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>> Earth--a unique planet--

restless and dynamic.

Continents shift and clash.

Volcanoes erupt, glaciers grow

and recede.

Titanic forces that are

constantly at work, leaving a

trail of geological mysteries

behind.

This episode explores Everest,

the highest mountain on planet

Earth.

In order to unlock its secrets,

a daring mission is undertaken

to bring back rocks from

the summit.

This journey of discovery into

the formation of Everest will

uncover ancient fossils,

hidden crystals, epic weather,

and immense structures etched

into the mountains...All part

of the incredible story of...

S02x08 Everest Original Air Date on January 19, 2009

-- Sync, corrected by elderman -- -- for MY-SUBS.com ---

The Himalayas stretch 1,500

miles across Asia.

They're home to 14 of the

tallest mountains on the planet.

And one rises above all

others...

Everest.

At 5 1/2 miles tall, Everest is

the highest mountain in the

world.

In order to figure out how

this giant mountain was made,

geologists need evidence--

rock samples from Everest.

It's a dangerous mission, and

only a few people are willing

to undertake it.

Kenton Cool is one of the

world's best high-altitude

climbers, and he will embark on

this geological mission to the

summit of Everest.

His instructions from geologists

are to collect rock samples from

3 places: One from the summit

and two from lower down.

These incredibly rare samples

will give investigators

crucial evidence.

Kenton is at Everest base camp.

Pitched on jagged rocks at

17,500 feet, this camp is over

3 miles above sea level.

>> Sorting out the last of the

items I need to take on our

summit push, and I've just been

to collect a load of ziploc

bags, which I hope to put all

the samples in.

>> Over the next 5 days, he will

climb 12,000 feet--the

equivalent vertical height

of 8 Empire State buildings.

Kenton starts his mission from

base camp.

He negotiates the Khumbu

Icefall, a frozen river with

crevasses thousands of feet

deep.

It's a treacherous ascent, as

all this glacial ice is

constantly moving, and looming

ice towers threaten to collapse.

Kenton now has the most

dangerous section ahead of him.

At 21,000 feet, he is alread

higher than Mount McKinley.

He has a sheer ice climb up the

side of Everest.

[wind howling]

Winds reach speeds in excess of

100 miles an hour and

temperatures drop

to -40 degrees.

Since leaving base camp, kenton

Has climbed for 4 days.

At 26,000 feet, he reaches the

point which joins Everest and

its neighboring mountain,

Lhotse.

>> So here we are. This is the

south col, one of the highest

camps in the world--7,950

meters, so high that nothing can

actually live here.

>> From this camp, Kenton will

leave at 3 a.m., climb through

the night, and aim to arrive at

the summit in the morning.

>> It's pitch-black, about 3:00

in the morning.

>> Timing is crucial and the

weather must be ideal.

The window for ascent is narrow.

There are only around 12 days of

the year when climbers can make

it to the summit.

Kenton must take this

opportunity.

He now ventures into what

climbers call the death zone.

Oxygen is needed to make the

climb, as the air is 3 times

thinner than at sea level.

One in 10 people die climbing

Everest, and most fatalities

occur during this final stage.

>> [breathing heavily]

One more.

>> Kenton finally reaches the

top of Everest.

>> 8,850 meters.

We are the highest people in

the world.

>> This is the view from the

highest place on planet earth.

For most climbers, the summit is

the ultimate goal...

but for Kenton, his mission has

only just begun.

He heads just below the summit

to find an exposed outcrop

of rock.

Kenton's first sample is a gray

limestone.

It's soft and easy to break off.

This is a sample of the highest

rock in the world.

One down, two to go.

Kenton descends further to

collect the next sample.

Just below the summit, the rock

changes.

Climbers call it the "yellow

band" due to its distinctive

color.

The rock is dramatically

different from the summit--

much harder and yellow in

color.

This is a layer of marble.

>> [grunts]

All right, there we go.

There's a lot of the yellow

band.

Right, so that's that.

That's the yellow band.

