CHAPTER 14 STRUCTURE AND LAND FORM (I) : MONTAIN BELTS AND SHIELDS

The gross land form of the continents includes a full spectrum of plains, plains with hills, tablelands, hill country, and mountainous terrain. These form classes are of many possible origins and directly or indirectly result from tectonic forces emanating from earths interior. Diastrophism and vulcanism create positive relief by folding anticlines, raising fault-block mountains, general upwarping, and building volcanic cones or ash and lava uplands. Diastrophism also produces negative relief in synclines, in downfaulted grabens, and in general by downwarping or subsidence. Consequently, although the gradational agents may proceed to irregularize the surface by deep dissection, at time monly provide-indirectly-by the tectonic setting. In all of this, differential weathering and erosion that reflect on rock resistance may lead to systematic patterning of relief forms and drainage lines at both the large and small-scale levels. These same rock contrasts, particulary when combined with gentle or almost inperceptible deformation, favor several possible combinations of structural or lithological landforms found well beyond the domain of mountain building in either the distant or recent past. At the generalized level, the land form of the continents includes several major component classes that are all to some degree modified or even controlled by structure and lithology : (1) depositional plains, built of alluvium, till, loess, dunes, or coastal sediments; (2) erosional plains and plateaus cut into horizontal, gently warped, or inclined sedimentary strata; (3) plains and plateaus eroded in lavas and volcanic ash; (4) young mountains belts of the recent geological past, including fold mountain systems, fault-block ranges, and volcanic peaks; (5) old mountains belt in which repeated erosion and tectonic revitalization have created a more complex relief strongly influenced by lithological contrasts; and (6) ancient shields of methamorphic and intrusive igneous rocks that constitute the eroded roots of mountain systems dating to the dawn of earth history. These variable continentals setting are, in detail, modified by differing combinationsof gradational agents that reflect on the ecological balance of the major world environments. The present chapter considers young and old mountain belt, as well as ancient shields. Landscape on horizontal or wraped sedimentaries, including karst, are analyzed in chapter 15, together with a synopsis of continental land form. 14.1 ROCK, STRUCTURE, AND RELIEF Writing in the years 1021 1023 A.D. the Persian doctor and philosopher Avicenna was the first to formulate a surprisingly modern hypothesis of mountain building. He was familiar with the greek and Roman authors and began to write a commentary on Aristotels earth own observations and deductions. In the resulting discourse Avicenna attributed mountains to either a direct agentviolent earthquakes that raise the crust and create elevations or an indirect process-selective erosion by wind and water, whereby deep valleys are cut and irregular, high relief imparted as a byproduct. His writings further show that they were solidified by compaction and sedimentation and that they were subsequently exposed to the slow but cumulative and relentless impacts of erosion.

Most of the surface relief of earths crust does owe its origins directly or indirectly to forces within earths interior. Diastrophism creates mountain ranges or hill country by folding or block faulting. Vulcanism builds up craters and cones of lava or ash. Landscape uplifted by epeirogenic movements obtain sufficient potential energy for streams to begin vigorous dissections, thus permitting tablelands or irregular hills to evolve. Event in areas where uplift is unimportant, warping of rocks of differential resistance leads in the end to landscapes with striking patterns of erosions. The continental distribution of topographic forms---such as plains, teblelands, hills, or mountains--is either directly determined or indirectly preconditioned by geological history. Tihis geological pas is recorded in successive stages of sediment accumulation or volcanic accretion and in repeated phases of tectonic deformation. It is directly reflected at the microscale in the nature and variability of rock types, at the mesoscale in the inclination and other structural attributes of these rock, and at the largest scale in the available relief of the land. At the regional or continental level, the effects of lithology and structure are conspicuous if not paramount in many landscape, no matter how actively the agents of erosion and deposition have intervened. It is these broad categories of land form that have traditionally been the focus of structural geomorphology and that are the subject of this chapter. In discussing the broad terrain characteristics and form types implied by the tern land form. It is useful to define first some basic categories of surface form. Such as a system has been devised by Hammond (1964) and can be applied to topographic maps or to arbitrary sub divisions as small as about 5-by-5 miles (8-by-8 km). 14.2 HILLS AND MOUNTAINS CREATED PRIMARILY BY DIASTROPISH Fold Mountains and Valleys. Tha major common type of mountain range is related to parallel or subparallel folds, with the anticlines corresponding to range, the syncline to valleys. Complex rock folding is the primary type of deformation, with acillary faulting and volcanism on large or small scale. Sets of linear ranges and great, complex chains of mountainsknow as cordilleran belts---are formed in this way. From the moment they are exposed on the continents, fold mountains and valleys are continuously sculptured by gradational agents. This processes are exceptionally active in hight country : running water is potent, since available relief is great; mass movements are accelerated by the relief and irregularity of the terrain, as well as by not uncommon as a result of abundant snow and cool summers at very high elevations. The combined effect of water, gravity, and ice serves to change the shape and relief of fold mountains. At first, slope and irregularity are accentuated; ultimately, they may be reduced until the range is eroded to a plain studded with low hills. However, mountain building takes place much more rapidly than does denudation. An orogenic phase may take a few million years to create a mountain range; contemporary and subsequent denudation require several tens of million years before the range can be reduced to a plain. Eart has seen an almost interminable succession of orogenies during the course of its history, reflecting the consolidation and fragmentation of continents and the train of events ensuing as the

