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Mountain Building
Learner Outcomes
By completing this lesson, the learner will:
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Identify major mountain chains around the world
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Describe three mountain building processes
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Identify examples of various mountain building processes
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List the major layers of the Earth's interior
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Recognize the role of plate tectonics in mountain building
Exploration
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Take a close-up view of a world relief-map. (this
may take 10 minutes or more to see.)
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Find and name the major mountain systems.
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What do you think causes the formation of mountains?
Concept Introduction
Scientists studying how earthquake waves propogate through the Earth
have determined that the Earth is composed of distinct layers.
Questions
to Investigate
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The outermost layer of the Earth is called the crust. What are the two
types of crust?
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Who was Alfred Wegener and what did he propose?
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What evidence did Alfred Wegener find for his idea?
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Scientists have now modified Wegener's Continental Drift ideas into
Plate
Tectonics. What is different?
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What are subduction zones
and convergent zones?
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How can you model convergent mountain building?
The Earth's surface is separated into about nine sections or plates.
As plates move and grind into one another, the Earth's surface becomes
deformed.
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Name four major mountain ranges on the interior of a close-up
that might have been formed by colliding
plates.
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Use the Netscape's FIND procedure to locate the Zagros
Mountains in southern Iran, where the Arabian plate is impacting the Iranian
plate. Describe and sketch what is going on.
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How do we know the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Rocky Mountains are
at the edge of plates?
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Which plate
is forming the Andes Mountains on the west side of South America?
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Consider the US Rocky Mountains.
In addition to showing faults, what else does the diagram show happening
to the crust? Why does this suggest that the surface of the crust might
be of different ages?
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Consider the Himalayas.
How did these mountains
form?
Concept Application
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What do we call the study of the crustal plates and their movement? Describe
the forces that make it work.
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Consider the Alps.
What forces do you think produced these beautiful mountains?
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What forces are acting on the Alps today?
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What evidence of these forces do you see?
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