Explanation Writing How Was Mount Everest Formed?

Room 10 have done explanation writing on anything that interested them. I chose Mount Everest because I once saw a documentary about it.

How Was Mount Everest Formed?

• Earthquakes forced the tectonic plates up.
• Tectonic plates pushed Mount Everest up out of the sea when hitting the other country.
• Collision between the countries formed Mount Everest.
• Converging plates.
• Mount Everest is 8,848metres.
• Mount Everest once lay on the sea bed.
• Mount Everest was formed 60 million years ago.
• India plate moved towards the Eurasian plate at a rate of 15 cm per year.
• 7 major plates 1-20 cm per year.
• People climbing the mountain are killed.

References: http://www.topchinatravel.com/mount-everest/how-was-mount-everest-formed.htm

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_was_mount_Everest_formed

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/tectonic.html

How Was Mount Everest Formed?

How did Mount Everest come to be? Mount Everest towers over other mountains along the Himalayas. It was caused by tectonic plates (India and Eurasia plates) colliding 60 million years ago. The two tectonic plates moved at an astonishing rate of 15 cm per year. After several million years they both found each other and slowly pushed one another up out of the ground. The ocean that had once separated the two lands was pushed towards the sky. So at the very top of Mount Everest there are remains of lilypads and sea life.

Tectonic plates are lithosphere (uppermost mantle and crust of the earth). Tectonic plates can vary in size and can be up to a few hundred of thousands of kilometres across and a few hundred kilometres thick. The massive slabs of rock move due to the continental rocks that are much lighter with the lightweight minerals of quartz and feldspar. With the help of the minerals the tectonic plates can move, because of the hot mantle beneath the earth’s crust which drives the plates forward. The plates then can slide along 1-20cm per year (like New Zealand is today). The tectonic plates crawl and collide with other another plate hitting each other straight on and forcing one another up. Usually one plate goes below the other causing earthquakes.

Earthquakes on Mount Everest are very common because of movement beneath the crust. Even though the crust is being pushed up 5-7 cm a year which is causing Mount Everest to rise, earthquakes bring the skyscraper back down to it’s original height. The earthquakes that shake the mountains can create avalanches which kills humans, like the recent one on April the 25th 2015 which has caused Mount Everest to drop 2cm.

Mount Everest is 8,848metres above the sea bed and this skyscraper was once below the seabed at a point in it’s lifetime.