Question

What is the difference between a mountain belt such as the Himalayas and the Andes, in terms of the specific types of plate boundaries involved? Which one of them does NOT have active volcanoes, and why?

Answer 1

The Andes are formed due to the Nazca and Antarctic plate. A pull was created towards the south American continent and created a collision. The collision caused the denser oceanic plate to subduct under the south American continent. This resulted in high compression and the creation of fold mountains Andes. The continental crust uplifted and created a volcanic arc and caused vein like structures underneath. It has convergent plate boundary.

The Himalayan range on the other hand is caused due to the collision of Indo-Australian with the Eurasian plate. The collision resulted in the faulting and creation of the fold mountains along with convergent plate boundary. The equally dense crust faulted and came up and created the mountain peaks which we see now. The Indo-Australian plate is still moving towards the Eurasian one and resulting in increase in height of Himalayas.

The Himalayan formation does not have any active volcanoes as, during the collision both the crust faulted and created a mountain peak and no subduction took place like the Andes mountain.