Re: Mountains


"Jo Schaper" <joschapern4ospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:11hndq9hjmhc172@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hank Oredson wrote:
>
>> "don findlay" <don@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:1125555935.622526.72550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>>...So if mountains are formed by the erosion of plateaus, leaving an
>>
>>
>>
>> They are not.
>> Thus the rest of your post is incorrect.
>>
>
> Sorry, I have to agree with this snippet by Don Findlay taken out of
> context. Some "mountains" (or hills at least) are formed by the
> dissection of karst plateaus. Geomorphology has advanced beyond classic
> William Morris Davis 4 stage erosion cycle, but when you've got a cave in
> one hill, an intervening valley, and another cave at the same level in
> the next hill, and it is all flat-lying carbonate strata , there isn't
> any other reasonable explanation but the erosion of a plateau forming the
> hills containing the caves.

Yes, but the erosion of a karst plateau resulting in the formation of hills
in regions of essentially flat-lying limestone beds (such as in Missouri
and Kentucky) is not the same as uplift in a orogenic mountain belt. As
you know, the vast majority of karst regions are unlain by marine
limestone, so there has to be some form of regional uplift to form the
plateau in which the karst later forms. And with Karst seen in the Blue
Ridge of Virginia and the easternmost Appalachians in West Virginia and
Maryland, karst landscapes form after the marine limestone formed in a
shallow carbonate ramp environment undergoes orogenic uplift and the
resulting faulting, folding, and deformation. Thus, when you walk through
many of the caves in that region, the passages are often cut across beds
that have dips of up to 50 degrees, evidence that the karst formed after
the mountains were uplifted, faulted and folded.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Mountains
    ... >>> dissection of karst plateaus. ... >>> William Morris Davis 4 stage erosion cycle, but when you've got a cave ... >>> any other reasonable explanation but the erosion of a plateau forming ... >> and Kentucky) is not the same as uplift in a orogenic mountain belt. ...
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    ... leftover of erosion of a part of the plateau that forms the Vercors. ...
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