Re: Ancient mountains

[FlxLandry@aol.com]

Aidan wrote:

>> Do we have  any
>> knowledge about 
>> ancient mountain ranges (let's  say  mesozoic ones, just not to be
>> off topic)? 
>>  Things like localization and  orientation, local climate, fauna  and
>> flora? 

>There's at least one site /  database that attempts to compile
>palaeogrographic reconstructions, best  guesses, plate movement
>vectors and such like material. I can't for the  life of me remember
>it's name though, but my braincell is saying it's a  Netherlands site.

Anybody on list has the url?

>> Can we  estimate ancient mountain  heights? Any ref (pdf???) on this
>>  topic?

>On a geologically significant time scale ...  variable height. And
>position. You might be able to get a broad  indication ("Himalayan",
>"Alpine", "Appalachian", "Caledonian" being a  possible time series),
>but since the highest mountains are going to have  the fastest rates
>of denudation ... tricky to put usefully precise  numbers on.


By the way, how quickly are mountains "brought down" by  erosion? And is 
there any reason to believe ancient mountains could have been  higher than 
modern 
ones, say, in Pangaea? If the supercontinent was the result  of multiple plate 
convergences, it should have had some really spectacular  ranges...

Félix Landry  

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