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RE: The Geology of the Oldest Mountains in the World: Vol. 1 - Appalachian Mountains
Very interesting article. I loved that part with the sharp teeth especially. This was like your personal geological discovery. What does this really mean? That the Appalachians somehow moved to the left off the ocean border or that they are still where they were and it was ocean that shallowed and made that big 500 miles distance to be new shore?
Well, the piedmont and coastal plains to the east of the Appalachians mainly formed from runoff over millions of years. You can actually find an abundance of sharks teeth in the smalls streams and creeks of those regions. One thing I find to be interesting about the Appalachians is the clear difference in the mountains characteristics, depending where in the chain you look. If you look at the mountains of Virginia and compare to them to those of North Carolina, you'll notice there is a huge difference in appearance. It's fairly obvious the mountains of western North Carolina are much younger than those of Virginia. Furthermore, seismic activity in NC and SC isn't that uncommon, believe it or not.
Do you mean the mountains of NC and SC which are the part of one Appalachian chain are still being produced during those seismic activity in that region while the Virginia part has already been formed long before it, is that correct? Than, if they all really considered to be one mountain chain, It appeals to me as Mega-Giant-Organism with Super-Slow Metabolism.
Not exactly. There’s no sign that they are currently growing, but they may have simply formed more recently. The interesting thing about plate tectonics, is that it was theorized sometime in the 1960’s. I only bring this up to convey how youthful our knowledge of the Earth’s crust is. A great example of this is the Rocky Mountains. They are in fact growing still, but geologists are somewhat puzzled as to why. Mainly because they are so far away from the compressional forces of plate activity. I’ll be discussing this in a future post so stay tuned!
All right, I definitely will!