2023-07-28 20:41:16
Mountains are one of the most amazing natural formations on Earth. They have been an inspiration to many poets, explorers, adventurers and thrill-seekers. When you ask a child to draw a picturesque location, mountains will inevitably appear in the end result. Mountains feature clearly in our language as well.. “Moving mountains” is a commonly used phrase that means “performing a big and difficult task.” And other associated words. So what would happen if all mountains disappeared from the face of the earth? Mountains are formed by the movement of tectonic plates, these are like giant chunks that cover the entire crust, the upper part of the Earth’s surface. The movement of these tectonic plates usually occurs slowly over thousands of years, when they collide with each other, the crust rises like mountains at the point of contact. Obviously, the mountains are really heavy! It is this massive amount of mass that is pressing down on the layer below the Earth’s crust, called the mantle. The mantle is made of hot, molten lava called magma. When there are volcanic eruptions, what essentially happens is that magma from the mantle rises through the crust and spills out onto the surface. If the mountains suddenly disappeared, all that mass holding back mantle pressure would be gone and there would be a constant barrage of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes all over the world. Mountains, like rainforests and deserts, have an important role to play in maintaining the planet’s ecological balance, and according to a 2014 study published in the journal Nature, without mountains the Earth would be as cold and uninhabitable as Mars. The study also talks regarding the role of small mountains in pushing essential minerals from the mantle to the upper surface. Calcium is part of these minerals that interact with carbon dioxide to form limestone. This limestone is eroded by wind, rain and snow and reaches the oceans. Researchers say this process was essential in sucking all the excess carbon dioxide out of Earth’s atmosphere several million years ago, without which we would never have an atmosphere suitable for life to thrive. The interesting thing is that there was a time when mountains were almost disappearing.. About 0.8 billion to 1 billion years ago, Earth’s mountains stopped growing. Meanwhile, erosion has turned these once-strong formations into tiny outcrops, according to a recent study published in Science. This period had a major impact on the evolution of simple, multicellular organisms in the oceans. In fact, the evolution of life was so slow during this time that geologists called it the “boring billion years”! Without the mountains, we might be entering the era of the second billion of Earth’s existence! After all is said and done, the disappearance of the mountains would be catastrophic not only for humans, but for all life on the planet. On his international day.. What if the moon disappeared? What will our life be like on Earth? What if the gas leaked from the Safer oil tanker near the coast of Yemen? What if we stop fishing? This is how the marine environment will be affected
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