Mountains look like they have always been there. But our planet is slowly building them — even today!
🧩 The secret is this: the Earth's hard outer shell is cracked into giant pieces called tectonic plates. These plates float on hot, soft rock and move v e r y slowly — about as fast as your fingernails grow.
When the pieces push, crash, or split apart, mountains are born. Let's find out how! 👇
Tap each puzzle piece below to learn its name.
When two plates push into each other, the land in between has nowhere to go — so it crumples and folds upward, just like a rug pushed across the floor.
The Himalayas — the tallest mountains on Earth — are fold mountains, and they are still growing a few cm taller every year!
Sometimes hot melted rock from deep inside Earth, called magma, pushes up through a crack. When it reaches the surface it is called lava. Each eruption cools and hardens into rock, stacking up layer by layer into a mountain.
When the crust is stretched or pressed, it can crack into blocks. Some blocks are pushed up to make a mountain, and the block beside it slides down to make a valley.
👉 Tap the block you think will become the mountain.
Tap a clue, then tap the type that matches it.
And here is the twist: while mountains push up, wind, rain and ice slowly wear them down again. This wearing away is called erosion.
Tap the buttons to see the two forces in a tug-of-war:
Now you know how the Earth builds mountains.
Tap “Start again” if you'd like to explore once more. Well done, explorer! 👏