Reading Comprehension · Earth Science
Mountains
A reading lesson about how mountains form — volcanic, folded, fault-block, and dome mountains — and the tectonic forces that shape the Earth’s surface.
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Subject
Reading Comprehension
Grade Level
Grades 5–8
Format
Lesson + Printable PDF
Access
Full Member
How Mountains Are Formed
Most mountains are formed by Earth’s internal forces. Are all mountains the same? There are actually different kinds of mountains, formed in different ways. A major force shaping land is uplift, the lifting of land by forces in the Earth’s interior. Moving tectonic plates lift land and form mountains.
Volcanic mountains are formed when magma, or molten rock, is forced out through the crust. Volcanic mountains are most common at tectonic plate boundaries. The Hawaiian Islands were formed by volcanoes — not at a plate boundary, but over a hot spot, where magma rises close to the surface in the middle of a plate and burns through the crust like a blowtorch.
Folded mountains are the most common type of mountain. The Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Rockies, and the Appalachian Mountains are all folded mountains. They form when tectonic plates collide and the impact causes the Earth’s crust to fold or bulge upward. The Himalayas formed when the land mass of India collided with Asia — the largest mountains on Earth.
Fault-Block and Dome Mountains
Plates are curved to fit the surface of Earth’s sphere. As the plates move, the fit changes. Tension — force pulling or pushing on the plate — can cause the crust to split, or fault. Mountains can form when blocks of Earth’s crust on either side of a fault are dropped below or pushed above the surrounding land.
The blocks that were pushed up form fault-block mountains. Examples include the Sierra Nevadas of California, the Wasatch Range of Utah, and the Teton Range of Wyoming. These mountains often have steep cliff-like faces on one side where the block was pushed up.
Dome mountains are formed when magma is trapped beneath rock. The hot magma tries to rise but can’t break through, so it pushes up the layers of rock above it. This forms a rounded mountain shape. As the magma cools, it hardens into rock. The Black Hills of South Dakota are examples of dome mountains.
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