In fact, it was at sea level. It has grown more than 8km in the last 30 million years. Everest, now the big kid on the block, is currently more than metres higher than its closest rival. But a new victor will emerge with time. To understand how Everest might lose its highest mountain status, we need to understand how mountain ranges are built.
As these blocks collide, they crumple and slices of rocky crust get stacked on one another, as seen in the right half of the cross section below. This gives birth to high mountains, which continuously rise and shift and change as the collision continues.
The video below helps visualise this process. It simulates the squeezing of a block of lithosphere in the Himalayas. The arm pushing the sand represents the already thickened crust of the high Himalayas and the sand pile being pushed represents the Indian upper crust which lies below the mountain range. The thickening moves to different spots over time. Interestingly, erosion actually causes mountains to slowly grow over time.
The diagram below shows how the process is comparable to blocks of wood floating in water. If intact blocks of a certain type of wood float in a pool, the same percentage of the overall volume will always protrude above the surface. So, if material is removed from one block, that block will rise. We can compare these columns of wood to lithospheric blocks.
This gives a way for deeply buried rocks to rise within the mountain range. This is because the Himalayas were built by the collision of two large continents composed of rocks with lower than average density. Depending on exactly how and where the ground shifts, temblors can cause the mountain to either grow or shrink small amounts. This may have been the case during the Nepal earthquake, according to satellite data.
At the same time, as the rocks continue to rise toward the skies, erosion works against their upward progression. In the Himalaya, much of the sediment flushes through the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. Even as erosion and gravity keep the mighty mountains in check, tectonic plates maintain their geologic dance, and Everest will continue to follow their lead.
All rights reserved. Science Explainer. Why Mount Everest keeps changing its height An ancient geologic smashup raised the mighty Himalaya mountains—and the collision continues today.
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This makes the Tibet Plateau is forced to move upwards still and the height of the Mount Everest is growing every year. Mountain Formation Mechanics. The mechanics of mount formation of the Mount Everest shows the collision of Indian and Asia which is beneath the surface of the Earth. These continents are on the tectonic plates on the Earthe. Now there are 7 giant plates on Earth which are sliding across the surface of the Earth. There may be fewer or even more plates millions years ago.
These plates slide, collide, recede or advance from each other at a rate of 1 to 20 cm per year. The movements of the plates are driven by the internal force-heat deep in the earth.
The plates collided, the ocean floor, which sinking because of the collision of the two plates, generated volcanoes in the south border of Tibet because top rock of Indian plate melted due to the huge pressures and friction of collision.
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