The correct answer is - They formed long ago, and erosion has beveled them to their present elevation.
The Appalachian Mountain Range is one of the oldest mountain ranges on the planet. They have formed in the Ordovician Period, around 480 million years ago. When they formed and were at their peak, the Appalachians were much larger and higher than what they are in the present. The reason for their decline in size is attributed to the erosion. The erosion is a process that removes the material from its original position. This process has been influencing, at different rates, the Appalachians for almost half a billion years. Even though the erosion is not a process that acts very quickly, when put the time that it influenced these mountains we will see that it managed to lower them significantly. That process continues in the present, and in the manner in which the continents are moving, there shouldn't be any force that will help lift up the Appalachians again, but instead they will continue to shrink until they are flattened in the distant future.
There are <span>Divergent boundaries which are areas where plates move away from each other, forming either mid-oceanic ridges or rift valleys.
There are Convergent boundaries which are areas where plates move toward each other and collide.
And there are Subduction zones which occur where an oceanic plate meets a continental plate and is pushed underneath it. Subduction zones are marked by oceanic trenches
</span>
I hope this helps. I know it was pretty late, sorry about that.
Answer:
- the distribution of earthquakes
- certain fossil distributions
- the distribution of volcanoes
- the location of mountain chains
Explanation:
The plate tectonics are crucial for the processes that happen on the surface or near it on our planet, as well as the physical features of it. The movement of the tectonic plates causes lot of stress when they interact, and from that stress, the crust deep inside cracks and adjusts, which releases a lot of energy and causes earthquakes. Also, on the plate boundaries, because the crust is cracking and is not as tough, the magma from the mantle manages to rise up, and as it reaches the surface it lifts up the land in a cone shape, creating volcanoes, be it as island or continental arcs. When continental tectonic plates collide, they don't subduct, but push against each other, and that enormous pressure lifts up the area around the boundary, gradually giving rise to mountain chains. The fossils are n interesting example as well, as they are one of the best clues about the movement of the tectonic plates. There are lot of fossils that are identical, from the same species, but found on different continents that are not connected in the present, indicating that in the past the continents had different positions and were connected.
