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  • Being the tallest mountain on the surface of our planet, Mount Everest's peak reaches

  • a dizzying height of 29,030 ft. But the most amazing thing about this giant is that it's

  • still growing! Yep, Chomolungma, which is yet another name of the Everest, gets one-tenth

  • of an inch taller every year! But what if all mountains on Earth never stopped growing?

  • (What if YOU never stopped growing? Well that’s another video!)

  • So, let's imagine for a moment what life on Earth with ever-increasing mountains would

  • look like. One day you wake up to some breaking news.

  • It turns out that all the mountain ranges and peaks in the world have increased in size

  • overnight, and it doesn't look as if they're planning to stop anytime soon.

  • True to form, in a week or so, most mountains already reach the height of 10,000 ft. That's

  • when helicopters stop flying in particularly mountainous regions because the average altitude

  • a helicopter can climb is exactly around 10,000 ft.

  • When, in about a month, mountains reach the height of 40,000 ft, people realize that traveling

  • somewhere far away isn't as easy as it used to be. Because now, they can't just buy a

  • plane ticketmostly because the majority of airplane routes are unavailable now. The

  • average cruising altitude of an airliner is 30,000 to 35,000 feet. Any higher, and there

  • is not enough oxygen in the air to fuel the engines, plus, the air itself becomes too

  • thin to hold the plane up. Surely, aircraft could try to find a way through a rocky maze

  • of the newly grown mountains, but it would be too risky and would endanger the lives

  • of everyone on board. So, if you need to get somewhere, you can drive or probably take

  • a train or a bus. Sailing has become dangerous as well because

  • not only the mountains on the surface of the planet have grown taller. There are more than

  • 100,000 seamounts in the world, with about 30,000 of them in the Pacific Ocean. That's

  • why container and cruise ships rest in ports until people try to figure out safe routes

  • that won't end up in any shipwreck. But you should keep in mind that more than

  • 90% of all the world's cargo is transported by sea! And that's oil, machine parts, equipment,

  • electronics, clothes and footwear, food and drinks, furniture, toys, and whatnot! And

  • since it's too dangerous for container ships to roam the waters of the world ocean, people

  • start to feel an acute shortage of many things they've forgotten how to live without.

  • Mountaineers are in distress because they can't conquer mountain peaks anymore. The

  • thing is that people start to feel altitude sickness already at the height of 8,000 ft.

  • And you need to be super-healthy and well-prepared to climb up to the peak of Mount Everest.

  • Only around 5,000 people have managed to conquer this peak so far. There, oxygen levels are

  • three times lower than they are at sea level. So, climbing any higher than Everest? Unlikely.

  • But with mountains growing taller and taller, there appears another serious problem. When

  • researchers calculated the weight of Mount Everest, it turned out to be around 357 trillion

  • pounds! And that's without the weight of snow and ice that cover the peak of the giant in

  • a thick layer. But even though Everest is already heavy beyond

  • belief, should it grow, it would be even heavier! It means that the mass of all other mountains

  • on Earth would be getting bigger and bigger as well! And the more substantial the mass

  • of something becomes, the stronger the gravity of this object gets.

  • So, in our fictional scenario, it's our planet's gravity that increasesand you can probably

  • imagine the consequences! Of course, it would depend on how much stronger the Earth's gravity

  • would become. But the chances are high that soon after mountains started to grow, you

  • would only be able to crawl aroundforget about running or jumping! Birds wouldn't fly

  • anymore; high-rise buildings, bridges, and other man-made constructions, as well as tall

  • trees, would start to collapse. But the Earth's core has to deal with a more

  • dramatic challenge. It works non-stop holding around 6.5 sextillion tons of the planet's

  • mass. And once this load gets even heavier, the core might simply collapse inward, putting

  • an end to everything on the surface of the planet. Uh-oh, I don't like where my story

  • has taken us... Luckily, you'll never have to find out the

  • real-life consequences of mountains growing too tall on this planetif only because

  • the mountains that exist on Earth will NEVER get significantly higher!

  • And one of the reasons is the very gravity I've already mentioned. But first, let's figure

  • out how mountains form! The Earth's crustor the surface layeris mobile and

  • dynamic. It's divided into ginormous pieces that move around as time passes. But there

  • are no street lights to control the movements of these pieces (also known as tectonic plates).

  • That's why from time to time, they collide, and the plates' touching edges get pushed

  • upward. Welcome, a newly-born mountain. (Wah!) By the way, that's exactly how Mount Everest

  • saw the light of day! But the tectonic plates don't stop. As if trying to find out which

  • one is stronger, they keep pushing against each otherand meanwhile, the mountain

  • grows taller! But one day, it becomes too tall and heavy to fight gravity, and the mass

  • of the mountain itself prevents it from growing up.

  • On the other hand, the collision of tectonic plates isn't the only way a mountain can form

  • there are also volcanic mountains, like the ones on the Hawaiian Islands. For some

  • reason, in a particular place beneath the surface of the planet, there accumulates too

  • much magma, and it presses on the Earth's crust from the inside. At some point, all

  • this pressure blows up the crust and bursts outside in the streams of lava, fountains

  • of molten rock, and clouds of ash. Molten rock starts to pile up, and eventually, a

  • mountain is formed. But even in this case, gravity still doesn't let the mountain grow

  • too tall and heavy. In other words, if gravity on Earth was weaker,

  • mountains would grow higher, just like on Mars! The Red Planet is home to the tallest

  • mountain in the whole Solar System (or at least the one we know about) — Olympus Mons.

  • The height of this Martian giant is 82,020 ft, which is almost three times taller than

  • Everest! How come this mountain grew so tall? For one thing, eruptions occured more often

  • on Mars, and mountain-creating lava flows kept going on Mars way longer than here, on

  • Earth. Plus, the crust of the Red Planet isn't divided into tectonic plates. On Earth, the

  • movements of these plates distribute lava all over the planet and among different volcanoes.

  • But on Mars, where the crust doesn't move, all the lava gets piled up into one tremendous

  • volcano.

  • But let's return to our native planet and the second reason why mountains don't keep

  • growing. Surprisingly, it's... rivers! I used to think that rives, on the contrary, make

  • mountains look taller! They carve into the foot of a mountain and, by eroding some material,

  • leave deep crevices that emphasize those breathtaking and dramatic peaks! Apparently, I was wrong.

  • By eroding the materials a mountain is made of, rivers can trigger landslidesand

  • those don’t let the mountain grow as tall as it could otherwise.

  • But how about underwater mountains? They are already surrounded by water, so rivers can't

  • really influence them, right? Yeah, but don't forget about gravity and landslides! These

  • factors still have some influence on underwater mountains, even though it’s not that great.

  • Water has higher density than air and it better supports mountains against gravity. That's

  • the reason why underwater mountains are often way taller than those on the surface. For

  • example, an inactive volcano in Hawaii, Mauna Kea, is actually the world's tallest mountain

  • if you measure it from the base to its summit. Its height is 33,500 feet — a bit greater

  • than that of the Everest. But since the base of the volcano sits deep in the Pacific Ocean,

  • you can see only 13,796 ft of the mountain peeking above sea level. Aloha!

  • Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a

  • friend! And here are some other videos I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right,

  • and stay on the Bright Side of life!

Being the tallest mountain on the surface of our planet, Mount Everest's peak reaches

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如果山一直生長下去會怎樣? (What If Mountains Continued to Grow All the Time)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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