We've collected samples from

here.

It's not been very easy.

We're getting out of here.

It's beginning to snow.

>> But he has one more to go.

Kenton starts the long descent

to where he'll get the next

piece of evidence.

He enters into the Western Cwm,

a huge, u-shaped valley which

has been carved by the Khumbu

Glacier--a frozen river of ice

that has relentlessly pushed

downward over the past million

years.

Rock and debris in the glacier

have ground away at the rock

underneath,

Revealing the base of Everest.

Kenton needs to take his final

sample from this area of

distinctive white rock--

granite.

>> So here we are in

the Western Cwm on Everest,

about 6,400 meters.

I'm actually stood underneath

one of the easier outcrops to

get to.

This is a big sort of granite

cliff above me.

>> This white rock is full of

crystals.

It's extremely hard and

different again from the summit

limestone and the marble.

>> Yeah, we have quite a nice

sample of the granite there.

>> With the 3 precious samples

safely packed away, Kenton takes

them to the University of

Oxford.

Here they will be analyzed by

the world's leading authority on

Everest, Mike Searle.

>> So, Mike, this is your

summit rock.

Now, that is from the top

of the world.

>> Well, this sample, Kenton,

is probably one of the most

important samples of the whole

Expedition, so it's literally

worth its weight in gold

geologically.

This came from the summit of

Everest, right there.

The next rock down that you

collected was from the yellow

band.

And even further down is

another rock, a granite.

>> Almost a complete picture

of Everest.

>> That's right, yes.

>> Fantastic.

>> These 3 rocks are the major

components which make up

Everest.

>> All that effort to get up to

the summit was, I can tell you,

was absolutely worth it to get

the sample.

>> Good, good. I hope so.

>> For the next step is we want

to find out what's in it.

>> The summit rock is cut into

a thin section...

so thin, light can pass

through it.

>> Ok, let's have a look at this

slide of the limestone that's

from the summit of Everest.

>> The highest rock sample in

the world reveals its secret.

>> That looks interesting.

What's that?

We've got a section here

through a crinoid stem.

Crinoid is a sea lily.

>> From fossil records, the

section can be dated.

It is over 400 million years

old.

The sea lily is evidence that

the summit rock of Everest was

formed in an ancient marine

environment.

>> So, from seeing this

evidence, we can categorically

say that this rock would have

started life at the bottom of

the sea floor, and then I've

collected it from the very, very

top of the world, from the

summit of Everest itself.

That's just amazing.

>> But a mystery is revealed:

How had rock with marine fossils

in it ended up on the top

of Everest?

The mission to collect rock

samples from Everest has

uncovered two clues as to how

it formed.

Samples show that the mountain

is made from 3 distinctive

types of rock.

Rock from the summit of Everest

contains marine fossils, proving

it started life on the bottom

of the sea.

To figure out how sea floor

came to be on top of the

highest mountain in the world,

geologists need to find

evidence that is millions of

years old, going back way

before the Himalayas were even

formed.

>> 400 million years ago, no

trace of the Himalayas existed.

The sea lily, now fossilized on

the summit of Everest, is proof

that there was once water where

now this great mountain stands.

But to figure out whether this

was just a shallow inland sea

or a great ocean, geologist

Mike Searle travels to the

Himalayas.

He begins the investigation at

the Ghar Khola river.

It flows down from the high

Himalayas and carries with it

an intriguing clue.

>> The rock I've got in my hand

at the moment may look a bit

boring and insignificant.

It's just a pebble taken from

the river, but it's actually

a key clue as to the formation

of the Himalayas and the

evolution of the rocks.

It's almost by magic that when

you smash a rock like this open,

what it reveals inside is an

absolutely beautiful fossil, and

this fossil is what we call an

Ammonite.

>> This ancient creature is part

of the squid family.

It's proof of a complex

ecosystem found in a deep ocean.

>> A giant squid swimming around

in the seas that once lay

between India and Asia, and this

is some of the key evidence

that we've got that there was

a major ocean between the

continents.

