How to grow a mountain (just add water)

by Rob Peters | July 8, 2008 at 03:36 pm | 444 views | 15 comments

Here's an odd discovery: mountains that experience heavy rainfall actually grow because of it, scientists say.

My first guess was that it was due to a build-up of plant life and compacting soil over millions of years, but apparently it's due to the way in which a mountain's summit is eroded by water. Fascinating stuff.

July 8, 2008 -- The more it rains on some mountains the faster they grow, say geologists studying the fault-riddled, intensely rainy Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, South America.

This discovery has nothing to do with water actually growing rocks and everything to do with how mountains buoy upwards when extreme rains scour away the summits.

Using mineral and paleo-plant data, researchers have now measured high growth rates of Columbia's northeastern limb of the Andes. They show that the area which has been exposed to the heaviest rains on the planet also reveals signs of having been pushed up by tectonic forces at a much faster rate over the last few million years than surrounding areas.

"The Himalayas, the southern and central Andes, and the New Zealand Alps are premier examples of (mountain ranges) where interactions between tectonics and climate have been documented and where the interplay between them may have fundamentally influenced the evolution of individual mountain ranges...," report Potsdam University's Andrés Mora and his colleagues in the July/August issue of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America.

The tectonic principle behind the mountain growth is referred to as isostatic rebound. It is analogous to how a canoe rises up higher when a person steps out of it. Mountain ranges can rebound upwards in the same way when a load is lifted from their tops.

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mchawk

at 17:57 on July 8th, 2008

good stuff:

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff...

...and so utterly counter-intuitive. Brilliant!

littledani

at 20:48 on July 10th, 2008

Trekking in the Langtang Region of the Himalayas, this mountain "peaked" out of the clouds for us while we were visiting a Buddhist temple.

littledani has contributed a photo to this story.

dhardingham

at 21:13 on July 10th, 2008

Early morning view from Annapurna Base Camp (4130m), Nepal.

dhardingham has contributed a photo to this story.

lhendup

at 21:30 on July 10th, 2008

This picture was taken in Bhutan, a small country in the eastern Himalayas.

lhendup has contributed a photo to this story.

dotnethed

at 21:39 on July 10th, 2008

This active volcano in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador (Volcán Tungurahua or Tungurahua Volcano, near the town of Baños and the larger city of Ambato) has erupted more than once in recent years, and occasionally gives the surrounding communities quite a scare. When we visited Baños in 2005, My wife and I had the good fortune of staying in a beautiful resort on the side of the volcano. Despite the minor concern of a potential eruption, having a chance to explore this part of the world was a wonderful experience that I would not trade for anything.

dotnethed has contributed a photo to this story.

Black Drongo

at 22:36 on July 10th, 2008

These photos are of the Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh, India. They were taken in February 2008 while on a birdwatching trip across northern India. These photos were taken in Dirang and are a view of the Sela Pass area, which was our destination.

Black Drongo has contributed a photo to this story.

Swati Chopra

at 03:22 on July 11th, 2008

This photograph was taken in the Indian Himalayas, at some 5,000 feet. This is actually a very wet, rain-intense area, and has some dense, almost tropical forests.

Swati Chopra has contributed a photo to this story.

gatorpaddler

at 08:28 on July 11th, 2008

This photo captures a scene from the Cordillera Real, Bolivia. It was taken at La Cumbre (4800 metres above sea level) on El Camino de Muerto, which has been deemed by the World Bank in 2004 as the World's Most Dangerous Road.

gatorpaddler has contributed a photo to this story.

rpshen

at 20:51 on July 11th, 2008

good stuff:

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. Very strange indeed!

zhanna

at 23:47 on July 11th, 2008

McLeod Ganj backdrop - Dhauladhar mountain range

zhanna has contributed a photo to this story.

ThulpeR

at 22:17 on July 12th, 2008

This photograph was taken at the Chandrataal lake (Lake of the moon) at an altitude of about 4300m in the Himalayas.

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Abhishek Gupta (not verified)

at 09:16 on July 13th, 2008

These are photographs of Pangong lake, the highest brackish water lake in the world. Nestled between Ladakh region in India and Tibet, this lake is situated at an altitude of 4350 m. Heaven !!

lost in himalayas

at 09:21 on July 13th, 2008

These are photographs of Pangong lake, the highest brackish water lake in the world. Nestled between Ladakh region in India and Tibet, this lake is situated at an altitude of 4350 m. Heaven !!

lost in himalayas has contributed a photo to this story.

Ezhil Ramalingam

at 11:52 on July 14th, 2008

These are the Bagirathy peaks of the Himalayas. At its foothills lies the Gangotri glacier from which the sacred river of India, the Ganges (Ganga in India) originates. To reach this place one has to trek for 18 km in the Gangotri valley. I love trekking and Himalayas and so I went there.

Ezhil Ramalingam has contributed a photo to this story.

nainwal

at 05:39 on July 16th, 2008

This picture was taken at sunrise at Devariataal in Grahwal Himalayas in India. The snow peaks were looking just breathtaking glowing golden in the first kissed rays of sun. The clouds formation over the mountains looked like smoke coming out of chimneys as they have not experienced the light falling on them. I did not have a tripod and took this shot at 300mm with shutterspeed of 1/30.

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