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Geologists discover how Australia's highest mountain was created
Science Daily ^ | 3/16/2016 | University of Sydney

Posted on 03/16/2016 12:21:20 PM PDT by JimSEA

Geologists from the University of Sydney and the California Institute of Technology have solved the mystery of how Australia's highest mountain -- Mount Kosciuszko -- and surrounding Alps came to exist.

Most of the world's mountain belts are the result of two continents colliding (e.g. the Himalayas) or volcanism. The mountains of Australia's Eastern highlands -- stretching from north-eastern Queensland to western Victoria -- are an exception. Until now no one knew how they formed.

A research team spearheaded by Professor Dietmar Müller from the University's School of Geosciences used high performance computing code to investigate the cause of the uplift which created the mountain range. The team found the answer in the mountains' unusually strong gravity field.

"The gravity field led us to suspect the region might be pushed up from below so we started looking at the underlying mantle: the layer of rock between the Earth's core and its crust," said Professor Müller.

The team found the mantle under Australia's east coast has been uplifted twice.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: australia; catastrophism; geology; mountkosciuszko
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course, the Applalachians had their day as higher than today’s Himalayas. Erosion - wasting levels them all down and not all orogens are the same to begin with.


21 posted on 03/16/2016 1:23:45 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: JimSEA

I can’t wait to go back to Australia for vacation. Best trip I ever took. And I’ve been all over the place.


22 posted on 03/16/2016 1:33:22 PM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: colorado tanker; 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; ...
Thanks colorado tanker. IOW, they also don't know. :')



23 posted on 03/16/2016 1:34:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: PIF
*Its all about uplift and subduction.*

Yup! Uplift and seduction!

24 posted on 03/16/2016 1:43:19 PM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hunga Tonga-Hunga.)
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To: eCSMaster

Thanks - took a while ...


25 posted on 03/16/2016 1:45:15 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: eCSMaster

26 posted on 03/16/2016 1:46:08 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: T-Bone Texan

It’s largely a function of age with eroded Australia being pretty flat with some of the oldest rocks in the world and New Zealand being one of the newest land masses. Every thing gets flat with age. Eventually the Grand Tetons will be flat and saggy.


27 posted on 03/16/2016 1:49:47 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: SunkenCiv

We watched Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, a delightful series set in interwar Melbourne. One of the episodes takes place at an Australian ski area. I didn’t even know Australia had ski resorts!


28 posted on 03/16/2016 1:53:11 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: JimSEA

This article is wrong on one point. The Great Dividing Range, as we Aussies call it, extends from FNQ (far north Queensland in Cape York) down to ‘eastern’ Victoria not western Victoria.


29 posted on 03/16/2016 2:08:22 PM PDT by Long Jon No Silver
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To: T-Bone Texan

Kansas? Into Thick Air!


30 posted on 03/16/2016 2:32:32 PM PDT by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)
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To: JimSEA

Alfred Wegener was just a kook who wore a tinfoil hat.


31 posted on 03/16/2016 2:36:56 PM PDT by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)
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To: Long Jon No Silver

I drove through that area a few years ago; it was spectacular.


32 posted on 03/16/2016 2:39:59 PM PDT by NorthMountain (A plague o' both your houses.)
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To: colorado tanker

:’)


33 posted on 03/16/2016 3:58:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: DocRock

A giant gopher created it.


34 posted on 03/16/2016 4:00:49 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Talisker

#7 You talking about women?....... : )


35 posted on 03/16/2016 4:01:21 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound
#7 You talking about women?....... : )

I'm always talking about women.

Even when I'm not talking about women, inevitably, inescapably, I'm always talking about women.

And so are you.

36 posted on 03/16/2016 4:06:32 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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