Leonardo da Vinci, famed artist and Renaissance “Renaissance Man” made some interesting remarks about Geology. When he looked at rocks in the Alps containing fossil molluscs, it was clear to his trained eye that the fossils were near identical to shells formed by creatures in the sea. That fossils are the remains of ancient creatures… Continue reading Channel flow – hot rocks, big glaciers and the world’s tallest mountains
Category: Himalaya
Hot rocks, big rivers and the world’s tallest mountain face
In areas of active mountain-building the middle crust can get hot and weak, like a soft jam/jelly filling in a sandwich. These squishy rocks are hidden from us by the cold rigid upper crust, so we wouldn’t expect to see them reach the surface, would we? Well, what happens if you overfill a sandwich and… Continue reading Hot rocks, big rivers and the world’s tallest mountain face
Lovely Ladakhi landslides
Time for a post with an emphasis on photos. There’s more context here, but let’s get on with admiring the view. That’s me, standing in front of chorten (Tibetan Buddhist religious structure). The rather pretty cliffs are Tethyan sediments, now a long way from the sea. Note that the red layers are above the green,… Continue reading Lovely Ladakhi landslides
Building models about building mountains
How do mountains form? It’s just thrusts, right? Compression causes thrust faulting which piles up layers and layers of rock. This causes Barrovian metamorphism and makes mountains. Simple, no? No. Thrusting is important, of course, but as always real rocks are more complicated. For example, across the whole of the Himalayan chain, coincident with the highest… Continue reading Building models about building mountains