Week Five- Fold Mountains

 This week I decided to take a virtual trip to the beautiful city of South Africa where the Cape Fold Mountains are present. I discovered during my journey that the Fold mountains are created when two or more Earth tectonic plates are pushed together, often known as convergent plate boundaries and continental collision. Not all fold mountains are soaring peaks. The Appalachians, stretching along North America’s east coast, are generally low-lying, gentle slopes. Millions of years ago, the Appalachians were taller than the Himalayas! Millions of years of erosion, however, have taken their toll. Today, some of the highest peaks of the Appalachians are less than a third of the height of Everest. 

The crust that is now the Appalachians began folding over 300 million years ago, when the North American and African continental plates collided. Plate tectonics created this ancient mountain range, then called the Central Pangean Mountains . . . and plate tectonics tore it apart. As tectonic activity ripped apart the ancient supercontinent Pangea, the African, Eurasian, and North American plates drifted apart.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/fold-mountain/