ABSTRACT
As explained in this book, mountains are made by uplift of originally low-lying continental areas. If the uplifted area remains undissected it is a plateau; if it is deeply dissected it will be a typical mountain chain with isolated peaks rather than a continuous high surface. In this way theories of mountain building are really theories of plateau formation
Our overall conclusion, that mountains are made by erosion of uplifted plateaus, has many precursors. We might well have written the following:
In the older classifications of mountains ‘fold mountains’ figured prominently, while the term ‘mountains of circumdenudation’ was reserved for residuals of high standing plateaux of horizontally bedded rocks that had become deeply dissected by erosion.
