Folded mountain
A folded mountain is created when two tectonic plates come together . This causes them to rise out of the earth. These mountains are formed by compression. The process of mountain-building is called orogeny.
Fold mountains make up some of the highest mountains in the world. Folded mountains commonly form along borders, where two continents are colliding. They tend to look like an accordion. Some really complex folds are in parts of the Alps, Himalayas, Rockies, Appalachians, and Russia's Ural Mountains. These long mountain chains also show extensive signs of folding.
Fold mountains are created by uplift and folding of tectonic plates as they move towards each other and collide. This is known as a compressional plate margin. An example is the Himalayan mountain range in South Asia (Indian Plate colliding with the Eurasian Plate).
The plates may be either 'continental and continental' or 'continental and oceanic'. Most folded mountains resulted from 'continental-continental' collision The plates move towards each other, but there is not a free space for them to move into because they are already touching each other. With two massive plates of rock pushing against each other and continually moving, all that rock has to go somewhere!
At a destructive plate margin where oceanic and continental plates collide, the oceanic plate is subducted, pulled under the continental plate - whilst the continental plate is crumpled upwards to form a mountain range. The Andes are an example of a mountain range formed at a destructive plate margin. However, at 'continent-ocean' collision zones mountain building is considerably contributed by volcanic activity.
When two continental plates move towards each other, both plates are forced upwards in a series of folds. This caused big problems for early geologists who struggled to explain why they were finding fossils of sea creatures high up in mountains such as the Himalayas! We now know that the fossils got there due to uplift of sedimentary rocks along the edges of the plates.
You can simulate this process using two flat strips of modeling clay or old carpet. Put them side by side and push them together. One or both will crumple up and form a mini mountain range on your table top.
Folded mountains are created when tectonic plates are pushed together slowly and continueously with pressure and heat.
