Gailee Blotterneycher boasted recently how he was ruinin' kids' brains, running experiments growing crystals. Thermodynamics works! he exulted. But he's growing tiny crystals in which the electromagnetic force is stronger than gravity.

In mountains, since crystal (and other banding) formation is on the order of a kilometer scale, gravity should have much more influence. The force of gravity should overwhelm the electromagnetic force at such a large scale; unless you are dealing with a very powerful electromagnetic force, strong enough to negate gravity's effects. Bands should slope downhill; but many bands seem to defy gravity in a way that reminds me of electromagnetic effects. But on that huge macro scale, the joules needed would be much more than any geological theory I'm aware of allows.