Have you ever seen a mountain and wondered how do they really form? Here are five mesmerizing mountains facts for kids.
Mountains are formed when the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust crash into each other. These plates push together and move upwards to form a peak, this is the mountain. This pushing together of the plates doesn’t stop once the mountain forms so it keeps pushing the mountain higher. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, it stands at around 8,849 metres tall and it is still growing. Mountains don’t grow quickly so Mount Everest grows only about 2 centimetres every year.
Mountains that are all grouped together are called mountain ranges. The Himalayas are a huge mountain range in Asia and its name means home of the snow as it is very cold there. There are only 14 mountains in the world that are above 8000 metres tall. All of them are part of the Himalayan mountain range. That includes Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
The tallest mountain in the solar system is called Olympus Mons. It is super tall at 21,945 metres tall, that’s more than 13,000 metres taller than the tallest mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is also the tallest volcano in our solar system.
Because they are formed by the earth’s crust mountains can form anywhere and they most often form under the sea. Some of these mountains are volcanoes which spew lava which creates new islands. Hawaii is a range of volcanic islands. Hawaii has the mountain Mauna Kea. It is over 10,000 metres tall but more than half of it is under the sea. It would be the tallest in the world if mountains weren’t measured from sea level.
Archaeologists even found fossils of whales at the top of the Andes mountains. The tallest of the mountains in the Andes range is 6,706 metres tall, that’s a long way from the ocean. This shows that the mountains originally formed at the bottom of the ocean and were once part of the sea floor.
Mountains are shown in many religions as a place to communicate with god or the gods as they are close to the sky. Mount Olympus was home to the gods in Greek Mythology and is a real mountain in Greece. In mythology the pantheon containing 12 gods ruled by Zeus lived at its peak. In modern day Mount Olympus is a national park and has beautiful nature that is cared for by the people that live there.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about mountains as much as we loved teaching you about it. Now that you know how majestic these mountains are, you can move on to learn more about our amazing Earth like: Water, Four Seasons, Seas and Lakes, Miraculous Atmosphere, Tallest Mountain vs Deepest Ocean, Earth and Earthquakes.
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