>> But to find marine fossils

in the high Himalayas and on

the summit of Everest, some

immense geological force must

have pushed the ocean floor

upwards above the water.

Figuring out how this happened

has taken geologists over

a hundred years.

The first lead in this

investigation came from an

unlikely place...

Antarctica.

In 1910, the renowned Antarctic

explorer Robert Scott began his

ill-fated expedition to the

South Pole.

After reaching the pole, Scott

and 5 of his team died.

When the bodies were discovered,

among their equipment were

carefully wrapped and labeled

fossils.

The fossils were part of an

ancient plant called

Glossopteris, and specimens are

preserved at the British

Antarctic survey.

>> Glossopteris is a type of

plant known as seed fern.

And from many different lines

of evidence, such as roots and

leaves and preserved trunks,

Paleontologists think that

Glossopteris was actually a type

of tree.

>> Soon this humble tree fossil

was found across the globe...

in India, South America, Africa,

Madagascar, and Australia.

Geologists now had a puzzle:

How had this one species of

plant spread between continents

separated by thousands of miles

of ocean?

>> Glossopteris is a very

important fossil because it

could not have dispersed over

vast distances.

It couldn't have just been

dispersed by the wind or by

birds across oceans.

>> If Glossopteris couldn't

cross oceans, then scientists

were left with one conclusion:

When these trees were alive

250 million years ago, the

continents were all joined

together.

They were part of a

Supercontinent geologists call

Gondwanaland.

Glossopteris was able to spread

across this ancient landmass.

But then Gondwana was split up

by violent tectonic forces,

Which pushed the continents

apart, and 80 million years ago,

India broke away from the

Supercontinent.

It traveled north and

eventually smashed into Asia.

To get the full picture,

geologists now knew they must

get an exact date for this

collision.

Once again, they turned to

marine fossils.

>> We know the age of collision

of India and Asia from several

factors, but the most important

one is the age of the youngest

marine fossils that are

preserved along that collision

belt.

And the age of those fossils is

very precisely dated--

50.5 million years.

>> 80 million years ago, India

left Gondwana.

50.5 million years ago,

it hit Asia.

India traveled 4,000 miles in

just 30 million years, very fast

in geological time.

>> India was drifting northwards

across the Indian Ocean at very

rapid plate tectonic speeds,

and we're talking here between

10 and 12 inches per year,

which is very rapid.

>> It's this speed that goes

some way to explain the unique

size of the Himalayas,

Because, as with any smash,

the faster the collision,

the bigger the wreck.

The investigation has now

uncovered clues to prove India

and Asia were once separate.

Ammonites are evidence that

an ocean once existed between

India and Asia.

Glossopteris fossils prove that

India was once part of a

Supercontinent called

Gondwanaland.

>> The next part of the

investigation is to discover

how this intercontinental smash

gave rise to the tallest

mountain in the world.

>> Geologists piecing together

the story of how Everest was

made have shown that 400 million

years ago, a wide ocean existed

where the Himalayas now stand.

India was part of Gondwanaland

until 80 million years ago, when

violent tectonic forces threw

the planet into turmoil and

split up this ancient landmass,

pushing India northwards.

50 million years ago, India

collided with Asia, and for the

next 30 million years, this

intercontinental smash began to

shape the world's highest

mountains.

Traces of the first stage in

this process can still be seen

in the Himalayas today.

The best way to spot them is

from the air.

>> Because the high Himalayas

are so incredibly inaccessible--

I mean, just look at that view

out there--there's a sea of

mountains.

All of them are over 20,000

feet.

There must be hundreds of them,

and those are impossible

mountains for a mere mortal

to climb.

>> This is geology on a massive

scale.

The distinctive formations come

into view.

Huge folds of rock, clearly seen

on the sides of the mountains.

>> All of these folds that

we're seeing right here on

Dhaulagiri and Tukuche peak

were formed during the first

part of the Himalayan

mountain-building process,

so when India first collided

with Asia, the first thing to

happen was the northern margin

of India started buckling and

folding, and those folds are

just so spectacular.

