Mountains are caused by seismic activity but seismic activity doesn't always create mountains. In general populations tend to stick towards coasts. Many tectoni

Mountains are caused by seismic activity but seismic activity doesn't always create mountains. In general populations tend to stick towards coasts. Many tectonic plate boundaries are either directly on the coast of continents or a little off the shelf. My intuition puts that as the more likely cause but it's impossible to prove either way for certain.