Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello
This morning i was reading an article about mountain formation in the moon of Saturn, the artical is named Montaignes from space it says that a theory was formed that some of its montaines accualy were huge rocks that came from space, as i learned in school mountain formation on earth is due to tectonic movment or volcanic activity, so i am wondering if there is a possibility that the same thing happened to earth while formation , could a Montaigne amog the ones we see came from space? Or maybe the same thing happend but we do not see them because they have been gone deep in earth layers, i know this could be stupide as a question but is there a possibility?

If you read the researcher's paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1404.2337.pdf) they are definitely not sure that the mountains are the result of outside objects falling on the moon(looks like we need more evidence to support one theory over the others in the paper), but it still causes you to bring up a fascinating idea! I would start by saying that there are many examples of mountain-like upwellings on earth caused by impact (although none that I have heard of are straight lines like on Iapetus). Many large craters have mountainous rims or center cones as a result of asteroid impact. There are even some geologists who theorize that all tectonic motion is initiated by an external impact pushing the plate in one direction! And of course, much of the area of earth's surface has at one point in the planet's history undergone the rock cycle, losing any deformations to the melting of the mantle.
Keep reading!