Book 12, Question 58
Why Can You Find Seashells on Top of Mountains?
Seashells on top of mountains are real, and here is why! The land there used to be under the sea. Moving plates lifted the old seafloor high into the sky, even to the top of Mount Everest.
More fun facts
- The highest rocks on Earth, at the top of Mount Everest, are limestone made on an ancient seafloor.
- That summit limestone formed in a warm, shallow tropical sea about 450 million years ago, during the Ordovician period.
- It still holds fossils of sea animals such as brachiopods, conodonts and crinoids, which are also called sea lilies.
- These animals lived during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, a time when ocean life became much more varied.
- The rocks formed in an ancient ocean called Tethys and were thrust upward when India crashed into Asia, starting about 55 million years ago.
- Climbers near the top of Everest, at about 8,500 meters, walk across pale grey and light brown limestone.
- Scientists figured out the Ordovician age of Everest's summit rocks in the 1970s.
Sources: iugs-geoheritage.org
Questions kids ask
Was Mount Everest once under the sea?
Its summit rocks were. They formed on a seafloor long ago and were pushed up when India collided with Asia.
What kinds of fossils are in Everest's summit rocks?
Sea animals like brachiopods, crinoids and conodonts that lived in a warm tropical sea.