zones are peeled from the descending plate and thrust in relatively thin sheets onto the adjacent continental block.
This increases the width of the continent
Terrane—accreted crustal blocks