When you buy through our articles links, Future and its syndication partners can earn commissions.
The Himalayas is the world’s highest mountain chain and houses with Everest. | Credit: Pakawat Thongchaeen/Getty Images
Perhaps scientists have just overthrow the 100-year theory of what retains the highest mountain area on Earth, new research shows.
The Himalayan Mountains formed in the face of Asian and Indian continents about 50 million years ago when when Tectonic forces Compressed Tibet so strongly that the region has shredded and its area shrunk nearly 620 miles (1000 kilometers). The Indian tectonic plate eventually slipped under the Eurasian plate, doubling the thickness of the Earth’s crust under the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau north and contributing to their rise.
The centenary theory theory was that this crust doubling has the weight of the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau. Research 1924 Released Swiss geologist, émile Argand, shows that the Indian and Asian crust is stacked on top of each other, with 45 to 50 miles (70 to 80 km) deep under the ground.
However, this theory does not interfere with the inspection, now the researchers say, as the extreme temperature of the crust has made a mistake at a depth of about 25 miles (40 km).
“If you have a 70 km crust, then the lowest part becomes elastic … It becomes like yogurt – and you can’t put a mountain on top of the yogurt.” Pietro shernsLive Science told Live Science Associate Professor of Geophysics at Milan-Bicoca University and the main author of a new study analyzing geology after the Himalayas.
Evidence has long been a demonstration that Arnando’s theory is false, but the idea of the two neatly stacked crust is so attractive that most geologists did not doubt it, Sterna said. Historically, “All the data that will be together would be interpreted in the light of one layer of double-thickness crust,” he said.
Related: Will Mount Everest be the highest mountain in the world?
However, a new study reveals that there is a piece of mantle between Asia and Indian crust. This explains why the Himalayas grew up so high and how they still remain so tall, the authors wrote in a document published on August 26. In the magazine Tectonics;
The mantle is a layer of earth just below the crust. It is much denser than the crust, so it is not liquefied at the same temperature. Meanwhile, the crust is so easy and floating that it behaves similarly to the iceberg, lifting above the ground, the thicker it becomes.
Sterna and his colleagues discovered the mantle liner, imitating Asian and Indian continents on the computer. The model showed that when the Indian plate slipped under the Eurasian plate and began to liquefy, its cracks rose and attached not to the bottom of the Asian crust, but to the base of the lithosphere, which is a solid exterior layer of the planet consisting of crust and upper mantle.
Sterns said it is the essential thing because it means that between the stacked crust is a solid layer of mantle that hardened the entire structure under the Himalayas. Both crust provide enough buoyability to raise the region and the mantle material provides resistance and mechanical strength. “You have all the ingredients needed to lift topography and maintain the weight of the Himalayan and Tibetan plateau,” he said.
The researchers then compared their results to seismic data and information collected directly from the rock. The modeling mantle sandwich corresponded to previous evidence that Arnando theory could not explain, to study co -authors Simone PiliaLive Science told the King Fahd Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Oil and Mineral Geoscience.
“Now everything starts meaningfully,” the castle said. “The observations that seemed enigmatic are actually easier to explain with a model where you have crust, mantle, crust.”
The study provides strong evidence of this model, but the controversial 100-year-old Arurated theory is contradictory because it was so widely accepted, the castle said.
Related stories
– One mass tectonic collision? Scientists say that the Himalayas did not come up
—Nount Everest is taller than it should be – and the strange river is to blame
—Then tectonic collision that causes the Himalayas to grow
“I think the authors are correct that this is controversial” Adam SmithLive Science email Live Science said Live Science, which did not participate in the study, in the field of modeling in the field of modeling. “All the previous work usually agreed that all the material after the Himalayas came from the crust.”
But the results are still likely and they explain a number of geological oddities in the Himalayas, Smith said. “The authors do a lot of modeling, using different thicknesses in all layers, and it seems they always get this mantle a little bit attached between two plates crust.”
Douwe van HinsbergenIn the Netherlands University of Utrecht, a professor of global tectonics and paleogeography who did not participate in the study, disagreed with the results that the results are controversial. “It’s a great new discovery and elegant interpretation,” he told Live Science email. In the letter. “If the continent chooses under another continent, you would expect a sandwich consisting of the top (Tibetan) plate crust and mantle lithosphere and then the lower (Indian) slab crust.”