Yesterday I spent an hour helping my fifth grader do some worksheets on mountain formation. There were a couple of words we had to look up. Apparently I've forgotten a lot of information since fifth grade.
Synclines and anticlines are the downs and ups of folded mountain formations (think wrinkles in a tablecloth). Here is a diagram showing syncline and anticline.
Scarps are the rock faces/cliffs produced when an earthquake cracks the ground leaving one side higher than the other. Steep mountain faces created by movement of the earths crust are scarps. Fault block mountains have scarps. Fold mountains do not. Dome mountains are made by magma pushing up a "pimple" of earth then draining away without blowing up. Volcanoes are dome mountains with a more self-destructive bent.
My spell-check does not know the word syncline but I do, this makes me feel rather superior.
I'm pretty sure I didn't forget that stuff from fifth grade. I just never learned it! Seriously? That sounds like stuff that might come from a college geology class or something. It's amazing how education changes in 20 years.
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