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FAULT-BLOCK-MOUNTAINS</em></u>
Most mountain belts, including the Alps, the Himalayas and the Appalachians, are formed in compressional environments, as demonstrated by the predominance of large reverse faults and folded strata. However, other tectonic processes, such as continental fragmentation, can also produce the rise and formation of mountains. The mountains that form in these places called fault block mountains are related to normal wide-angle faults that gradually decrease with depth. Most of the fault block mountains are formed in response to a large uplift. which causes elongation and failure. A situation of this kind is exemplified by the fault blocks that rise above the rift valleys of East Africa.
The mountains of the United States in which the failure and the gradual rise have contributed to its high altitude are, among others, the Sierra Nevada of California and the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. Both are faulted along their eastern flanks, which were raised as sloping blocks to the west. Looking west from the Owens Valley, California, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the eastern fronts of these ranges (Sierra Nevada and the Tetons, respectively) rise more than 2 kilometers, making them the most imposing mountain fronts in the United States. United.
