3.

3 Mountain Building
• Mountain – part of Earth’s surface that is
much taller than the land around it; form in
places where plates collide.
• Mountain Range – series of mountains.
• Mountain Building – process of creating
mountains.
• Folds – bends in rock layers; most
mountains were created by a combination
of folding and faulting.
• Anticline – the upward or top part of the
folded rock.
• Syncline – the bottom of the fold.
• Faults – large cracks in the rock; most
mountains were created by a combination
of folding and faulting.
Anticline
Syncline
• Thrust Faulting:
– When sedimentary rock is squeezed from the
sides, it can form into slabs that move up and
over each other like shingles on a roof.
– When tectonic forces stretch Earth’s crust,
fault blocks can tilt or slide down.
– The older rock may end up on top of the
younger rock.
– These huge amounts of rock can form
mountains called fault block mountains.
 Normal Fault

• Animation of a normal fault occuring when

tensional forces act in opposite directions
and cause one slab of the rock to be
displaced up and the other slab down
• Reverse faults develop when compressional
forces exist. Compression causes one block to
be pushed up and over the other block.
• A graben fault is produced when tensional
stresses result in the middle of a block of
rock. On a large scale these features are
known as Rift Valleys
• A horst fault is the development of two
reverse faults causing a block of rock to
be pushed up
Himalayas