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The oldest mountains in the world and their histories
Mountains are some of the oldest residents of our planet. Earth's ancient temples of strength and resilience, sometimes taking the form of massive jagged fingers reaching for the sky, other times gently rounded and rolling hills giving texture to the land's surface, have watched over the earth for millions of years before complex organisms began to develop. For instance, the Appalachian Mountains, today famous for their heavily forested slopes, are around 500 million years older than the first trees that ever sprouted from the earth. These ancient formations are not only beautiful, but also tell the story of the world in its earliest stages, stories worth telling and worth reading.
Mountains can come into existence in a number of ways, but they always involve plate tectonics, or the shifting and collision of the massive plates that move just beneath the earth's surface.
Volcanic mountains are formed when tectonic shifts push molten magma to the surface, where it then cools and solidifies. Japan's Mount Fuji is an example of this.
The most common type of mountain is called a fold mountain, which is caused by the collision of two tectonic plates. The softer, less dense material is pushed up to the surface to form mountain ranges and plateaus, while the more dense material is pushed down deeper into the earth's mantel. This is how ranges such as the Himalayas and the Rockies were formed.
Determining the age of mountains was a long-impossible feat that stumped even the most accomplished scientists and geologists. That is until around the 17th century, when the field of stratigraphy began to rise to prominence.
Using stratigraphy, which is the study of the strata, or layers, of rock formation, the age of mountains can be determined by comparing these strata to one another to determine when a given mountain took its current shape, based on the materials and sediments present. So, thanks to geologists, we now know which ranges on earth are the oldest.
One of the oldest mountain and highland regions in Europe, the Massif Central of southeastern France is at least 60 million years old, assumed to be formed when the European and African tectonic plates once collided.
While entirely dormant today, the widespread area is dotted with around 450 extinct volcanoes that were all formed during the massive, ancient clash of the continents.
The oldest mountain range in India, and one of the oldest in the world, the Aravalli Range stretches 430 miles (some 690 km) across southwestern India.
The Aravallis are believed to date back to the Proterozoic era, making them around 350 million years old. Evidence of some of the earliest civilizations on the Indian subcontinent lay in the lush Aravalli mountains and foothills.
The Blue Ridge Mountains, arguably the most beautiful stretch of the North American East Coast's Appalachian Mountains, is also the oldest stretch, at 1.2 billion years old.
True to their name, the Blue Ridge Mountains really do glow blue when observed from a distance. This is because of a particular hydrocarbon called isoprene that is emitted by the beautiful oak and aspen trees. When viewed from a distance, this hydrocarbon appears as the unique, dreamlike blue haze that surrounds the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Many of the earth's oldest mountains rest in South Africa, and one of these is Mount Pilanesberg. The oldest volcanic mountain formation in Africa, and one of the oldest in the world, Mount Pilanesberg is 1.2 billion years old.
Mount Pilanesberg has been inactive for quite some time, with its most recent eruption occurring around 1,200 million years ago. Numerous platinum mines operate at the base of the mountain.
The St. Francois Mountains that run through the otherwise mostly flat prairie state of Missouri are the oldest volcanic mountains in the United States, dating back nearly 1.5 billion years.
While the St. Francois Mountains are quite modest in stature, with the highest peak resting only 1,772 feet (540 m) above sea level, the beautiful igneous rock formations that seem to melt down its slopes make this range a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts.
The Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming have been considered holy by a number of Native American tribes since the beginning of human settlement in the area.
These fold mountains, with their characteristic abrupt and dramatic rock formations that seem to burst from the earth, are 1.8 billion years old, making them the oldest mountains in North America.
At two billion years old, the Guiana Highlands range are not only the oldest mountains in South America, but in all of the Americas from Canada to Chile.
Situated at the northern tip of the continent, the Guiana Highlands stretch 1,200 miles (1,930 km) across Venezuela, the Guianas, Northern Brazil, and southern Colombia.