When you look out the window

here, they're just unbelievably

impressive.

>> Like a giant train wreck,

India collided with Asia.

The land and ocean floor that

lay between literally folded up

under the enormous pressure.

But folds are only part of the

story.

Alone, they don't explain the

Himalayas' vast size.

Back on the trail, Searle is on

the hunt for further clues.

>> This is what makes the whole

trip really worthwhile.

We've just spent 5 days hiking

up through the jungle, through

the forest, pouring with rain.

And up there, finally, are the

high Himalayas.

I just love those mountains.

look at those peaks up there.

They are absolutely beautiful.

>> Searle points to an

intriguing, giant scar which is

revealed on the face of one of

the mountains.

It's evidence of the next

dramatic phase in the building

of the Himalayas.

>> This is a sketch of what we

are actually seeing in front of

us, with the big mountain of

Dhaulagiri here and the big

folds on the peak of Tukuche to

the right, with this enormous,

great fault that is

magnificently exposed, right

along the base of Dhaulagiri,

coming right down to the Kali

Gandaki river valley at the

bottom.

>> The fault is a fracture

running right through the

mountains.

>> Well, the first step into

forming the Himalayas is that

the rocks are folded into giant

folds.

And when that process continues,

the rock can no longer fold, so

they become overturned folds.

And when that process continues

even further, that overturned

fold actually moves along

a very discrete fault plane,

and that's exactly what we see

throughout the whole Himalayas.

So rocks are formed by folding

and thrusting.

>> Rocks can only be bent

so far.

Once rock has been bent beyond

its limits, it breaks and causes

a fault.

The process of faulting puts

different rock types one on top

of the other.

>> Faults are juxtaposed rocks

of two different types.

So the big, huge fault that cuts

through the tops of the

high Himalayas, the top of

Everest, are rocks that are

putting limestones over marble.

>> This is exactly what was

revealed by Kenton's rock

samples from Everest--

limestones at the summit lying

on top of the hard marble of

the yellow band...

Evidence that the top of Everest

was initially created by folding

and faulting.

But this only explains part of

the story.

To create a mountain the size

of Everest, geologists knew

that there must have been

another, more powerful

mountain-building process

at work.

Clues to exactly what this

process was can be found in the

Ghalemdi Khola River.

>> This river is a giant

garbage chute, bringing all

these boulders eroded off the

high Himalayas to the north and

sweeping them down in great

floods, down to the plains of

India to the south.

So this was a great place to

come to sample all the rocks

that make up the high mountains

to the north.

>> As any detective knows, some

of the best finds are made by

sifting through garbage.

This time it's garbage from the

Himalayan peaks.

>> This is exactly the rock I've

been looking for.

This is a beautiful example of

a Kyanite Gneiss, which is

composed of these beautiful,

blue-bladed crystals of Kyanite.

>> Kyanite is a gemstone, and

it gives a clue as to how these

rocks formed.

>> This mineral is very specific

to a geologist, and it tells us

that this rock has been buried

to depths of about 30 miles or

more, under high temperature

and high pressure.

>> Rock was not only pushed

upwards by the collision, but

also down towards the earth's

molten core.

Heat and pressure changed the

rock and formed Kyanite

crystals.

Another boulder in the river

gives a further clue as to what

was going on at these great

depths.

>> This white rock is

a himalayan granite.

Most of the highest peaks of the

Himalayas are actually formed

of this rock.

And, of course, the base of

Everest is formed of exactly

the same.

The presence of these white

streaks tell me that this rock

was actually partially molten,

at the highest temperatures,

During the Himalayan

mountain-building process.

>> The rock was pushed so far

beneath the earth's surface that

it reached heat in excess of

4,000 degrees fahrenheit and

began to melt.

Once it was molten, it was able

to move and flow.

>> Well, you can think of the

Himalayas more as a conveyor

belt system taking Indian plate

rocks, pushing them down deep

in the crust.

