The Alps are the largest mountain range in Europe.
Sea of mountains
The alps are a set of high mountains joined to others. They look like a 2,000-meter sea of mountains from which peaks that exceed 4,000 meters emerge, such as Mont-Blanc, in France (4808 meters), or Bernina peak, in Switzerland (4049 meters). Starting from the Mediterranean, they arc through France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.
Born of a crash
How did these mountains rise? The plates of the continents move, move away or approach until they collide. 100 million years ago, the African plate began to rise towards Europe and then collided with it, 60 million years later. Continents thrust, fold, and wrinkle like the bodies of two crashed cars. From this collision the Alps were born.
Continuous growth
Although we do not realize it, Africa continues to rise towards Europe and the lands continue to rise. Thus, despite the erosion, Mont-Blanc rises 1mm every year. As the life of a mountain is counted in hundreds of millions of years and the Alps are still young (40 million years), they still have time to grow.
WE LEARN A NEW CONCEPT
Thrust: Two continental plates ride when one invades the terrain of the other and partially covers it.
