Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Caucasus Mountains formed largely as the result of a tectonic plate collision between the Arabian plate moving northwards with respect to the Eurasian plate. This geological process began from the Late Triassic to the Late Jurassic during the Cimmerian orogeny at the active margin of the Tethys Ocean.
Mount Elbrus stands in the Caucasus Mountains at an elevation of five thousand six hundred forty-two meters. It is sometimes cited as the highest peak in Europe and is eight hundred sixty-three meters higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and Western Europe at four thousand eight hundred ten meters.
The crest of the Greater Caucasus Mountains is usually taken to define the Greater Caucasus Watershed which marks the continental boundary between Asia and Europe for the region between the Black and Caspian seas. This classification would place Mount Elbrus at the junction with Asia.
Western parts of the Caucasus Mountains are marked by high amounts of precipitation while the absolute maximum annual precipitation is two thousand five hundred millimeters around the Mt. Mtirala area which lies on the Meskheti Range in Adjara. The average winter snow cover of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains ranges from thirty centimeters to one meter but snow cover in several regions like Svaneti and northern Abkhazia may reach three meters.
Many devastating earthquakes have been documented in historical times including the Spitak earthquake in December 1988 which destroyed the Gyumri-Vanadzor region of Armenia. Contemporary seismic activity is a prominent feature of the region reflecting active faulting and crustal shortening.