eli5 We are told mountains were created by tectonic plates squeezing together, so why aren’t they just rubble?

Question

When you crush a rock it doesn’t bulge, it shatters. So why are mountains solid rock?

In: 0

Answer 1

>When you crush a rock it doesn’t bulge, it shatters. So why are mountains solid rock?

Tectonic plates are not rams crashing headlong into each other. One plate will either move 1. alongside, 2. over or 3. under another one. There’s definitely lots of rubble, but only where the plates meet – dozens of kilometers **under** the mountains.