NP Aconcagua, Andes Mountains, Argentina
Alexander Ludwig
I visited the Andes Mountain with my family a couple of years ago. The Andes Mountains are located in South America and are considered a great natural structure on Earth. The first thing I noticed when I saw it was that it did not have any peaks that went together. They have many parallel and transverse mountain ranges and intervening plateaus and depressions. I found this to be very interesting. This was a result of a continental crust and a oceanic crust collision. The continental South American Plate and the oceanic Nazca Plate collided and formed the Andes. The continental lithosphere is less dense than oceanic lithosphere, causing the latter to subduct beneath the former. The subduction creates pressure and temperatures to melt the rock. The pressure will reach the continental crust and form an arc. The pressure will form a deep-sea trench and a continental arc. Some of the minerals and rocks I observed was sandstone, siltstone, limestone, quartzite, shale, and marble.The forces involved where compressive. The structural style was dominated by faults and they were reverse or trust faults. This mountain range was very impressive and I enjoyed spending time there with my family.
Image: From www.searchanddiscovery.com ‘Deepwater Fold-Thrust Belts: Not All the Beasts Are Equal’, Ana Krueger and Ed Gilbert, 2009
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