Where there are now stable platforms, the elements raged earlier: ascended faults from the depths of the magma, erupted lava flows, and the layers repeatedly crumpled into folds. High mountains rose and fell again. This went on for billions of years, until the earth's crust here became so rigid and inflexible as a result of its melting by granites and other igneous rocks that it no longer reacted to tectonic forces. It was already a stable block! But old mountains collapsed, and time did not spare them, old age set in, which even stone giants do not avoid.

Destruction of mountain ranges and old mountains

Millions of years spent destructive work water flows, wind, temperature changes before they were "cut off" mountain ranges and no plains arose in their place. And then the former mountainous area experienced only smooth subsidence and small uplifts. When immersed, waters from the ocean or neighboring still living and mobile zones - geosynclines entered it, and small vast seas arose. Limestones and clastic rocks were deposited in them (during the repeated washing of the fragments of the once destroyed mountains). From these new strata, a platform cover arose, composed of horizontal layers of now slightly altered rocks.

Stable ancient rigid blocks lay quietly, and the bedding of the platform cover that covered them was not disturbed. But this is also for the time being. There have been cases of revival of tectonic movements along the faults, and then during the processes of resumption of movements (activation) old mountains took on a second youth.

From under the cover, the most ancient historical strata on the platforms come out in raised blocks - shields. By studying the most ancient rocks at these outcrops, geologists get an idea of ​​the processes of the distant past, the great upheavals and "revolutions" that have taken place here many times since the earliest stages of the geological history of the Earth.

destruction old mountains visible in Araval mountains of northwestern India. The sun-scorched hills vividly resemble the foothills of sultry Central Asia. Billions of years ago there were mountains as tall as they are now Himalayas.

The emergence of young mountains

To young mountains that have arisen at the site of mobile zones - geosynclines, include peaks of vietnam with their steep steep slopes, where lush tropical jungle vegetation clings to the rocks in gorges, huge ridges of North American Cordillera and Rocky Mountains, Supreme Stanovoy Ridge of the South Far East . Young ridges, rising like steep steps above flat platform plains, differ sharply from old gentle mountains like Ural.

What forces were raised by these greatest mountain structures and brought to the surface of the deep bowels of the Earth?

The reasons for such processes are studied theoretical tectonics. She also has the honor of dealing with issues of the origin and deep structure of the Earth.

Often in sources on the topic of the article it is reported that the most ancient mountains on planet Earth are Ural mountains. But the Urals have competitors in this topic ....

Interestingly, ancient geographers divided the Ural mountains into different sections. For example:

• the middle Ural was called Rimnus,
• northern - Hyperborean mountains,
• and the South - Noros.

As for the oldest surviving annals of Russia, the notorious Tale of Bygone Years, the modern Ural mountains are called Belt, Big Stone, or Earth Belt.

Initially, the word "Ural" in Russia was applied only to the territory Southern Urals. Researcher of the 19th century V. N. Shishonko noted that the “Ural” included the area where the Zlatoust factories were located, as well as areas slightly to the south and slightly to the north. Naturally, the peaks of Taganay were also among the original "Ural" mountains.

We owe the modern perception of what and where the Ural Mountains are to Vasily Tatishchev. For all this giant mountain belt, it was he who firmly fixed the name "Ural". Having learned that the locals, since ancient times, have called their native mountains "Ural", and their country "Ural ile" ("country of the Urals"), he decided to give such a name to the entire mountain range stretching for 2600 kilometers. And soon, in business as well as colloquial speech, the entire “stone belt” turned into “Ural mountains”.

However, perhaps it is fair that it was the southern part of the Urals that gave the name to the entire huge mountain range. It is here that you can fully experience the beauty and diversity of the Ural nature with its characteristic features: an abundance of mountains and lakes, a variety of climatic zones, landscapes, as well as a variety of animals and flora. And it is symbolic that it is the fabulous mountains of Taganay that are the first, “true” Ural mountains. Now Taganay - national park, access to which is restricted.

By the way, the indigenous peoples of the Urals have other traditional names for the Ural Mountains:

• Komi called them "Iz",
• Mansi - Nyor,
• Khanty-Kev,
• Nenets - Ngarka Pe

Also, as part of the Ural Mountains, on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region, there is the most ancient mountain ... on the planet (!)? The name of the mountain is unpretentious - Pencil, it is located in the Kusinsky district. According to preliminary estimates, its age is 4.2 billion years (for comparison: the age of the planet Earth is approximately 4.6 billion).

Once this mountain was much higher. And today its height is some 600 meters. This is everything that air, water and wind have not destroyed. Most of her "peers" have long been destroyed by time.

Mount Pencil is unique only because of its age, but also because it consists of the oldest and rarest stone, israndite. It is practically impossible to meet him on the planet. This is an almost black rock, which is closer in composition to the earth's mantle than to the earth's crust.

