Muhammad Mokhtar Geography (Ms Suzy) 10N 19/10/2011 How did Alfred find fossilized sea creatures high

up in the Alps? Alfred found fossilized sea creatures high up at Mt Blanc in the Alps. He actually came across the limestone which was exposed to the wind, rain and chemical weathering. The fossils were part of the formation of Fold Mountains of the Alps. The Fold Mountains have been formed at times in the earths geological history called mountain-building periods. Then, there were long periods of quiet between the earth movements during which sedimentary rocks, thousands of meters thick, formed huge depressions called geosynclines. Rivers carried sediments and deposited them into these depressions. When sea animals die their remains fall to the bottom of the sea and covered in sediment. Over million years later the sediments were compressed into sedimentary rocks such as limestone and sandstone. Sedimentary rocks were forced upwards into a series of folds by the movement of tectonic plates. At these plates, where two continents are moving towards each other a compressional margin and fold mountains occur. The Alps was formed by the collision between the African and the Eurasian plates. Eventually the sedimentary rock appears above sea level as a range of Fold Mountains. Where the rocks are folded upwards they are called anticlines and where the rocks are folded downwards, they are called synclines. In some places the folds were pushed over one side to give overfolds, while in some of the highest fold mountains like the Alps the rocks have been severely folded and faulted into nappes. The Alps is considered geologically young fold mountain at about 30-40 million years old.