New Geological Study Rewrites History Of The World’s Highest Peaks

A group of researchers at the prestigious Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has utilized the isotopic composition of minerals to analyze historical altitudes in sedimentary rocks. Their findings challenge the long-held assumption about the formation of one of the most renowned mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas.

“The controversy mainly revolves around what existed ‘before’ the Himalayas emerged,” explained Professor Page Chamberlain, an expert in Earth and planetary sciences at the Doerr School of Sustainability and the senior author of this groundbreaking study. “Our research demonstrates, for the first time, that the edges of the two tectonic plates were already significantly elevated prior to the collision that ultimately gave rise to the Himalayas. On average, they were about 3.5 kilometers high.”

The traditional model suggests that the Himalayan mountain range came into existence when the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the upthrust of oceanic crust and continental fragments.

“Conventional wisdom holds that an immense tectonic collision, of the scale seen in continent-to-continent interactions, is required to generate the uplift necessary for the formation of Himalaya-scale elevations,” explained Dr. Daniel Ibarra, a postdoctoral researcher from Chamberlain’s lab. Dr. Ibarra, who served as the first author of this study and is now an assistant professor at Brown University, stated, “Our research debunks this notion and introduces intriguing new avenues of inquiry for the scientific community.”

The team of scientists examined the oxygen isotopes preserved within minerals to determine the altitude at which these minerals were formed, effectively reconstructing the topography of the Himalayas prior to the collision between the two tectonic plates.

Almost all minerals contain traces of oxygen within their crystalline structure, including H₂O or water. Oxygen exists in three stable isotopes: oxygen-16, oxygen-17, and oxygen-18. While these isotopes behave chemically in an identical manner, the slight difference in their masses causes water molecules containing heavier oxygen isotopes to evaporate and precipitate at different rates. Consequently, a mineral formed at a lower altitude, closer to the ocean, will exhibit a higher concentration of lighter isotopes, and vice versa.

By sampling quartz (SiO₂) veins from lower altitudes in southern Tibet and conducting oxygen analysis, the research team conclusively demonstrated that the foundations of the Gangdese Arc, a major geological unit at the base of the Himalayan mountains, were already significantly higher than anticipated, long before any tectonic collision occurred.

“This newfound understanding has the potential to revolutionize our theories about past climates and biodiversity,” concluded Dr. Ibarra. The formation of the Himalayan mountains, long regarded as a significant barrier for atmospheric currents and rainfall, has been instrumental in shaping weather patterns across Asia and the Indian Ocean. However, this paleo-topographic reconstruction, revealing pre-existing high-elevation terrain, will undoubtedly lead to fresh interpretations of past climates. It may also prompt a closer examination of other notable mountain ranges, such as the Andes and the Sierra Nevada, which formed in a similar manner through the collision of tectonic plates on Earth.

The study entitled “High-elevation Tibetan Plateau before India–Eurasia collision recorded by triple oxygen isotopes” was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Geoscience in 2023. Additional material was provided by Stanford University.

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