• Question: what is in the middle of the mountains because they could contain wildlife fossels and other distinget animals

    Asked by jayb to Upul, Phil, Ian, Derek, Daniel on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Derek Mann

      Derek Mann answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Not certain but I think that most mountains are just solid rock, I guess some might have caves inside where bats, rodents, insects etc might live.

    • Photo: Ian Sillett

      Ian Sillett answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Mountains are just part of the Earth’s crust like all land, so the middle is rock, just like the outside. Some mountains are old volcanoes so they will probably be the same type of rock all the way through. Others are formed when the Earth’s crust is forced upwards and these can have many different types of rock inside. You can generally see them all on your way up the mountain as ‘bands’ of rock. It’s this type of mountain that you will find fossils because the rocks used to be seabeds and forests a long, long time ago.

    • Photo: Daniel Mietchen

      Daniel Mietchen answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Mountains can form by various processes, which are reflected in their composition: If you find fossils in there, they have once been on the continental surface or the bed of the sea. If you find volcanic minerals, they have come from below the tectonic plates. There are also many minerals that exist only under the special conditions created by heavy mountains moving relative to each other.

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