River piracy let Everest grow, according to scientists

River piracy let Everest grow, according to scientists

Thousands of years ago in the Himalayas, a river "eaten" a smaller river and thus unexpectedly increased the height of Everest, as scientists have now found.

The origins of Everest

The Mount Everest, also known as Chomolungma ("Goddess Mother of the World" in the Tibetan language), is one of the highest mountains on earth and rises to an altitude of 8,848.86 meters above sea level. Everest's history began about 40 to 50 million years ago when the land masses of the India plate and the Eurasian plate collided in a slow process and folded the terrain. This led to the collection of the Himalaya mountain range, with the everest being the highest summit with a height of about 250 meters.

geological discoveries

This ancient collision continues to raise the Himalayas. However, the latest GPS measurements show that the Everest grows at about 2 millimeters per year instead of only 1 millimeters per year as previously. This additional increase results from a recent geological event - an unknown "piracy".

The process of fluid spiracy

About 89,000 years ago, the Kosi river in the Himalayas caught part of a inflow: the Arun River. This process, known as the flow of flow, triggered a chain of geological events that changed the landscape of surrounding mountains, reported scientists on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience .

The effects of the river redirection

The increased flow force of the KOSI system was eroded more rock materials from the valleys below the everest. While the rock was decomposed, other parts of the Himalayas were moved up to compensate for the loss. This balance, known as ISO-Static back rash, raised the Everest and two other neighboring summits-Lhotse and Makalu-by at least 15 meters and possibly even by 50 meters, the authors of the study with the help of computer models.

new knowledge of mountain formation

"Our study shows how sudden changes in river systems can have far-reaching effects on the landscape," said Mitautor jin-gen dai For geology at China University of Geosciences in Beijing. "The main factor for the height of Everest remains the record collision, but our discovery adds a new puzzle to this complex pattern."

The interaction of erosion and raising

Dai emphasized that the connection between river erosion and mountains in the high mountains is well documented and was examined in regions such as the Alps, Antarctic and the Colorado Plateau. "Usually rivers and mountains achieve a kind of balance in which erosion and increase compensate for each other," said Dai.

hidden geological events

Research deals with two anomalies in the Himalayas: the unusual heights of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu compared to neighboring peaks as well as the unique course of the ARUN River. The evidence of such events indicate profound and dynamic changes in the landscape.

The importance of further research

The new computer models of a team provide promising arguments that river spiracy can cause an additional increase in Everest. Future field studies will be crucial to test the proposed ideas.

The discovery of the growth impulses of Everest began with questions about the unusual course of the Arun River, and this research shows how profound geological processes could contribute to the current amount of the highest mountain in the world.