A mountain near the border of Montana and Wyoming (USA) once moved 100 km in just 30 minutes during a catastrophic event that could potentially occur in other parts of the world, scientists reveal.
The rock at the summit of Heart Mountain is over 250 million years older than its base. This indicates that the summit and base of the mountain have not always been connected. The dramatic shift to its current position has puzzled scientists for many years. They knew that the mountain moved, but no one could explain how it happened and how long it took.
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Heart Mountain, shown in the photo, began forming along with the Absaroka Range about 50 million years ago. (Photo: NASA) |
A new explanation comes from beneath the earth, where boiling lava surged to the surface, pushing rocks and debris along its path at an astonishing speed.
Einat Aharonov, a geophysicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, utilized a computer model to describe the conditions beneath Heart Mountain 50 million years ago. This period was one of mountain formation marked by numerous volcanic eruptions.
They found that Heart Mountain has a significant number of vertical fractures (or rift valleys). These rift valleys are filled with lava, rising through a layer of water-saturated limestone.
The lava from the rifts infiltrated the water-saturated rock, causing both the rock and water to boil. This layer of water was trapped, and similar to a pressure cooker, as the temperature increased, the pressure rose. Being sandwiched between impermeable rock layers, the boiling water could not escape. Eventually, the pressure caused it to lift the rock layer, and the mountain began to slide.
“We believe that this sliding event must have been catastrophic. According to calculations, the movement occurred in less than 30 minutes,” Aharonov stated.
Heart Mountain is not the only mountain that could shift. Aharonov warns that due to its location on a volcanic side, the Canary Islands may also soon start to move, posing a threat of generating a massive tsunami.
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