Briefing
Ever wonder how mountains are made? Usually, it takes millions of years, so it's not much fun to watch! But in this Smart Art, you'll see how it's done in just a few minutes!
Activity
Most big mountain ranges, including the Himalayas in Asia, the Andes in South America, and the Alps in Europe, are made up of fold mountains. Fold mountains are mountains that were formed when the giant plates that make up the Earth smashed together and crumpled up. This happens in super-slow motion over millions of years, but you can speed it up by following these steps!
What You'll Need:
Three colors of modeling clay
Wax paper
A plastic knife
What to Do:
Roll the clay out in rectangular flat sheets on the wax paper, one sheet for each color. Each sheet should be about 10 centimeters wide, 24 centimeters long, and one centimeter thick.
Stack the sheets of clay on top of one another, like you're making lasagna. These layers of clay represent different layers of the Earth's crust. The bottom layer is the oldest rock; the top layer is the newest rock.
Cut the clay in half with the plastic knife. These two stacks of clay represent two continental plates.
Set the two halves down on another sheet of wax paper, so their edges face one another.
SLOWLY push the "continents" together until they collide.
When they crumple together, draw a picture of what you see. Then separate them a little bit and push them together again.
What happened this time? Draw another picture of what you see. Mash them together a few more times until you've got some serious mountains going!
Debriefing
What happened to the edges of the clay when you pushed them together? Did it look like a mountain right away, or did you have to do it over and over again?
What happened to the layers of rock on the edges that smashed into each other? If you found a very old piece of rock on the top of a real mountain, why do you think that would be?
If you've got your Case Journals, answer the questions in it now!