Mountains cover the surface of the Earth, but how did these puny and massive natural structures actually form?
How Mountains Form
There are several ways for mountains to form, with many of these ways being connected to the tectonic plates of the Earth. The edges end up folding and buckling during the collision. This prompts rocks to produce a mountain range. The Himalayas, which houses the tallest mountain in the world, came to be through such a manner.
Subduction also takes place in some collision cases. In this phenomenon, one of the plates ends up diving under the other. At the edges, rock that ends up crumbling could lead to the rise of massive mountains like the Andes.
Plate splits could also result in the formation of mountains. This could lead to arcs of islands, such as Japan's isles.
Huge pillars of extremely hot rock, called mantle plumes, also arise from close to the core of the Earth to sear material similar to a blowtorch. This could lead to the formation of volcanic islands like the Galapagos.
Interestingly, erosion can also drive the growth of mountains. Geoscientist Lijun Liu from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This takes weight off the crust of the Earth and makes the mantle underneath upwardly rebound. This, in turn, makes peaks rise.
Deep-Earth activity could also have a role in mountain formation. There are findings that posit that dense rock chunks could peel off tectonic plate bottom and fall into the mantle underneath. This could cause the surface that underlies it to upward buoy.
According to geomorphologist Sean Gallen from Colorado State University, the delamination could shed light on how high plateaus or mountains are able to form within continental interiors, such as those of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains.
On top of this, dynamic topography also occurs. This is when mantle rock churns on timescales equivalent to a million years. Such churning could warp the surface of the Earth upward, according to geodynamics John Wu from the University of Arizona. However, the quantity of dynamic topography that could alter the surface of the Earth remains a subject of debate.
Moreover, with the descension of tectonic plates that are subducting, there could be interactions with churning flows and mantle layers. These interactions could foster a chain reaction that could be felt at the Earth's surface. This could lead to the rise or fall of mountains.
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Ongoing Mystery
Wu explains that, overall, mountain formation shapes the entire planet. These natural structures impact weather and climate, while sediment weathering and erosion on mountain ranges could chemically affect the atmosphere, ocean, and surface of the Earth.
However, despite how important mountains are to the planet, their formation and changes over time still remains a mystery.
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