After the mountains are formed, the soft and porous sedimentary rocks are slowly weathered away. The reduced weight causes the crust at this location to be lifted to establish equilibrium in floatation on the molten layer. We hardly perceive this process, but in geological terms it is relatively fast. Just 1 millimeter erosion per year adds up to 1000 meters in merely a million years.

In the sketch below is presented the sequence of events involved in the formation of mountains. As the solid crust is being loaded by the sediments deposited by rivers along the coast lines, the strong rocks in the crust are forced by the additional weight to submerge into the molten rock below. Thus, in time, the weak sediments replace the strong rocks, creating a weak line in the crust along coastal regions.

MOUNTAINS ARE BUILT, AND ICE AGES FOLLOW AS A CONSEQUENCE OF REPEATED COMPRESSION AND RELAXATION OF THE EARTH’S CRUST, WHICH ACTS AS A SOLID REFRIGERANT.

This goes on for about 200 million years, during which time the earth reduces its size due to cooling, that in turn squeezes the crust sideways. These forces then cause the crust to buckle and pile up at its weakest spots, which are along coastal lines. There the sediments are squeezed by the strong rocks from both sides, and piled up, so that sea shells and other marine fossils end up on top of mountains.

This also explains why new mountains are always formed along those coastal lines to which major rivers flow. Before the last mountain formation, the rivers on the American continent flowed into the Pacific Ocean, and that is why the new mountains formed there. Before the Appalachian Mountains were formed, the rivers flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, in about 200 million years, the next mountains will be formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Brazilian coast on the Atlantic side where the Mississippi, and Amazon rivers, are loading the crust, and making it weak.

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