Day 15 - Mount Everest 27°59'N 86°54'E

I landed in Tibet a few days ago, and because of jet-lag, I rested before I made my way to the mountain range. I met with my guide group the day before, and we planned out our journey. Our group leaders would take us up part of Mount Everest, but not very high. When you get to an altitude that high you would start to feel sickness due to the lack of oxygen in the air.

www.explore.himalayas.com

We met with them in the morning. Six of us went up all together, and I had to wear three layers of clothing to protect me from the cold. The base camp is mostly barren land; not much plants grow over the dry soil. But once you start to head up to the mountain, you run into a whole layer of snow. We hiked up for a while in silence, just enjoying the view. The wind whipped at us stronger and stronger as we gained altitude, but I didn't mind. The whole time I was scoping out how I could scale it. It was massive, larger than anything I had even seen! The climb was so dangerous, that many people who had attempted it had never returned.

The mountain range had formed in a collision boundary. A collision boundary is formed when two continents collide and are formed into a single, larger continent. The collision causes the crust to push upward into a mountain range. The reason that the Himalayas are so tall is because the two plates collided with a much stronger force than usual. The Himalayas lie along a collision boundary where India is pushing into China at a rate of 5 centimeters every year. The growth of these mountains result in an increased earthquake activity. The most recent earthquakes occurred in 1897, 1905, 1934, and 1950, all causing tremendous damage. Evidence does show that the earthquake in 1934 did rupture the surface, but just thinking about the damage makes me nervous. I need to get out of here!

Collision Boundarywww.divediscover.whoi.edu