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Roof Of The World (5/8)

This is also part of this series: Earth Story Series (8)

Subjects: Anthropology, Archaeology, Environment, General Interest, Geography, Natural History, Nature, Ocean, Science

Grade Level: JrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No

Running Time: 50 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No

Copyright Date: 1998
Available in French: No

To explore how mountains are made, in this programme Earth Stor y climbs to ‘the roof of the world' (the Tibetan Plateau in the High Himalayas) and delves to the lowest point on the Earth's crust, Death Valley in California. Struggling with the altitude and the weather on an expedition to the 8,000m peaks around Mount Everest, British geologist Mike Searle collects rock samples to date the formation of the Himalayas. His work seems to suggest that the vast mountain range is still growing – at the rate of one centimetre a year. It also confirms the theory that the Himalayas were created when India started to collide with Asia about 60 million years ago. But Oxford geologist Philip England thinks there's a lot more to it than that. His revolutionary idea is that the size and shape of Tibet can only be explained by thinking of Asia as a blob of treacle . In Greece, this explanation is being put to the test. Using the latest satellite technology, geologists calculate that Greece is on the move – sinking down at the rate of four centimetres a year – just like syrup on a plate. Tibet, which at five kilometres is the highest extensive real estate on Earth, now also seems to be collapsing under its own weight. Professor Bob Spicer, from Britain's Open University, says that the future of Tibet can be seen in Death Valley in California,the lowest place on Earth. His study of fossil plants suggests that the Valley was once a high plateaulike Tibet, but in the last 16 million years has collapsed nearly one and a half kilometres. Far from being ancient and fixed, mountains are ephemeral features of the Earth's surface, constantly flowing up and down to the rhythm of plate tectonics.

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