Europe - Formation of mountain ranges and deposits of natural resources

Natural hazards
978-3-14-100890-6 | Page 51 | Ill. 3
Europe | Formation of mountain ranges and deposits of natural resources | Natural hazards | Karte 51/3

Overview

The science of geotectonics deals with the structure and movements in the Earth's crust. The geotectonic development of Europe took place in different periods of the Earth's history. During these periods, mountains were folded or formed by movements in the Earth's crust.

Europe

The mountain range in Finland, Sweden and southern Norway was last folded 1.6 billion years ago. It forms the broad, flat uplift of the Baltic Shield. The Baltic Shield is overlain in the east by the Russian Plate. Since the Precambrian the Baltic Shield has been rising. This uplift continues today due to relief from the melting ice cover. The Russian Plate, on the other hand, has been sinking since the Precambrian. During the Caledonian mountain building around 500 million years ago, the Norwegian mountains were folded. This also includes the southwestern part of the mountains in Scotland, central England, and Ireland. Variscan mountain building took place between 400 and 350 million years ago, mainly in western and central Europe. At this time, the Ardennes and the Ore Mountains were folded up.

Raw material deposits

The map also shows the deposits of important raw materials (salt, hard coal, natural gas, lignite, and iron ore). These raw materials were formed in different periods of the Earth's history and under very specific conditions. The large deposits of hard coal, for example, originated in the Carboniferous (Latin "carbo" = coal). About 300 million years ago, tropical conditions prevailed in Europe under which gigantic swamp forests grew. From the mass of dead plant remains, thick humus layers could form at that time, which solidified into peat and - over thousands of years - into hard coal.

Developments in the Earth's modern era

The Alps, the Carpathians, the Pyrenees and many younger mountain ranges were formed during the Alpine mountain building, which took place about 90 million years ago at the turn of the from the Lower Cretaceous to the Upper Cretaceous. The Alpine mountain building reached its strongest uplift phase in the late Miocene, about five million years ago. The reason for the formation of this mountain range was the collision of the African Plate with the Eurasian Plate. In some areas of Europe, the alpine mountain building is not yet complete. Signs of this are the active volcanism and the frequent earthquakes in southern Italy, on the Aeolian Islands and in the southern Aegean Sea. While Asia, Africa and Europe were connected by folds in the course of Earth's history, the originally connected mountains between the North American Appalachians and the European Caledonides were separated from each other. This was caused by the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the course of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a result of continental drift. This process - at speeds of a few centimetres per year - is still taking place today. The North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other. Clear signs of the two plates drifting apart are the active volcanism in the area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (e.g. on Iceland).