But fast forward to Canada

Scientists have determined that the age of the rocks that are located near the Eskimo village Nuvvuagittuq, is equal to 4.3 billion years. This mountain formation got its name from the same Eskimo village - Nuvvuagittuq.

To the question Which mountains are the most ancient on planet Earth? given by the author rain angel the best answer is The most ancient mountains on Earth are the mountains of the Kola Peninsula .. . In the ancient Indian legend "Mahabharata" a description is given of the ancestral home of the Aryans, where there was a high mountain Meru with main peak Mandara, above which was the North Star (Putorana Plateau). In the cosmology of Ancient Iran, it was argued that during the creation of the World, Khara Berezaiti (Mount Meru) was created first of all. All other mountains of various parts of the world grew up through its root system and were connected by underground roots with this primeval high Hara (Meru). The "Avesta" says that the first mountain that arose on Earth is the Great Hara. There is a story in Zoroastrian teaching that the sacred mountain grew in three stages over 800 years. On its highest peak, shining with gold and gems, a palace was built for Mitra, the great Aryan God ... Indication of ancient sources that Mount Meru was not far from northern ocean, under the North Star, with a wealth of waterfalls, rivers, lakes, flora and fauna, birds, as well as the fact that the mountains are the oldest on Earth, indicate that the abode of the Aryan gods was located on the Putorana plateau in the area mountain top 1700 meters high, located to the east of the city of Norilsk and Lake Lama. This is confirmed by the fact that the Aryan peoples, the Arimaspians, lived near Lake Lama and on the Putorana Plateau before the new era. In these places, and today there are numerous ground and underground structures. Lake Lama has interesting stone formations, as well as underground labyrinths, extending to the east and north. There are suggestions that at different times there were capitals and cult centers of various peoples near Lake Lama, including the Aryans and Arismans (arimasps). The cultural centers of the ancient peoples were near the rivers Yantali, Kochechum and in the bend of the river Minchanda under the thickness of the "cultural layer" of the earth.
About seven thousand years ago, a significant part of the Aryans, under the pressure of the emerging cold weather, went south towards Altai, the Turgai plateau, and India.
Source: Thanks for asking 🙂 Good luck!!

Answer from hospitable[guru]
Why did it interest you?

Answer from rock mysterios[newbie]
The Ural Mountains are the oldest in the world

Answer from oversleeping[guru]
There are no ancient mountains on earth. they are all from the same time.

Answer from chevron[guru]
Mountains are found on all continents and many major islands- in Greenland, Madagascar, Taiwan, New Zealand, British and others. The mountains of Antarctica are largely buried under the ice sheet, but there are individual volcanic mountains, such as Mount Erebus, and mountain ranges, including the mountains of Queen Maud Land and The land of Mary Byrd is high and well-defined in relief. Australia has fewer mountains than any other continent. In North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, cordillera, mountain systems, ranges, mountain groups and single mountains are represented. The Himalayas, located in the south of Central Asia, are the highest and youngest mountain system in the world. The longest mountain system are the Andes in South America, stretching for 7560 km from Cape Horn to caribbean. They are older than the Himalayas and apparently had a more complex history of development. The mountains of Brazil are lower and much older than the Andes. In North America, the mountains show a very wide variety in age, structure, structure, origin and degree of dissection. Laurentian Upland, occupying the territory from the lake. Upper to Nova Scotia, is a relic of a heavily eroded high mountains, formed in the Archaean more than 570 million years ago. In many places, only the structural roots of these ancient mountains remain. The Appalachians are intermediate in age. They first experienced uplift in the Late Paleozoic c. 280 million years ago and were much higher than now. Then they underwent significant destruction, and in the Paleogene ca. 60 million years ago were re-raised to modern heights. The Sierra Nevada mountains are younger than the Appalachians. They also went through a stage of significant destruction and re-uplift. The Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada are younger than the Sierra Nevada but older than the Himalayas. The Rocky Mountains formed during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene. They survived two major stages of uplift, the last being in the Pliocene, only 2–3 million years ago. It is unlikely that the Rocky Mountains have ever been higher than at present. The Cascade Mountains and Coast Ranges of the western United States and most of the mountains of Alaska are younger than the Rocky Mountains. The coast ranges of California are still experiencing very slow uplift.

Picturesque and long-lasting images of mountains with snow-capped peaks, bare rocks and slopes covered with forests can interest you with their diversity. The question involuntarily arises of how to determine how many years they exist. And which mountains are the oldest in the world? A photo of the oldest of them, as well as their description, is presented in this article.

Features of the old mountains

These can be considered those formations that correspond to several criteria. First of all, there are no processes going on inside the oldest mountains in the world. They have been quiet for centuries. Now, figuratively speaking, they are not growing, but, on the contrary, under the influence of external factors, they are being destroyed, becoming smaller and smaller. The relief of such formations is smoothed, not contrasting, smoothly passing from one type to another. In addition, the old mountains do not have sharp slopes and strong elevation changes. The mountain rivers on them are by no means spontaneous - the valleys have clearly formed over the past centuries.

