Fold mountains

Zagros mountain range, seen from space.

Fold mountains are mountains that form mainly by the effects of folding on layers within the upper part of the Earth's crust. Before either plate tectonic theory developed, or the internal architecture of thrust belts became well understood, the term was used for most mountain belts, such as the Himalayas. The term is still fairly common in physical geography literature but has otherwise generally fallen out of use except as described below. The forces responsible for formation of fold mountains are called orogenic movements. The term orogenic has derived from a Greek word meaning mountain building. These forces act at tangent to the surface of the earth and are primarily a result of plate tectonics.

This is a edit by Caden.

Examples

• The Jura mountains - A series of sub-parallel mountainous ridges that formed by folding over a Triassic evaporite decollement due to thrust movements in the foreland of the Alps
• The 'Simply Folded Belt' of the Zagros mountains - A series of elongated anticlinal domes, mostly formed as detachment folds over underlying thrusts in the foreland of the Zagros collisional belt, generally above a basal decollement that formed in the Neoproterozoic Hormuz evaporite
• The Akwapim-Togo ranges in Ghana
• The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the Eastern United States.

See also

• Fault-block mountain
• Mountain building
• Aravalli