Alfred found fossils of sea creatures high in the Alps mountains. Geosynclines were large depressions that often contained seas and sea life. The Alps formed at a collision boundary where tectonic plates pushed sedimentary rocks and their fossils upwards over millions of years. Alfred discovered an out of place fossil that led him to research plate tectonics and how movement at plate boundaries explained the presence of marine fossils in the Alps mountains.

1. Fold Mountain Mystery
By Jack lee

2. How did Alfred find
fossilised sea creatures
high up in the Alps???

3. Geosynclines
 Sedimentary rocks, thousands of metres thick, formed
huge depressions called geosynclines.

4. Continue…
 Geosynclines are huge depressions which often
contain seas. In the geosyncline there must have
been fish or some sort of sea life in it.

5. Tectonic Plates
 The Alps lie at a compressional margin.
 A compressional margin occurs when two tectonic
plates are moving towards each other.
Tectonic plates float on the mantle – molten rock beneath
the earth’s surface. (Tectonic plates are sections of the
earth’s crust).

6. Sediments
 Rivers carried sediment and deposited them into
depressions known as geosynclines.

7. What happened?
 So basically the collisional tectonic plates squished
the geosyncline together and what ever was in it.
When sea animals die, their remains may fall to the
bottom of the sea and they become covered in
sediment.
Sediments
and fossils

8. Next..
 Once the tectonic plates began to squish the
geosyncline the sediment and the fossils were being
forced upwards towards the surface

9. Then…
 The mass of the amount of sediment being squeezed out
cause it to fall on its side or ‘fold’.
 The sedimentary rocks were forced upwards into a series
of folds by the movement of tectonic plates.

10. After…
 Over millions of years the sediments were
compressed into sedimentary rocks such as
sandstone and limestone.
 When limestone is exposed to wind, rain and chemical
weathering, fossils may become exposed.
 This lead me to think that while Alfred was enjoying
the scenery one day he came across a fossil that
seemed extremely out of place and did further
research to prove his theory of plate boundaries.