They are altered by heating and

increasing pressure, eventually

melting to produce granite and

then forced back up to the

surface along these giant

sheer planes.

>> 20 million years ago, this

amazing conveyor belt system

was at work.

As India pushed northwards,

a liquid band of buoyant rock

was forced towards the surface

and cooled, forming a solid

layer of granite--a process

called "channel flow."

>> Granites are very buoyant

rocks, so when they're formed

by partial melting of the crust,

normally they're pushed up

through the crust to form

mountain ranges like you see in

the Sierra Nevada or Yosemite

National Park, for example.

The Himalayas are different.

These granites are flowing

almost horizontally from where

they formed--the southern part

of the Tibetan Plateau--to form

the high peaks of the Himalayas.

And it's this conveyor belt

system that keeps the high

Himalayas actively up lifting

to this day.

>> The mountains were repeatedly

jacked up to epic proportions.

It's this unique process which

accounts for the Himalayas'

immense size.

Kenton Cool's mission to Everest

uncovered an unusually thick

band of granite...

proof that Everest's awesome

size is due to the process of

channel flow.

Geologists investigating how

Everest was built have

discovered folds and faults,

proof of the initial

mountain-building process.

White stripes of granite

indicate the rock was melted at

over 4,000 degrees, forming a

giant conveyor belt of

mountain-building power.

But the Himalayas were set to

become part of a geological

battle between catastrophic

forces and powers which would

challenge the very height of

Everest.

>> 400 million years ago, the

Himalayas started out life at

the bottom of an immense ocean.

50 million years ago, they were

thrust into the skies as India

smashed into the Asian landmass.

Since that time, tectonic

forces have created the tallest

mountain in the world.

But what of the immediate

future?

Will Everest continue to rise

or will this giant soon be cut

down?

John Galetska is investigating

whether the processes which

built Everest continue

to this day.

He has traveled to the remotest

regions of Nepal and India,

setting up gps stations which

he hopes will provide him with

the answer.

>> All right, I've come as far

as I can by car, and I've got

a 3-hour walk straight up

the slope.

>> [speaks foreign language]

>> Just like a gps in a car,

yhis station is able to pick up

signals from satellites and

monitor any movement of the

ground.

>> The gps station has been

operating continuously for the

last 5 years, so every second

of every day of every month of

every year, it's taking a data

sample.

And what it's looking for is

changes in the position of where

the station is, but how it's

moving, the velocity of this

station, believe it or not, and

even changes in velocity.

>> The readings from the gps

show that India is still moving,

about two inches every year.

50 million years after its

initial collision, it is still

on its relentless journey

northwards, pushing underneath

Asia.

And as it does so, Everest

continues to be pushed higher.

But there is a dark consequence

to this mountain-building...

earthquakes.

>> So what's going on here in

the Nepali Himalaya, we've got

the Indian tectonic plates sort

of ramming into Asia.

In this case, India is losing

out, it's being forced under

Asia

But it's unfortunate that

they're locked frictionally, and

eventually, over the course of

hundreds of years, that strain

is accumulated and then

released suddenly in a giant

earthquake.

>> The Himalayas have seen 15

major earthquakes in the past

100 years.

The most recent to hit was in

Pakistan--October 8, 2005.

The quake devastated the region.

Galetska's readings show that

another earthquake is on

its way.

Kathmandu, the capital of

Nepal, lies in the center of

the danger zone.

>> When that earthquake

happens--not if--when that

earthquake happens, it's going

to be several minutes of terror.

There will be strong shaking in

Kathmandu, there will be just

collapsed structures.

You will see landslides on all

these mountains.

It's going to be complete

devastation.

26 million people in Nepal,

50 million people along the

whole arc of the Himalayan

range--all of these people

will be affected.

>> These devastating earthquakes

are the result of a very active

mountain belt--further evidence

that Everest is being actively

pushed upward.

But there is a second force

at work in these mountains--

erosion.

>> There's a constant battle

going on in nature here between

the uplift of the Himalayas and

the down-cutting of erosion.

