MOUNTAINS

MOUNTAINS LESSON

Directions:

Print the Mountains reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions.  Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt

   Most mountains are formed by Earth's internal forces.  Do you think all mountains are the same?  There are actually different kinds of mountains, formed in different ways. 

     A major force shaping land is uplift, the lifting of land by forces in the Earth's interior.  Moving tectonic plates lift land, forming mountains.  Folded, fault-block and volcanic mountains all result from different types of plate movements.

     Volcanic mountains are formed when magma, or molten rock, is forced out through the crust.  Volcanic mountains are most common at tectonic plate boundaries.  Hawaii's islands were formed by volcanoes.  They formed, not a plate boundary, but over a hot spot.  A hot spot is a place where magma rises close to the surface in the middle of a plate.  The super-hot magma burns a hole through Earth's crust, like a blowtorch burns through metal.  Then the magma rises through the crust. It hardens on the Earth's surface and forms a mountain.  

Continued...