When you crush a rock it doesn’t bulge, it shatters. So why are mountains solid rock?
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There are many places where you can see layers of rock piled one on the other, like a layer cake. The U.S. Grand Canyon is a famous example. There, they are mostly sedimentary, and laid out flat and horizontally, like mud layers on the bottom of a lake.
However, tectonic pressures pushing against the side of such a rock pile can literally bend those stacks of layers into curves, even flip them over like layers in kneaded bread dough. This works best if the rocks are deeply buried (thousands of meters) because then the pressures result in plastic flow instead of crumbling. Uplift and erosion can later expose them to our view.
Such “folded” rock can also be seen all over. The canyons of southern Crete, for example, have many beautiful exposures of folded rock.
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