When Push Comes to Shove…Exit Stage Right The tallest feature on planet Earth, by far, is the Tibetan Plateau, formed as India crashed and plowed into Asia over the last 40 or so million years. And by the way, there is no end in sight, as the plowing continues with mountains like Everest and K2 still growing today. This push has not only resulted in dramatic upward movements. The Altyn Tagh fault, which borders the northern end of the plateau, is one of many faults that have allowed material to ‘escape’ to the relatively open east and southeast, with no mountains in the way. This would be similar to trying to squeeze a watermelon seed between your fingers; when push comes to shove, the path of least resistance is used. This idea of material escaping to the side was also famously experimentally modeled by Peltzer and Tapponnier in 1988 to show that this process of escape is possible, at least in the lab. Read More: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB093iB12p15085 -Mr. A
