Mountains are tall slabs of rock that pop up on the crust. Mountains can be very tall or very small, depending on how they are formed. Mountains can form because of magma cooling or tectonic plate movement. We are going to tell you about both!
Mountains can form in two main ways: magma cooling and tectonic plate movement. Let’s talk about the first one. Magma, which is melted rock and metal, seeps out of the inside of the Earth through cracks in the crust or land. As the magma comes out and cools down, it hardens into rock. Over millions of years, the magma cooling will form a cone-shaped mountain! Mountains can also form through tectonic plate movement. The Earth’s crust is divided into pieces. We call these tectonic plates. The tectonic plates can sometimes collide or crash into each other. As the plates do this, it creates a ridge of rock where the two plates meet. That ridge is a mountain! Mountains can also be formed when tectonic plates pull apart from each other. When they pull apart, it creates a tall ridge with a pointy top. These are the ways mountains can be formed!