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How can heating beneath Earth’s crust raise mountains and plateaus?

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A car drives along the Trans-Canada Highway with Mount Sir Donald's sharp, snow-capped peak rising above forested slopes in the Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia. — mountain Mount Sir Donald in the Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia, looms above a segment of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Heating beneath Earth’s crust raises mountains and plateaus primarily through the process of thermal expansion. When the lithosphere is heated—often by an upwelling of hot material from the underlying asthenosphere—the rocks and uppermost mantle expand. Because this heated material is less dense and occupies a larger volume, it causes an uplift of the overlying surface.123

This process can elevate broad regions significantly. If the surface was originally low and relatively flat, the resulting uplift often maintains a uniform, elevated, and level topography, creating high plateaus such as the Ethiopian Plateau or the Massif Central in France. In some instances, this warming of the lithosphere leads to localized doming of the Earth's surface, as seen in the Yellowstone area. While thermal expansion is a distinct mechanism, it frequently occurs in tandem with other tectonic processes like volcanism and crustal shortening, which also contribute to the formation of high-elevation landforms.124