Journal entry #3

At first I was really curious about my topic (the himalayas/Everest) all I really knew was they were really big mountains. I have learned much since then, and my thinking has changed greatly. I have learned plenty about the topic and it has changed my thinking has gone from just looking at the mountains to how were they formed? Or what effect do these giants have on the local climate? The way my thinking changed was due mostly to my book resources. These books have a lot on the formation and geological process behind these mountains. Some of my articles were a great help as well, some of the study articles that were meant to analyze the rock composition have changed my thinking greatly. The articles talk about marine fossils in the Himalayas as high up as the peak. this helped me realize that the Himalayas are a lifted ocean floor. Either that or the water levels of the world’s oceans used to be thousands of feet high, which possible, not likely due to the last ice age. So knowing that the fossil were deposited on the ocean floor with a little more research I found out why the sea floor is so high. I found that India crashed into the Eurasian landmass and created a folded mountain belt. Essentially the Himalayas are a big pile up from a continental collision that took millions of years to happen. With this information at hand I now see the Himalayas as much more than just mountains, but multi-million year old carnage from a collision long ago.

Moments, Stories, People, and Scenes

In a book that I am using as a source there is a great section on “Mountain Building” The Himalayas are used quite a bit in this section. This section really puts the formation of the mountain range into perspective. I mean the mountains were formed millions and millions of years ago but this selection really backs up its claims with evidence and is very helpful. This selection also explains the effect the mountains had on the whole Asian continent. This section actually gave me a a good thesis idea. I was having trouble coming up with a certain direction, but looking deeper into this section really helped my thinking process. An article published by a university in Arizona also is very rich in good information. It really made some pieces of geological information a lot easier to understand.

Dialogue:

How did the modern Himalayas come to be?

Well the himalayas took millions of years tp be created and are still rising to this day. I’ll give you the story in a nutshell. India was once its own continent and was slowly creeping northward. Eventually India crashed into Asia. When the two continents crashed the sea floor that once separated them bunched up and rose high into the air.

Oh wow I never thought of it that way it makes sense though. If this happened millions of years ago, then how do people know this? 

Well judging by the current movement of India, and the composition of the rock all along the mountain range scientists have concluded that this is a sound model of there creation.

How have the Himalayas altered the geography of Asia?

Like I said before, this collision erased two coastlines off the map and added a huge mountain range. Also local rivers dug canyons or changed their flow because the change in elevation. Some scientists also argue the Himalayas have changed the global climate.

So what?

I have always found the Himalayas very interesting. There hold the highest mountains in the world, these mountains aren’t just slightly taller than all the other ones, they are way taller. The next tallest peak outside the Himalayas is about only two-thirds as tall. Also the Himalayas possibly have an impact on the world wide climate!

Comments:

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