Striking examples of the oldest mountains in the world are the Ural, Timan, Scandinavian and Khibiny on Kola Peninsula. Some of them will be discussed below.

Pencil

The Ural Mountains represent a chain stretching for a distance of 2,600 km. Due to the differences in relief and large extent, the Ural Mountains have a huge variety of vegetation and animals living here, which are located in the part that suits them, where the climate is most suitable for certain representatives of the fauna.

One of ancient mountains The Ural chain is considered Pencil - a formation that appeared 4.2 billion years ago. Information about this mountain is interesting not only because it is one of the oldest mountains in the world. What features does it have? The mountain is distinguished by the fact that its top and base are composed of israndite. This is the rarest stone, in composition closer to the earth's mantle. It is practically non-existent anywhere else in the world. Today, the composition of the earth's crust is very different from israndite, which makes Pencil unique precisely because of this quality.

Due to the influence of the environment, which irreversibly destroys all the oldest mountains in the world, the height of Pencil today is only 600 m. It received an unusual name from the Turkic language - “Kara-Tash”, which in Russian sounds like “black stone” . This is fully consistent appearance breeds.

Mystery Canada

The presence of such ancient formations really remained a mystery for a long time, but then scientists calculated the age of the rocks located near the village of Nuvvuagittuk. They turned out to be about 4.3 billion years old. Some of the oldest mountains in the world were named after the Eskimo village, located next to the rocks. The breed, like that of Mount Pencil, is considered rare. It is called tonalin, and in appearance it resembles quartz.

In addition, igneous rock is not the only basis. Near Nuvvuagittuq there is a large number of volcanic rocks. Not all scientists agree on the age of the mountains, and therefore relatively this moment until the controversy stops. Therefore, it is not possible to isolate plausible information.

Scandinavian Mountains system

This is a system of mountain formations, "hugging" the entire Scandinavian Peninsula. Previously, it was a whole ridge. But over time, many plateaus have formed, which now replace the once sharply pointed impressive cliffs.

The time of formation is not known for certain. According to various sources, it varies from 4.8 to 3.9 million years. It is only known for sure that the ridge began to form in the Caledonian era. On average, the height of the plateaus is now no more than 1000 m.

When the continents had not yet been formed, ice tongues reached the territories of modern North America, Great Britain and Spintsbergen. Later, the ice from above significantly changed by continuously acting on them, it contributed to a significant decrease in height, erosion of slopes and the formation of U-shaped depressions. Now granite fragments can be found far from Scandinavia.

Where can you find out the age

To understand which mountains are the oldest in the world, a variety of methods for studying rocks help. For example, you can approximately determine the age of certain rock layers - the further they lie, the older, and vice versa. There is one based on the identification of age from the remains of extinct animals.

Another method is uranium-lead. It consists in calculating the age of the oldest igneous rocks, however, it should be taken into account where the oldest mountains in the world are located, to which this method will be applied.

The article covered only a few possible ways age calculations. There are quite a lot of such methods that allow us to understand whether mountains are long-lived or whether they have formed recently. Exploring the planet, scientists continue to discover new details about its origin.

If you love sci-fi, adventure and action, then you've probably read " Lost world » A. Conan Doyle and could not pass by information about the fantastic and breathtaking Mount Roraima. It actually exists, and the view of this mountain is just as fantastic and mysterious.

Everardy Thorne and Harry Perkins traveled for a long time in December 1884 Potaro rivers and Essequibo, as well as along the Kaetur waterfalls, and further up to the incredibly beautiful Mount Roraima. Thanks to the notes about this trip, Conan Doyle wrote his "The Lost World".

South America boasts a huge territory, which is known for its many mountains. The locals call them " Tepui", which in translation means " home of the gods", most high mountain is Roraima, which means "big green-blue mountain". At local residents the mountain enjoys special respect, and the Indians consider it nothing more than "the navel of the earth." Rumor has it that at the very top of this amazing mountain, the goddess Queen, the progenitor of all people, lives.

And there is nothing surprising here. After all, Mount Roraima is considered most old mountain on the planet. There was a huge plateau here more than 2 million years ago. After the fault occurred, this amazing mountain arose, the top of which still has the form of a colossal sandstone plateau, and the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthis unique miracle of nature is about 30 km2. Roraima is rich in a unique ecosystem. Most of the species of animals and plants that have acquired a "registration" here are not found anywhere else on Earth. Thanks to almost daily rains, a carnivorous water lily has firmly “settled” on this mountain.

picturesque iridescent waterfalls, the highest in the world, pierce the entire mountain with their jets. In addition, three majestic rivers are born in the Great Savannah South America- Amazon, Essequibo and Orinoco. According to the Indians of repairs, the mountain Roraima and there is their Great Mother.