On day 3, Tectonic Joe plans to take us curious adventurerers on a exploration we will never forget! Our trip takes us to the Himalaya mountain range. These mountains are renowned for thier teterious terrain and thier high altitude. They contain the world famous Mount Everest, which is the tallest mountain in the world.
Looking at the photograph, it looks amazing. well, you can thank plate tectonics for that wonderful view.
The Himalayas are among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet. According to the modern theory of plate tectonics, their formation is a result of a continental collision or orogeny along the convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. This is called a fold mountain. The collision began in the Upper Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago, when the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate, moving at about 15 cm per year, collided with the Eurasian Plate. About 50 million years ago this fast moving Indo-Australian plate had completely closed the Tethys Ocean, the existence of which has been determined by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor and the volcanoes that fringed its edges. Since these sediments were light, they crumpled into mountain ranges rather than sinking to the floor. The Indo-Australian plate continues to be driven horizontally below the Tibetan plateau, which forces the plateau to move upwards.
-til next time,
Tectonic Joe
1 comment:
This is great! Please tell me it is really your words. I will be very disappointed if I do a search on one of your sentences and find out you have plagiarized (and you will too).
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