Geography: Mountains, Rivers and Coasts

Summer 1, week 3

Aquamarine 1, 2, 3

This week, you will be learning about how mountains are formed.

Key Facts and

Vocabulary

Mountain Types

There are different types of mountains which all form in different ways:

Fold mountains

Fault-block mountains

Dome mountains

Volcanic Mountains

Plateau Mountains

Watch:

Video Link 1

Watch:

Video Link 2

Your activity today: Mountain Classification Expert

Here are diagrams of the five main types of mountains. You need to match the type of mountain to the correct diagram, using the information we are going to give you.

1. Watch this video—can you label any of the diagrams with the information you find out?

2. Next, use the information on the following pages to help you label the diagrams.

Mountain Types

Fold mountains

Fault-block mountains

Dome mountains

Volcanic Mountains

Plateau Mountains

Answers!

Let’s see how you did!

Mountain Types

Fold mountains

Fault-block mountains

Dome mountains

Volcanic Mountains

Plateau Mountains

Fault-block mountains

Fold mountains Dome mountains

Volcanic Mountains Plateau Mountains

There are some more mountain challenges on the following pages, if you would like to continue your learning!

Look at the pictures of these real mountains. Which mountain type do you think they might be, based on what

you have learnt? The answers are on the final page of this week’s learning.

The Alps, France

Sierra Nevada, USA

Yosemite National Park, USA

The Grand Canyon, USA Mt Etna, Sicily, Italy

Answers to activity 2

The Alps are fold mountains

The Sierra Nevada range are fault block mountains

Fairview Dome mountain in Yosemite National Park is a (you guessed it!) dome mountain

Mt Etna is an active volcano in Italy, found on the island of Sicily

The Grand Canyon is a range of plateau mountains. It is actually a large, deep river valley. The main cause of

the erosion that formed the Grand Canyon was water.

Make your own fold mountains at home!

Materials needed:

A pile of towels Two boxes / big books

1. Lay down a stack of towels each one folded in half. The folds will be more obvious if you use towels of various colours.

2. Put a box on either side of the towels. 3. The boxes represent the movement of the continental

plates while the towels represent layers of rock in between.

4. Push the boxes (continental plates) towards each other and observe the “mountains” being formed.

5. Make observations about the folds and the shape. 6. You could draw your own diagram of how fold

mountains are formed.