How did the Andes Mountains form?

Answer 1

Types of mountain creation:

1. Volcanic mountains are formed either through the introduction and accumulation of magma over a crustal "hot spot" or through volcanic activity associated with the collision and subduction of a crustal plate, where the melting of the subducted crust creates gasses and pressures that are released in eruptions.
2. Continental crustal plate collisions, where neither plate subducts, create mountain ranges such as The Himalayan Mountain Range, where crustal material is thrust upward faster than erosion can wear it down.
3. Plates can stretch until they crack and slide, forming fault-block mountains.
4. In the ocean, great underwater mountains are formed when plates spread away from one another, and melted rock pushes up through the gap.

Answer 2

Mountains are formed when:

• Two or more continental crusts collide, and then push each other upwards, e.g. the Himalayas were created when two continental plates collided.
• One plate moves over another (i.e. a continental over an oceanic). An example is the Andes.

Also note that 'mountains' are formed at divergent plate boundaries between oceanic plates as a Mid-Ocean Ridge.

Answer 3

There is widespread agreement among geologists that the Himalayas began forming roughly 50-70 million years ago when the northward-moving Indo-Australian tectonic plate began colliding with the relatively stationary Eurasian Plate. The boundary of the collision is called the Tibetan Plateau, which was shattered and pushed upward to form the great Himalyan peaks such as Mt Everest.

First to collide were the leading edges of the continental shelves, where massive amounts of seafloor ocean sediments and sedimentary rock were being tilted and thrust upward. Evidence of this exists on the top of Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak above sea level, where there are ancient marine fossils in abundance.

The Indo-Australian Plate continues to be driven northward, sliding under the Tibetan Plateau at the rate of about 6.7 cm (2.6 inches) per year and causes the Plateau to continue to be pushed upward. The Indo-Australian Plate has slowed to less than half of its original velocity, but it appears likely that it will continue moving northward for roughly another 10 million years, creating a Himalayan-like landscape as far north as 1500 km (930 miles) from the present range of mountains.

Answer 4

The Andes Mountains were formed from volcanism and uplift created by the collision of the Nazca plate with the South American plate.

Answer 5

The Andes Mountain Chain is formed as a result of a convergent plate boundary, the collision of the South American Plate with the Nazca Plate.

Answer 6

A Mountain is formed by the movement of Iithospheric plates, either orogenic movement or epeirogenic movement

Answer 7

The Pacific plate and the North America plate

Answer 8

Along the western side of the South American continent where the Nazca tectonic plate is colliding with the South American Plate.

Answer 9

The Andes was formed by the oceanic-continental convergence between the western-moving South American plate and subduction of the Nazca oceanic plate.

Answer 10

Convergent Plate Boundary