HomeEarthExplosion in oceans is the reason for mountain formation

Explosion in oceans is the reason for mountain formation

University of Aberdeen researchers have revealed that an abundance of oceanic life is one of the biggest reasons for the creation of Earth’s mountains.

Though we know that mountain formation theory is related with the collision of tectonic plates. This collision caused the big rocks to be thrust skywards. The recent study has shown that this whole event was influenced by the abundance of nutrients in the oceans. This happened 2 billion years ago and caused an explosion in planktonic life.

After the death of plankton, it falls down on ocean floor. This has made graphite which eventually played a crucial role in lubricating the breakage of rocks into slabs. This lubrication helped them to stack on top of each other which resulted in mountain formation.

Researchers say that the amount of planktonic life was higher in this time period. All these conditions together have made the necessary conditions to create mountains over millions of years.

University’s School of Geosciences researcher, professor John Parnell has led this research. This research has been funded by a company named The Natural Environment Research Council. The research has got published in the Nature journal named Communications Earth and Environment.

The geological record of the time period proves the evidence of enough organic matter in the oceans. These organic matters were preserved as graphite in shale after their death.

The abundance of carbon in the ocean played a vital role to thicken the crustal to create mountain ranges.

In northwest of Scotland, we can still find evidences that slippery graphite has helped to create the mountain range.

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