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Bolting Mt Everest 14-May-2005 At 12:55:13 PM Romfrantic

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On 14/05/2005 sabu wrote:
>i heard from somewhere i can't remember that because of the plate system
>that Everst is located on it's actually growing! it's something very small
>each year but then wouldn't it in a few decades/maybe a lot, be unclimbable
>without O's because of the air pressure? anyone know anything more?

It's called tectonic uplift, taught in every geology class. Tectonic uplift can create 'fold mountains' such as the Himalayas, Central Andes, etc where two plates (either two continental or continental/oceanic) clash together forming a compressional plate margin, thus 'folding' the surface upwards under pressure - and therefore mountain growth. There is also 'fault-block mountains' formed when the tectonic plates clash along a thrust fault (e.g.Southern Alps in NZ, Sierra Nevada USA), also creating upwards lift = mountain growth.

BUT, the extent of uplift is rather small each year, and mountains stay pretty much 'levelled' due to erosion rates....in fact in some places, mountains are being eroded at a faster rate than they're being created. In Oz, tectonic uplift pretty much ceased to be an influencial force in mountain growth a looooong time ago and erosion has taken place instead at a much faster pace hence why we have such small rounded 'hills' by world standards...

Ok, enough geology lesson for today...if you google up "tectonic uplift' and the like, I'm sure you'll prolly get a more scientific answer ;-)