Question

What are the features of young fold mountains?

Answer 1

Hint: Fold Mountains are created when two or more of the earth’s tectonic plates are pushed together. With these colliding and compressing boundaries, rocks and debris are wrapped and folded into rocky outcrops and hills, mountains, or the entire mountain ranges themselves.

Complete answer:
In India, the Himalayas represent the young fold mountains because they have formed only a few million years ago by a collision of the Eurasian plates as well as the Indo-Australian plates as a result of the Continental drift. Young fold mountains are 10 to 25 million years of age. The young fold mountains are formed because of the folding of the earth’s crust due to tectonic activity or the colliding of tectonic plates with one another. They are also higher than that of the old fold mountains and have steeper slopes and deeper valleys.
The features of young fold mountains are as follows:
The Himalayas are the northernmost and a continuous range and it also consists of lofty peaks like the Nanda Devi and Kanchenjunga.
The Himalayas always remain snowbound consisting of frozen rivers of ice called glaciers and the mountain regions of the Himalayas have the shape of an arc.
The Himalayan region is symmetrical in nature and is richly composed of sedimentary rocks and granites.
The average height of the Himalayan mountain peaks stretches up to 6000 meters and above.

Note: Mountains are very important landforms as they are the storehouse of water. Many rivers have their source in the glaciers of the mountains which helps in irrigation. The mountains are rich in diverse flora and fauna and the forest in the mountain area provides fuel, fodder, and shelter.