lithospheric plates move. These orogenies have been of variable intensity and complexity and have affected only limited areasalong certain plate contactsin each instance. The major orogenies have reccured at apparent intervals of 20 to 100 million years. But for all practice purposes in geomorphology, these periods of mountain building fall into three groups : 1. Relatively young orogenies which, during the past 75 million years, have created cordilleran belts that maintain a fresh aspect and high relief. These are responsible for what are called young fold mountains. Uplift, deformation, earthquakes, and possibly, volcanism continue today, while gradational agents are very active. The coastal ranges of California and parts of the Rocky Mountain system provide examples of young fold mountains. 2. Orogenies of 100 to 500 million years in age were responsible for a number of cordilleran belts of intermediate age. These have been eroded to plains on one or more occasions. And their present relief is due to renewed uplift, tilting, deformation, and volcanism. Revitalization of tectonic activity is commonly a side effect of mountain building else where, and the greatest realm of old mountains beltsin Asiaowes much of its existence and most of its prominence to repeated uplift and block faulting duringthe alpine orogeny. In the process of exhumation or rejuvenation, structural and lithological details and contrast ae subject to renewed attack and accentuation by the gradation agents. Folded geosynclines consequently have repeated leases on life. 3. Ancient orogenies, dating back from beyong 500 million years to the early years of the planet, also created cordilleran belts. These have been denuded so often and the rocks so intensively metamorphosed in the wake of repeate deformation that they have expended their leases on life. Remnants of this kind play no role in contemporary fold mountains. Instead they commonly coincide with extremely stable portions of the continents, favoring the development of a subdued shield topography. Fault-Block Ranges and Valleys. Mountain building invetitably involves some faulting when crustal blocks are rigid and subject to sudden and intensive stresses. Block faulting may occur hand in hand with folding and accounts for the orogenic deformation os some former geosynclines. Frequently, too, fold mountains are accentuated by repeated block faulting once denudation has begun to reduce the weight of the crust, favoring isostatic rebound. Finally, block faulting is the characteristic mode of deformation in intrusive igneous metamorphic,as well as rocks that are far more rigid than young sedimentary strata. The drainage of both fold and fault-block mountains and valleysis commonly although by no means always aligned in peculiar geometric arrangements. Primary tributaries may join mainstream at right angles, while secondary tributaries are elongated and run parallel to the mainstream. Such a drainage pattern resembles an old-fashioned garden trellis and is so described as trellis drainage. When the major stream and its tributaries make right-angled bends and intersections, without perfect parallelism of the side stream, drainage is rectangular in pattern. However, most of the low-order stream and many of the high-order, through-streams may show the random branching or dendritic pattern. However, most of the low-order stream and many of the high-order, through

