The process of mountain formation in Taiwan was never more violent than immediately after the collision between the two tectonic plates. Mountains rose high and fast. Sedimentary rock buried as much as ten kilometers deep buckled at first before further compression sent it deep into the earth's crust, where a combination of high temperature and pressure turned it into metamorphic rock. It was then thrust upward to become the Central Mountain Range.
當兩片板塊第一次撞擊的剎那，也是台灣造山運動最激烈的年代，山抬得又高又快，地底下十幾公里的沈積岩層受到地殼不斷拱起、壓縮、彎曲，又埋回地底，經歷高溫高壓的鍛造、變質，再被推到地表上來，形成中央山脈變質岩層。