Gregory's ServerOne pretty cool geological fun fact is that the Scottish Highlands, the Appalachians, and the Atlas are the same mountain range, once connected as the Central Pangean Mountains.
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 @VeroniqueB99  @VeroniqueB99 They're pretty ancient mountain ranges, certainly. But aren't mountain ranges created by the collision of tectonic plates? That would mean before there was Pangea, there must have been a couple other plates drifting around that collided to form it. And the subsequent breakup may just be a rebound effect from that previous collision.  @hyc @VeroniqueB99 @hyc @VeroniqueB99 Not all mountain ranges were formed the same way or at the same time. Some formed before the great divide, as is the case here. In the Permian period, the Central Pangean dealt with physical weathering that decreased the peaks and formed intermontane plains. By the Middle Triassic, the mountain sierras had lost most of their size. In the Jurassic period, the Pangean became separated by deep marine basins that later became oceans. @santoperdido @hyc @VeroniqueB99  @hyc @VeroniqueB99 Remember continents are just the lightweight cold skin atop the slowly percolating and circulating mantle, thatโs the engine of the large-scale dynamics.  @hyc @VeroniqueB99 When a continentel shield gets too thick, heat will concentrate under it resulting in more magma flow and eventually forcing the continent apart.  @VeroniqueB99 Interesting, considering how many Highlanders populated Appalachian areas. @FallsMom @VeroniqueB99 they were mainly Scots-Irish. That is Scots who went to Ireland first, lived there then went to America. @VeroniqueB99 There's a crew of people working on extending the US' Appalachian Trail all the way through Morocco.  @vaughnsc @VeroniqueB99 @BrianPierce @BrianPierce @vaughnsc @VeroniqueB99 Not yet present. Iceland is a volcanic island coming up much later.  @VeroniqueB99 It blew my mind learning the tops of the Appalachians are the floors of old valleys, and the original mountains that were between them have long eroded away. @VeroniqueB99 Love this and first learned it from this music blog about an astrophysicist Welsh musician who plays Appalachian instrumental music. https://harvestfortheseed.com/2021/06/13/gwenifer-raymond-is-the-best-astrophysicist-guitarist-of-all-time/ A 2017 feature in Traveler provides background on Mountain formation, including โdates.โ VividMaps seems to be the source of the image: @VeroniqueB99 there was a Link between america and europe for a very long time @VeroniqueB99 paleontologically proven by one of my geology lecturers at Glasgow and a Canadian colleague at a muddy, shaly spring in a field at Girvan. He spotted a Trilobite leg(a small woodlouse/King crab type bottom dweller) "It's a new species" he yelled. "No" said the Canadian, "they are common in Canada ". Then they realised what it meant, these things cannot cross an ocean. Proof positive of Continental Drift. 1950/60s.  @VeroniqueB99 another one is that between britain and the mailand there used to be a trench about as deep as the peru chile trench @VeroniqueB99 I love to tell people that the Appalachians aren't "little baby mountains", but rather that they're some of the oldest mountains in existence today, and they're stooped with age. The look of either: 1. Confusion Is always a treat. Geology rocks. @b4ux1t3 @VeroniqueB99 Thatโs like the first week of geology 101! New mountains pointy like cat teeth, old mountains less pointy. (Loved that class - actually changed how I see the world!) @labradorgirl @VeroniqueB99 I very badly wanted to be a geologist for a few semesters. To this day I vaguely regret not doing it. @VeroniqueB99 my partner has reminded me that #Newfoundland is at the intersection of several tectonic plates, as well as mid-image in the post above. Hereโs a piece from a member of the North Atlantic Working Group studying this, who noted that beyond Newfoundland much of the information about this #geologicalhistory lies in inaccessible seabed. @AlsoPaisleyCat interesting! This post blew up beyond what I thought would be the usual 5 to 10 RT...๐คฃ @VeroniqueB99 This reminded me of the excellent Map Men video: https://youtu.be/9DqZYsckBwI?si=ZSN4_N-PAIfWldef (Warning for those sensitive to incredibly British humor... or uh humour)  @VeroniqueB99 that map should include Western Iberian peninsula and, probably, Northern Morocco. |
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