Andes formed like a "cork out of a bottle": 09-06-2008
New evidence suggests that the Andes mountain range in South America shot out of the ground "like a cork" after being squeezed by continental plates over millions of years.
Massive pieces of rock suddenly folded into the Earth's mantle, allowing the crust to jump five thousand feet into the air, forming the mountains over only one million years.
The report, published in last week's Science journal, suggests this movement happened between six and ten million years ago.
It is generally thought that mountains rise in a relatively steady manner over millions of years but the study, led by Carmala Garzione, a geologist at the University of Rochester, seems to prove the Andes are unique.
Questions have been asked over the validity of the data, largely based on isotopes, due to the possibility of different weather systems distorting the evidence.
Further studies are being carried out by Maria Teresa Ramirez-Herrera, a geologist and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
If these studies confirm Ms Garzione's data is correct, it could bring a whole new school of thought on the formation of mountains and possibly mean that the Andes are still growing as more rock crumbles into the Earth's mantle.