streams may show the random branching or dendric pattern. That is the norm with undeformed rocks of uniform resistance. Drainage organization can also be antecedent, that is, preserved from a period prior to folding or uplift. This is the case when major streams are able to cut into bedrock at a rate equal to or greater than that of uplift, regardless of the grain of the land. 14-3. LANDSCAPES MODELED BY VULCANISM Volcanic Hills and Mountains. Many of the worlds highest mountain ranges are capped by volcanic cones that frequently cluster in chains or groups. Isolated volcanoes groups of volcanoes are also found outside of the cordilleran belts. Although most of these are associated with rift valleys, mid-ocean ridges, or island arcsall zones of crustal spreading or collision. This relationship underscores the role of vulcanism as a major component of crustal deformation and mountain building. Volcanoes contribute relief to the continental land masses as well as the sea floors by constructing rock edifices that vary considerably in shape, relief, and slope. They are generally associated with younger mountain belts. Shield volcanoes consist of massive accumulations of lava, mainly basalt, that erupt quietly from number of craters or fissures, these volcanoes resemble great domes, with gentle slopes of 2 to 4 degrees on their lower flanks, steepening a little to 5 degrees or more near their summits. Although not impressive in terms of abrupt relief, shield volcanoes are enormous size. The island of Hawaii consist of a group of overlapping shield volcanoes that rise from 15,000 feet (5,600 m) below sea level to 13,800 feet (4,200 m) above. This relief of 29,000 feet (8,800 m) is matched by a base 100 miles (160 km) in diameter. As in the case of all large volcanoes, streams radiate outward and downslope to form radial drainage patterns. Cinder cones reflect on explosive vulcanism and contrast strongly with shield volcanoes. Instead of lava, they consist almost entirely of volcanic cinders and ash that have been blasted out of crater vents. These pryoclastics are normally of a more acid variety of igneous rock, initially rich in gases and liable to violent eruption. Cinder cones are comparatively small, varying from 50 to 1,500 feet in height, but with steep slope of 25 to 30 degrees. Unlike shield volcanoes, which take millions of years to form, cinder cones are created in a few months or years. Sunset crater is a good example. Composite volcanoes result from protracted eruption of cinders and lava that maintain the general shape of a cinder cone, with slopes of 20 to 30 degrees. However, the relief is much greater and Mount Etna in sicily or fuji-san in japan are mighty mountains indeed. The burial of Pompeii and Herculaneum by cinders from Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and the fiery destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique, by white-hot ash from Mount Pelee in 1902 are two dramatic example. The different types of volcanoes of volcanoes may occur singly or in multiple groups. Thus, for example, cinder cones are commonly found along the flanks or shield or composite volcanoes but can also occur in swarms. The Role of Intrusive Vulcanism. Intrusive volcanic contribute to surface irregularity when exhumed by erosion. Fields of cinder cones, for example only have limited longevity once activity ceases. The surface ash, cinders, and incidental lavas are eventually removedexposing

the neck and a network off dikes and sill relatively resistant igneous rock. Many such necks form striking land marks, and Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico has relief of 800 feet. In fact there often is a temporal sequence in mountain building : 1. The initial phases of mountain building are marked by extrusion of basic lavas. 2. Subsequently, the major mountain lineaments are created by folding, accompanied by intrusive volcanism deep within the crust 3. As erosion continues to level these fold mountains, block faultingaccompanied by further extrusive vulcamismbegins to upraise and expose the acidic batholiths masses at the mountain roots. Volcanic Plains and Plateaus. Not all volcanic activity creates mountain. In some areas and at certain times surface have been mantled by deep spreads of volcanic ash or buried under great floods or horizontal lavas. Ash plains consist largely of pyroclastics in the dust size, that is, sive layers of ash into lavalike rock of greatresistance. Thus when streams begin to carve into ash deposite, they commonly leave broad, flat uplands preserved by hard, welded ash strata or by highly permeable ash beds. Such surfaces are widespread in the great rift valleys of East Africa and in other, smaller volcanic regions. Flood basalts are highly fluid and erupt from large fissures rather than from shield volcanoes, and they spread out over vast areas. During the geological past, flood basalt have periodically erupted to create fresh lava surface. During the Mesozoic and the Tertiary, fissure flowsover millions of yearsbuilt up great, horizontal accumulations of basalt in several areas, including southern Brazil, the Deccan Plateau of India, the Central Siberian Plateau, the Columbia Plateau, and the Ethiopian Plateau. The successive layers of resistant rock maintain flat interfluves, even after protracted and intensive dissection. 14.4 ANCIENT CRYSTALLINE SHIELDS Large parts of all of the continents consist of stable masses of very ancient and complex metamorphic rocks. These shields have undergone repeated faulting, volcanic intrusion, and denudation. The original rocks generally exceed 500 million years in age, and they have been deformed by several orogenies. Successive fracturing and uplift, followed repeatedly by erosion down to about sea level, have removed all but the very roots of these ancient mountain belts. Characteristicly, the shields are areas of low relief gantle slopes and rolling topography. Wherever epeirogenic uplift or upwarping has provided potential energy, running water or ice has effected differential erosion. As a result, valleys typically occur in geometric patterns related to complex network of old fracture lines and multiple intrusions. Topography is a matter of rolling plains, locally grading over into hill country.