Earth Science Standards Of Learning (SOL) Practice Test

The region with long, nearly parallel ridges and the valleys between them formed during the Paleozoic tectonic events that folded and faulted large swaths of sedimentary rock in the Appalachian Mountains. As continents collided and compressive forces pushed the layers, they were bent into alternating upward folds (anticlines, which become ridges) and downward folds (synclines, which become valleys). Erosion then wore away the softer rocks more quickly, leaving a repeating pattern of long ridges separated by valleys. This creates the characteristic landscape of the Valley and Ridge province. By contrast, the Blue Ridge is dominated by older, resistant metamorphic rocks that form a high, rugged belt, not a system of long parallel ridges and valleys. The Piedmont is more gently rolling hills carved from metamorphic rocks, and the Appalachian Plateau is a relatively flat-lying, plateau region with fewer long ridges.