Posted on 01/31/2010 6:41:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Fun fact for you: scientists don't really know how the Himalayas formed. I mean yeah, they realize that the India tectonic plate is slamming into the Eurasia plate and has been for about 50 million years, but the mystery is why the mountain range is still growing. Usually when two continents collide it's like a car wreck -- there may be a bunch of mangled crust in the middle (mountains), but both vehicles stop moving. Turns out, India appears to be sinking into the mantle. A new study based on computer models of the two plates shows that the formation and continued growth of the world's highest mountain range makes the most sense if a dense piece of India is down in the mantle, dragging the rest of the continent down with it. That may not sound so weird but continents are buoyant; they're supposed to float, not sink. All the subduction you hear about all over the world is dense ocean crust sinking underneath continents. Except in the Himalayas. It's as though two cars collided, and one started to sink into the pavement. Notice how India seems to float magically into Eurasia, and then just keeping going. But why? Why would a continent willingly flatten itself against another continent? Doesn't make sense. That's the big problem with the old idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
Perhaps Obama needs to push for a law to prohibit this.
Bush’s fault!
Somewhere I have it, but couldn’t find it — an old article about a subterraenean “sea” somewhere under the Himalayas.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2328160/posts
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060511083341.htm
and maybe a dead link:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991730
We need to get Algore and his loony friends on this right away.
Pun! /rimshot!
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Well, we don’t have to worry about India overtaking us economically. The whole place is sinking into the earth.
The fat bastards need to lay off the basmati for a while. Geez...
In that video, India Plate kicks Eurasia Plate’s ass.
I guess this means an end to tech support.
LOL!
Guess the Tragically Hip will have to update their song, “India is sinking man, and I don’t wanna swim.”
“Now, it’s by no means certain that the researchers in the new study — led by Fabio Capitanio of Monash University in Australia — have nailed this thing. It’s one of the most persistent mysteries about plate tectonics on the planet. But if Capitanio and his team are wrong, it would mean we still don’t understand how Earth’s greatest mountain range got there, or why it’s getting taller to this day.”
STOP CONTINENT COLLISION NOW!!!!!
Don’t be incontinent!! Only by sending your urgently needed $1,000 donations to:
SaveThePolarBearsWorld.tv.edu.gov.com
can we begin to stop the damage sure to occur over the next 20 million years!
Please, help us save the world, one continent at a time.
Obviously caused by Global Warming.
Pretty cool! Thanks for posting!
You might want to get a plate of curry before its too late.
It starts off with the edge of the Indian Plate being subducted, but towards the end the Eurasian plate is being subducted while the Indian Plate continues to advance.
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