Mountain chains in Northern Europe and West Africa match the Appalachian Mountains in terms of their ages and the sequences of rock layers that make them up. In 3-5 sentences, analyze these observations, and explain what conclusions can be drawn from them.

Question

Geography

Clark Blevins

15 January, 19:03

Mountain chains in Northern Europe and West Africa match the Appalachian Mountains in terms of their ages and the sequences of rock layers that make them up. In 3-5 sentences, analyze these observations, and explain what conclusions can be drawn from them.

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Conor Dickson · Answer 1

For the matching mountain ranges found in different locations to have correlating lithologies and ages, we can best resolve their location today to be a product of plate tectonics.

The theory of plate tectioncs combines the ideas behind the theories of continental drift and sea floor spreading. These terrains, west Africa, Europe and Appalachians must have been joined together as a single land mass where the same geologic mountain building process (orogeny) produced the ranges. The plates then broke up and the continents moved to their present day positions. They are still moving anyway ...