Top 7 Enormous Facts About The Alps

The formation of the Alps started around 300 million years ago

The development of the Alps as they appear today is a process that started well over 300 million years ago in a period called the Paleozoic Era. Back then, there was only the Pangaean supercontinent which consisted of a single tectonic plate.

This plate eventually broke into multiple separate pieces during the Mesozoic Era, a process that created the African and the Eurasian plates. The Alps were formed by the collision of these two plates which resulted in the uplifting of sedimentary rocks from the bottom of the ocean. This eventually created the peaks of the Alps that we see today.