Mountain Building Basics
The process of mountain formation caused by plate interactions.
What is orogeny?
A bend in rock layers caused by compression.
What is folding?
Bowl-shaped hollows carved by glaciers.
What are cirques?
This park features a dramatic fault-block mountain range with no foothills.
What is Grand Teton National Park?
These mountains are younger, steeper, and formed by recent tectonic activity.
What are Rocky Mountains (like Grand Teton)?
The stage where thick layers of sediment or volcanic material build up.
What is the accumulation stage?
A downward fold with the youngest rocks in the center.
What is a syncline?
Flat, dry lake beds often covered in salt deposits.
What are playas?
This park is the hottest, driest, and lowest place in the United States.
What is Death Valley National Park?
These mountains are older, rounded, and heavily eroded.
What are the Appalachian Mountains?
The stage where compression causes folding and faulting.
What is the orogenic stage?
A fracture where movement occurs along a plane.
What is a fault?
Fan-shaped deposits formed where streams exit mountains.
What are alluvial fans?
This park contains granite domes formed from exfoliation and a massive batholith.
What are Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks?
This park shows basin and range topography formed by crustal extension.
What is Great Basin National Park?
The stage involving uplift, erosion, and isostatic rebound.
What is the extension/uplift/erosion stage?
A fault where the hanging wall moves downward due to tension.
What is a normal fault?
Isolated rock hills rising from flat desert plains.
What are inselbergs?
This park features coastal landforms like sea stacks and wave-cut benches.
What is Redwood National Park?
This park highlights thrust faulting and ancient mountain-building events in the Appalachians.
What is Shenandoah National Park?
The process where land is added to a continent through tectonic activity.
What is accretion?
A low-angle reverse fault caused by compression.
What is a thrust fault?
Sharp mountain peaks formed by multiple cirques.
What are horns?
This park is known for thermal springs formed by heated groundwater.
What is Hot Springs National Park?
This park demonstrates both extreme elevation change and interior drainage.
What is Death Valley National Park?