Earth and the Environment

How do plate tectonics affect mountains?

Link to this answer

CloseClose

Link to this answer

Share this credible answer with others. Simply paste this code into your blog or Web page:

<a href="http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/do-plate-tectonics-affect-mountains-96826.html" >How do plate tectonics affect mountains?</a>
E-mail this answer Link to this answer

According to the plate tectonics theory, the lithosphere is broken into several plates, each consisting of oceanic crust, continental crust, or a combination of both. These plates are in constant motion, sideswiping one another or colliding, and continually changing in size and shape. Where two plates collide, compressional stresses are generated along the margin of the plate containing a continent. Such stresses result in the deformation and uplift of the continental shelf and continental rise sediments into complex folded and faulted mountain chains (see seafloor spreading ; continental drift ).

Answer verified with
Get more facts and information about Mountain, the . Or, view the full encyclopedia entry from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

Similar questions: How are faulted mountain chains formed? What does the plate tectonics theory say about mountains? [ Hide these questions ]

Related research questions

Related research articles

Our planet on a plate; Books.
Newspaper article from: The Evening Standard (London, England) ...sink, to form mountains and ocean depths...is known as Plate Tectonics - one of the...Without plate tectonics there would...story of plate tectonics in the form...plate tectonics affect the daily lives...imagination. Why do English Literature...
When the earth moves.(earthquake research)
Magazine article from: The Economist (US) ...have stunning mountains and glorious...they shed on plate tectonics, the theory...made up of rigid plates that move about...which case one plate will probably...oceans, they do so only in a...predictions of plate tectonics. But on the...earthquakes affect a much ...
Learn by going. (educational travel; includes list of providers)
Magazine article from: Town & Country ...drove over the Middle Atlas Mountains during the Muslim Feast...geologist in Indonesia explained plate tectonics and how major volcanic eruptions can affect events halfway round the...What sorts of amenities do educational tours provide...
Milky Way Earth.(hands-on)
Magazine article from: SuperScience ...experiment to see "plate tectonics" in action THINK...are layered. Do changes or movements...layer typically affect other layers...land become a mountain, trench, or...called tectonic plates that fit together...together. How do the plates change...necessary to do ...
USING SCIENCE TO PERFECT THE WORLD A TOUGH...
Newspaper article from: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) ...Seebach ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS Often the...question. What to do about global...work began to affect policy, she...the theory of plate tectonics. Wegener proposed...Nonetheless, plate tectonics had become the...ATOC). You can do that because...
See all results at HighBeam

HighBeam gives you access to newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles plus press releases, facts, information, and biographies from thousands of sources.