Mountain Building
What is the accumulation stage?
This stage of mountain building is characterized by the deposition of large amounts of sedimentary or volcanic rock.
What is a normal fault?
This type of fault occurs when rocks are pulled apart due to tensional forces, causing the hanging wall to drop relative to the footwall.
What is Grand Teton National Park?
This National Park, located in Wyoming, features complex mountains formed by faulting and volcanic activity.
What is folding?
This geological process involves the bending of rock layers due to compressional forces.
What is a craton?
The stable interior portion of a continent, where the oldest rocks are found, is called this.
What is the orogenic stage?
This mountain-building stage involves active tectonic forces, leading to folding and faulting of rock layers.
What is a strike-slip fault?
This type of fault involves horizontal lateral movement, as seen along the San Andreas Fault.
What is Nevada?
The Great Basin is primarily located in this U.S. state and is known for its basins and fault-block mountains.
What is displacement?
Faulting occurs when this happens, causing displacement along fractures in the Earth's crust.
What is tectonic accretion?
When oceanic crust subducts under continental crust, causing additional land to be added to a continent, it is known as this process.
What is crustal extension, block faulting, and uplift?
In this stage, crustal blocks are faulted and extended as a result of isostatic rebound.
What is an anticline?
This type of fold forms an arch-like shape, with the oldest rocks at the center.
What is Joshua Tree National Park?
This California park is home to Joshua Trees and features complex geological formations, including faulting and erosion.
What are joints?
These are fractures in the Earth's crust where no displacement occurs, commonly seen in parks like Arches and Bryce Canyon.
What are inselbergs?
These isolated rock formations are often found in arid regions and are known as "island rocks" due to their prominence above the surrounding terrain.
What is the orogenic stage? (example)
The Rocky Mountains are an example of mountains that formed during this stage of the mountain-building process, involving extensive folding and faulting.
What is a syncline?
This type of fold forms a trough-like shape, with the youngest rocks at the center.
What is Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park?
This National Park is known for the Sequoia trees, and its mountains are formed through a combination of faulting and folding.
What is a thrust fault?
This type of fault occurs when tectonic plates collide, forcing one plate upward over the other.
What is spheroidal weathering?
This term refers to the peeling away of rock layers, creating round, spherical shapes, often seen in granite formations.
What is crustal extension, block faulting, and uplift? (example)
The Himalayas are still undergoing this stage of mountain building, where crust is extended and faulted due to tectonic forces.
What is Capitol Reef National Park?
This National Park features a well-known monocline formed by a single bend in the Earth's crust.
What are Tennessee and North Carolina?
The Great Smoky Mountains are located in these two states, known for their unique geological features due to past tectonic activity
What are domes and basins?
These large-scale folds are often seen in mountain ranges, with domes having older rocks at the center and basins having younger rocks at the center.
What is a more humid climate?
The presence of spheroidal weathering in certain regions is often attributed to this climatic condition in the past.