>> Erosion in the Himalayas is

ferocious.

A clue as to the reason why

lies in a small village 300

miles east of Everest,

Cherrapunji.

It's the wettest place on

planet earth, averaging over

432 inches of rain each year.

This place is 12 times wetter

than Seattle, and the reason for

all this rain?

The monsoon.

[thunderclap]

>> The Indian monsoon system is

an almost unique system on the

planet, and the ultimate driving

force is the high mountains

And the high Himalayas and the

Tibetan plateau, which is by

far the largest area of high

elevation on the planet today.

And that causes this massive

high-pressure system during the

summer months, which results in

the sucking in of all the warm,

moist air from the Indian ocean.

>> This seasonal weather system

blows in across India.

Clouds build and rise as they

hit the high mountains and form

heavy rains, which fall across

India.

Those rains reach their maximum

on the southern slopes of

The Himalayas.

>> During the height of the

summer monsoons, some of these

rivers are able to rise by 20 or

30 feet in one storm, so where

I'm standing now, the levels of

The river will be way up over

here.

>> Each year, 264 cubic miles

of fresh water--enough to fill

Hoover Dam's Lake Mead 30 times

over--pours down the slopes of

the mountains.

This water feeds some of the

largest rivers in the world:

The Ganges, the indus, the

Irrawaddy, and the Yangtze.

The Himalayas are the water

tower of Asia, supplying fresh

water to a fifth of the world's

population.

But all this water is having a

dramatic effect on the

mountains.

Fast-flowing rivers cut

steep-sided valleys.

High in the mountains, rain

turns to snow, feeding glaciers

which carve into the upper

slopes.

All these forces are at work

today, wearing away at the

Himalayan peaks.

Because the monsoon is so

powerful, geologists suspect

that Everest and the Himalayas

are being worn away perhaps

more quickly than any other

mountain belt in the world.

Since 2004, a powerful new

technique has emerged that can

actually measure how fast a

mountain is being worn away.

It uses high-energy particles

from space.

>> At present, we're all being

bombarded by cosmic rays.

They come from distant parts of

the galaxy.

>> When these particles hit a

rock surface, a chemical change

happens.

It's like a kind of cosmic

sunburn.

Erosion from rivers and glaciers

expose rock surfaces to these

cosmic rays.

And just like sunburn, the

longer the rock is exposed, the

greater the damage to its

surface.

By measuring the amount of

cosmic sunburn in the rocks,

geologists can figure out how

quickly rivers and glaciers are

cutting into the mountains.

But working this out needs

very precise science.

>> the concentrations that we're

Trying to measure are so small,

they're equivalent to putting a

pinch of salt in an

Olympic-size swimming pool and

measuring one or two grains of

that salt.

>> After years of research,

Owen has discovered the maximum

speed of erosion...

1.1 inches per year.

That's 6 times faster than

the Rocky Mountains and faster

than anywhere else on the

Planet.

>> All mountains suffer from

erosion.

They're built up by tectonic

forces, and erosion wipes them

down again.

The Alps, the Rocky Mountains,

the Andes all have erosional

potential, but nowhere has such

huge erosional potential as the

Himalayas.

The erosion here is far greater

than anywhere else, and the

main reason for that is the

summer monsoon.

[thunder]

>> The battle in nature between

uplift and erosion continues,

but the question remains:

Which one is winning?

Is Everest shrinking or growing?

In 1999, a team of geologists

set out to answer this question.

They placed a small gps station

near to the summit of Everest.

After two years of monitoring,

the team had their answer.

Everest was, in fact, still

growing--a quarter of an inch

every year.

The world's tallest mountain

Is still getting taller.

The investigation into the

growth and movement of the

Himalayas has revealed the

following evidence:

Gps data shows a very active

mountain belt that is still

uplifting; cosmic ray dating

proves that the Himalayas are

being eroded faster than

anyplace else on earth.

Geologists now have the tools

to predict Everest's future.

It, and the Himalayan Mountain

chain, will continue to rise.

