Geologists solve mystery of Tibetan mountains
In the most comprehensive study of its kind, University of Kansas geologists have unraveled one of the geologic mysteries of Tibet. The research, recently published online in Nature Geoscience, shows that it is the northward movement of India, thrusting under Tibet's surface like a shovel pushing through a winter's snow, that is causing the largest and thickest mountains on Earth to stretch in the east-west direction.
The paper is the work of Mike Taylor, associate professor of geology, and two of his former students, Richard Styron and Kurt Sundell. The lead author, Styron, now heads Earth Analysis, a consulting firm in Seattle.
"Understanding how north-trending rift valleys formed within the Tibetan plateau is something that has puzzled geoscientists for over three decades," Taylor said. "I've sought the answer myself since I was a first-year graduate student 14 years ago. It's been an extremely satisfying experience to be part of the group of KU geologists who have brought it all together."
At 1,000 kilometers in width and 1,500 kilometers in east-west length, the Tibetan plateau is the largest continental mountain belt on Earth. The plateau is bordered to the south by the Himalayas, which include the Earth's tallest mountains. Geoscientists have puzzled over the mechanism that created the two and how they began to stretch and move today, but many factors have hampered research, including the region's remote location. To reach their research sites, KU geoscientists traveled to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, then made a two-week drive by jeep farther into country's interior.
Read more: http://phys.org/news/2015-01-geologists-mystery-tibetan-mountains.html
