The summits of two mountain ranges lie at different elevations: range A at about 8 km and range B at about 2 km. Without knowing anything else about these ranges, could you make an intelligent guess about the relative ages of the mountain-building processes that formed them?
If you were to climb 1 km from a stream valley to a mountaintop 2 km high in a tectonically active area versus a tectonically inactive area, which would probably be the more rugged climb?
A young mountain range of uniform age, rock type, and structure extends from a far northern frigid climate through a temperate zone to a southern tropical rainy climate. How would the topography of the mountain range differ in each of the three climates?
Describe the main landforms in a low-lying humid region where the bedrock is limestone.
In what landscapes would you expect to find lakes?
What changes could you predict for the landscape of the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau in the next 10 million years? The next 100 million years?
What changes in the landscape of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado might result from a change in the present temperate but somewhat dry climate to a warmer climate with a large increase in rainfall?
Over short time scales (thousands of years), isostatic uplift may temporarily raise mountain summits to higher elevations. However, over the longer term (millions of years), continued erosion will reduce those summits to progressively lower elevations. As this happens, what does the principle of isostasy predict about the depth of the base of continental lithosphere beneath the mountains? Should this depth increase or decrease as mountains are worn down?