Mount Everest rises by a few millimetres each year, pushed up as the Indian tectonic plate keeps grinding into Asia.

Geology (Himalayan uplift)

ScienceHistory

Why it matters

The idea in context

The same slow collision that first raised the Himalayas roughly 50 million years ago has never stopped. Rock that now stands nearly nine kilometres up once lay on an ancient seabed — which is why fossil sea creatures can be found near the summit. The most solid, permanent thing you can imagine, a mountain, is in fact mid-motion.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Everest Dağı her yıl birkaç milimetre yükselir; Hint tektonik levhası Asya’ya doğru sürtünmeyi sürdürdükçe yukarı itilir.

Himalayaları yaklaşık 50 milyon yıl önce ilk kez yükselten o yavaş çarpışma hiç durmadı. Bugün neredeyse dokuz kilometre yükseğe uzanan kayalar, bir zamanlar kadim bir deniz tabanındaydı — zirvenin yakınında fosilleşmiş deniz canlılarının bulunmasının nedeni de budur. Hayal edebileceğiniz en sağlam, en kalıcı şey olan bir dağ, aslında hareket hâlindedir.

Source trail

Read beyond the card.

Himalaya/Everest uplift ~a few mm/yr from Indian-Eurasian plate collision (began ~50 Mya); marine fossils occur near the summit. Geological Society.

Background reading: Mount EverestAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
Next in the open archiveAt Çatalhöyük in Turkey, a town of some 9,000 years ago, houses were packed so tightly together that there were no streets — people walked across the rooftops and climbed down into their homes through holes in the ceiling.Q1465