Is Mount EVEREST Growing Right Before Our Eyes?

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Explore the epic science journey behind how Mount Everest continues to be sculpted by tectonic uplift, erosion, glaciers, and powerful Himalayan geologic forces. In five minutes we’ll explain plate collision, uplift rates, rock metamorphism, and the unseen processes that keep reshaping Earth’s highest peak. Perfect for geology lovers, mountain enthusiasts, and curious minds wanting a quick dive into Himalayan orogeny and mountain-building science.  If you enjoyed this rapid science tour, please like and share the video to spread the wonder.  #MountEverest #Geology #Himalayas #EarthScience #Tectonics #Glaciers   OUTLINE: 00:00:00: A Living Monument 00:00:46: The Slow, Unstoppable Collision 00:02:03: The Mountain Still Rising 00:03:05: Quakes, Ice, and the Sculptor’s Hand 00:04:28: Carved by Ice, Shaped by Time 00:06:14: Equilibrium and Epilogue

Transcript

00:00There are places on our planet that seem to defy time itself.

00:04They stand as silent, eternal monuments to the sheer power of nature.

00:09None more so than Chomolungma, the mother goddess of the world, which we know as Mount Everest.

00:16It pierces the sky, a colossal pyramid of rock and ice.

00:20Its summit is the highest point on earth.

00:23For generations we saw it as a symbol of permanence,

00:26a challenge to be conquered, an unchanging feature, but that idea is an illusion.

00:33The truth is far more dynamic and astonishing.

00:37When we gaze upon its slopes, we are not looking at a finished masterpiece.

00:41We are witnessing a single moment in an epic story.

00:45This mountain is alive.

00:47The story of Everest's birth begins with a journey.

00:50It is a journey that started over 50 million years ago,

00:53when the landmass we now know as the Indian subcontinent was an island adrift in a vast ocean.

01:00Propelled by the powerful currents in the earth's mantle,

01:03this great piece of crustal rock began a slow inexorable drift northward.

01:08Its destination was the colossal continent of Eurasia.

01:12The space between them, the ancient Tetis Sea, was doomed.

01:16For millions of years, India traveled centimeter by centimeter across the globe

01:23on a collision course of continental proportions that would forever change the face of our planet.

01:28When the two landmasses finally met, the impact was not a sudden explosive event.

01:35It was, and still is, a slow, grinding, and unbelievably powerful convergence.

01:42The Indian plate, being dense, did not simply stop.

01:47It drove itself beneath the Eurasian plate, forcing the continental crust to buckle and fold.

01:53Imagine two colossal rugs being pushed together.

01:56The material has nowhere to go but up.

01:59The rock layers that had once formed the floor of the Tetis Sea.

02:04The collision that gave birth to the Himalayas is not an event of the distant past.

02:09It is an active, ongoing process.

02:11The Indian plate continues its relentless push into the belly of Asia, a geological engine that never sleeps.

02:19As a direct result, the entire Himalayan range is still being uplifted.

02:25Mount Everest, the crown of this range, is at the forefront of this vertical journey.

02:31It is, quite literally, growing.

02:34Scientists using highly sensitive GPS equipment and satellite data

02:38have measured this astonishingly slow, persistent growth with remarkable precision.

02:43Everest is rising at about 4 millimeters, roughly the thickness of two coins every single year.

02:49It seems small, but in geological time, it's rapid.

02:54Over a millennium, that's 4 meters.

02:57This upward movement comes from immense compression deep below.

03:00The rock is being squeezed like toothpaste force upwards.

03:05While the steady tectonic push provides the constant upward pressure,

03:10the growth of Everest is not always a smooth and gradual affair.

03:14The immense stress that builds up between the Indian and Eurasian plates does not release gently.

03:20Instead, it accumulates over decades or centuries until the strain becomes, well, just too great for the rock to bear.

03:28When it finally gives way, the energy is released in a sudden, violent rupture.

03:34This is an earthquake.

03:36These seismic events are the most dramatic and powerful expressions of the forces shaping the Himalayas,

03:42capable of altering the landscape in a matter of moments.

03:46During a major earthquake, the ground can shift horizontally and vertically with terrifying speed.

03:52The 2015 Gorka earthquake in Nepal was a devastating reminder of this power.

04:00While its epicenter was some distance from Everest, its effects were felt across the entire region.

04:07In the aftermath, scientists re-measured the mountain with incredible precision.

04:12They discovered that the earthquake had caused a complex shift.

04:17While some parts of the surrounding mountain range had subsided slightly,

04:21the great mass of Everest itself had been nudged upwards by as much as three centimeters in a single violent jolt.

04:28Another set of powerful forces is working just as tirelessly to wear it down.

04:33This is the constant, unending process of erosion.

04:36The mountain's great height exposes it to some of the most extreme weather on the planet.

04:43Here, wind is not a gentle element.

04:45It is a powerful sculpting tool.

04:48Here, ice is not a gentle element.

04:51It is a powerful sculpting tool.

04:53Here, water is not a gentle element.

04:56It is a powerful sculpting tool.

04:58The wind alone, often reaching hurricane speeds in the jet stream that whips across the summit,

05:04acts like a sandblaster, scouring the exposed rock faces and carrying away tiny particles grain by grain.

05:12The most powerful agent of erosion in this high-altitude world, however, is ice.

05:17Vast glaciers, like the famous Kumbu Glacier, flow slowly down the mountain's valleys.

05:23These are not static blocks of ice.

05:25They are rivers of ice, moving under their own immense weight.

05:29As they move, they pluck and tear at the rock beneath them, dragging boulders and sediment along for the ride.

05:36This material becomes a fantastically effective abrasive, grinding the valley floors and walls,

05:43carving out the deep, U-shaped valleys and sharp-sided cirques that give the Himalayas their distinctive, jagged appearance.

05:52The iconic shape of Everest is as much a product of glacial carving as it is of tectonic uplift.

06:00In the warmer summer months, melting snow and ice seep into cracks and fissures in the rock.

06:06When night falls and the temperature plummets, this water freezes and expands,

06:11acting like a wedge to slowly pry the rock apart,

06:14until entire sections can break away in rockfalls and landslides.

06:19Rain at lower altitudes feeds powerful rivers that carry away the eroded sediment,

06:25transporting the very substance of the mountains down towards the plains, completing the cycle of destruction.

06:31This eternal battle between uplift and erosion is what gives Mount Everest its breathtaking form.

06:37The tectonic forces create the raw height, pushing the rock skyward.

06:42The forces of erosion then carve and shape that rock,

06:45creating the sharp peaks, knife-edge ridges and sheer faces that define the mountain's character.

06:51Without uplift, erosion would eventually wear the mountain down to a gentle hill.

06:57It is the perfect, dynamic equilibrium between these two opposing forces

07:03that has created the magnificent, awe-inspiring spectacle we see today.

07:08A true masterpiece of our living, breathing planet.

07:13Like and subscribe for more.

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