Aided by new technology,

discoveries are still being

made in the Himalayas, and

recently, one reveals that the

rise of these mountains was so

immense that it might have

changed the very course of

Earth's history and plunged the

entire planet into a deep

freeze.

>> Everest, 50 million years

in the making.

Today the Himalayas stand as

the biggest, highest, and most

active mountain range on the

Planet.

They are mountains of

superlatives: The deepest

Valley, falling over 20,000

vertical feet; the highest

Plateau; the longest sheer

rock face; hundreds of peaks

higher than anywhere else on

Earth, and many have never even

been named.

The formation of the Himalayas

has changed the entire

landscape, an epic evolution

from ocean to immense

mountain range,

and created one of the world's

most important weather systems--

The monsoon, which supplies

fresh water to one-fifth of the

world's population.

[thunderclap]

>> The Himalayas and Tibet

are really exciting places to

work for a geologist.

This is because it's such an

an active and dynamic

environment.

Not only that, it's a very

important area climatically.

>> Scientists investigating the

Himalayas have uncovered some

surprising results...

[thunder]

discoveries which would suggest

that the rise of the Himalayas

might have had an impact on the

climate of the entire planet.

The discovery came about almost

by accident, while scientists

were studying a process called

chemical weathering.

Every time it rains, carbon

dioxide in the atmosphere

dissolves to form acid rain.

When the rain falls, it eats

away at rock surfaces.

This weathering process takes

co2 out of the atmosphere and

locks it away in the rocks.

>> as that rock is interacting

With the atmosphere, it pulls

down carbon dioxide, and that

leads to a negative greenhouse

effect, if you like,

An icehouse effect.

So you get more weathering,

you pull down that carbon

dioxide out of the atmosphere,

and that leads to cooling.

>> The more co2 there is in

the atmosphere, the warmer the

global temperatures.

Take co2 out of the atmosphere

and temperatures are reduced.

Then scientists discovered

a major coincidence.

The dramatic rise of the

Himalayas over the past 20

million years coincided with

the gradual fall of global

temperatures, which led to the

start of the last major ice age.

The pieces of the puzzle fell

into place.

As the Himalayas uplifted, they

had acted like an ever-growing,

giant sponge and absorbed

massive amounts of co2 from

the atmosphere.

>> The uplift of the Himalayas

and Tibet leading to the draw

down of carbon dioxide from the

atmosphere by these weathering

processes was probably one of

the major factors in leading to

The cooling that culminated in

the ice age that started about

two and a half million years

before present.

>> A cooling effect which was

so intense that 2.5 million

years ago, it contributed to a

global deep freeze,

an ice age that affected the

entire planet and had a dramatic

impact on all life on earth.

[thunderclap]

And geologists are sure that

the Himalayas will continue to

exert an immense influence on

our planet, as these mountains

are still growing.

As India pushes northwards

under Asia, the building cycle

continues, more mountains will

form.

Over the next 10 million years,

300 miles of land will be forced

under Asia.

The entire range will grow

even taller.

Out in this vast wilderness of

icy peaks, geologists are still

making discoveries.

>> For geologists, it's exciting

in terms of the science because

you get to areas where few

geologists have been before.

>> As the research continues

at Everest and across the

Himalayas, it is a wonder what

secrets they might tell us in

the future.

The evidence for Everest's

incredible geological journey

has been revealed:

Ammonites, evidence that an

ocean once existed between India

and Asia, and that the

continents collided 50.5

million years ago;

Folds and faults--proof of the

initial mountain-building

process; granite--evidence of

a giant conveyor belt of

mountain-building power which

pushed Everest to its immense

height;

Gps data reveals that the

Himalayas are the most active

mountain range on the planet,

and Everest is still growing.

Everest today stands as the

highest place on planet earth.

But in millions of years to

come, there will perhaps be

another mountain big enough to

challenge this giant--

living proof that the earth is

never at rest.

-- Sync, corrected by elderman -- -- for MY-SUBS.com ---