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Everest is still being pushed upward as the Indian plate drives into Asia. Its summit is limestone laid down about 450 million years ago on the floor of an ancient sea, and it still holds fossils of sea creatures.

Geology (Himalayan uplift)

ScienceHistory

The story behind the card

Earth's outer shell is broken into huge slabs called tectonic plates. The plate carrying India broke away from the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana, drifted north across the Tethys Ocean and began colliding with Asia around 50 to 55 million years ago; the collision is still crumpling the crust into the Himalaya. The limestone near Everest's summit contains fragments of trilobites and crinoids, sea animals related to starfish, proof that the rock once lay on a seabed. Rising rock does not mean an equally rising peak, though: while the rock beneath climbs by a few millimetres a year, wind, ice and frost wear the summit down. In 2020 a joint Nepali and Chinese survey measured the summit at 8,848.86 metres.

Türkçe oku
Hint levhası Asya'ya doğru ilerledikçe Everest yükselmeye devam ediyor. Zirvesindeki kireçtaşı yaklaşık 450 milyon yıl önce eski bir denizin tabanında oluştu ve içinde hâlâ deniz canlılarının fosilleri var.

Yerkabuğu, levha denen dev parçalara bölünmüştür. Hindistan'ı taşıyan levha, güneydeki eski Gondvana kıtasından koparak Tetis Okyanusu'nu aşıp kuzeye sürüklendi ve yaklaşık 50-55 milyon yıl önce Asya'ya çarpmaya başladı. Bu çarpışma bugün de yerkabuğunu kırıştırıp Himalayaları yükseltiyor. Everest'in zirvesine yakın kireçtaşında trilobit ve deniz zambağı fosillerinin parçaları bulunur; deniz zambakları, deniz yıldızlarının akrabası olan hayvanlardır. Bu fosiller, kayanın bir zamanlar deniz tabanında olduğunun kanıtıdır. Ancak kayanın yükselmesi, zirvenin de aynı ölçüde yükseldiği anlamına gelmez: Alttaki kaya yılda birkaç milimetre yükselirken rüzgâr, buz ve don zirveyi aşındırır. 2020'de Nepal ve Çin'in ortak ölçümü, zirvenin yüksekliğini 8.848,86 metre olarak belirledi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Mount Everest
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