Mountains

Where does such a wonderful attraction, where did they mount? If you look closely at the mountain cliff, we can see that it is not solid rock. It consists of small pellets of various layers of a rock. And if you divide any of these layers, you can find prints of shells. Is not it strange, in the mountains - and suddenly the test. Those same test, which occur far from these places - on the beach, thousands of miles away from the mountains. Only where they are shelled creature. But here in the mountains, they long ago turned to stone. How could it happen that the shells of marine animals have been high in the mountains? Of course, it's hard to believe that someone could transport them here and throw. Rather, it will be right to think that once there was the sea or very close to creeping here. As time passed, many years, and maybe for centuries on the sea floor deposited shells of dead animals, and formed a kind of layers. Then, the seabed had risen as a result of the underlying geological processes. It rose so high that the marine waters of the step. And about them now can be judged only by fossils once living marine organisms. Rocks of marine origin are found scientists at various levels of the mountains. Hence, plots of land that were once the sea bed in the future rose to different heights is interesting as well lie down in the mountains of the layer of rock? The answer to this question clarifies many points as the origin of mountains and the history of the Earth millions of years ago. It was found that layers of rock as it tilted and curved. Scientists have found that essentially any mountain elevation consists of crumpled, bent, and sometimes even broken layers. What does this mean? Likely that the piece of land that experienced uplift, both warped, wrinkled or deformed, changed its structure and composition. The process of uplift and deformation of the layers was accompanied by a change in the rocks. And even now it is impossible to imagine from a same initial sediment mountains were formed. But not only the shells of marine animals found in the mountains. There are many solid crystalline masses. This is primarily granite and basalt. They were never the sediment of the seabed, and were formed from molten magma that rose from the depths of the earth during volcanic eruptions. Then it just froze, turned to granite and basalt. In order to lift and bend the thick masses of sediment and create a mountain requires enormous strength. Where did it come from? Scientists still can not find a clear answer to this question. One might think that the main role played by gravity, heat, and possibly some of the forces of cosmic origin. And now the formation of many mountain systems had not ended. They continue to grow, their structure is complicated. Examples include earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as a manifestation of the internal operations of the Earth. There is another way to see that the mountains are developing. This, for example, monitoring changes in river valleys and coasts. After all, every river, which flows into the mountains and descends to the plains, something washes over the water, but something brings. It was found that if the mountains rise, rise up, the river has to deepen its channel. Because of this, it cuts deeply into the rock layer and form a canyon with steep slopes. But while the river retains traces of its old level. And they can be found on the slopes at different altitudes. Such remnants of traces of former valleys that lie above the bed of a living river, called terraces. It was they show that the formation of mountain systems continues in our time. But the mountains are not only formed and grow. They are, unfortunately, also destroyed. How and under what circumstances does it happen? It involves a variety of external forces: cold, heat, rain, wind. The destruction begins with the surface. For example, the day the rock is heated under a scorching sun, but at night it cools down. But even in physics it is known that by heating the objects extend. And during the cooling they shrink. A similar effect unnoticed, for example, during the day, even years. But over the years such fluctuation in temperature leads to the fact that the rock cracks. But none the same temperature difference affects the mountain? There is still water, snow, wind. In the fracture enters the water. And if it is not going anywhere, then in the winter during cold weather, it turns into ice, which with even greater force pushing the cracks. Gradually, the wind will wear there kind of "infection" the seeds of various plants. They begin to germinate and the roots penetrate into the cracks. Sucking out of them, along with moisture substances needed for nutrition, the roots gradually eating away at the rock surface and thus enhance the crack. This work joins all kinds of bacteria that chemically processed stuff rocks and turn it into the soil. All these processes are referred to as weathering of rocks. As a result of weathering on the surface of a layer of broken rock - eluvium. Rain jet wash eluvium and demolished it in the river valleys, and which carry with them all the rubble, trapped in them from the slopes. Important role in the destruction of the mountains are the winds, glaciers and underground water, which tempted the mountain with depth. Impact of all these external forces on the mountain causes them to fracture again. And if it is dominated by internal forces, then the mountains rise. Sometimes these forces are balanced, or at least soften the effect of one another. Therefore, for the simple observer it seems that the mountains all the time retain their majesty and firmness. In reality they live. Live very mysterious active life. Mountains are young and old. Young mountains - are those that have arisen recently and continue to climb. Earlier in the article about the relief the earth's surface we have mentioned, these young mountains: Pyrenees, Alps, Caucasus, Pamir, Andes, Cordillera, and others. It will be interesting to know also that in Eurasia record among mountain ranges are the Himalayas. Their length is 2400 kilometers. The highest peak is Mount Everest Himalayas (Everest). Its height is 8848 meters above sea level. The very first ascent of it took place in 1953. Eurasia is the world record-holder and also by the number of mountain ranges. If you look at the physical map of the hemispheres or a globe of the Earth, you'll see that it is concentrated in Eurasia (yellow color transition altitude here in brown) and highest in the world. For example, in the Himalayas should Karakoram mountain system (the height of the top Chogori - 8611 meters above sea level), Kunlun (highest peak - Ulugmuztag - up to .7723 meters), Hindu Kush and others. If you look on the map, moving from the eastern to the western part of Eurasia (the European part of the continent), we noticed a gradual alignment of the relief. And in Europe the greatest height reached the Alps with the world-famous Mont Blanc - 4807 meters, conquered in 1786. Over the Alps, followed by the Pyrenees (the top of Anet in height 3404 meters), the Apennines (from top Corneau - 2914 meters), the Carpathians (the highest point Gerlachovsky-Stit 2,665 m above sea level), the Scandinavian mountains (with the top Galhepiggen - 2469 meters) and the Balkans (vertex Botev is 2376 meters). In Africa, there are three major mountain ranges, the most famous of which is Mount Kilimanjaro (the top of Kilimanjaro - 5895 m). In North America, the most famous are the Cordillera (from the Andes). The height of the top of McKinley - 6193 meters - not so much. But this is the longest mountain. They stretch for a distance of 15,000 kilometers along the western coast of the continent. Second place after they took South American Andes, the extent of which is 9000 kilometers. And since we mentioned them, then we say that this mountain range - the Andes - is also very high altitude in South America. The top of Aconcagua, rises above sea level at an altitude of 6,960 meters. Australia is very plain compared to other continents. She is more known for its kangaroos which adorn even the emblem of the State. And from the highest mountains are the Australian Alps, the top of which - Kosciuszko - reaches a height of 2,230 meters above sea level.