Due to the movement in the interior of the Earth, high plateaus are formed in the areas between the continents. When continents break, large rocks rise on their edges. This rupture creates a wave within the Earth that slowly moves inward. Raises the plateaus.
Scientists know that continental rifts lift huge rocks, such as the trench walls separating the East African Rift Valley and the Ethiopian Plateau, says geoscientist Thomas Gernon of the University of Southampton, England. These steep rocks often surround interior plateaus rising from the strong and stable centers of continents.
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But both these landscape features are usually formed at an interval of 1 to 100 million years. Therefore many scientists believe that they were constructed separately. Who have had to go through different processes. This new study has been published in Nature Journal on 7 August 2024.
The Western Ghats of India are also formed due to this wave.
To study this, Gernon investigated the wall of the trench formed after the breakup of the Earth’s last supercontinent. One of these walls is in India. Which is called Western Ghats. It is 2000 kilometers long. Highland Plateau in Brazil which is 3000 kilometers long. Central Plateau in South Africa. It is 6000 kilometers long. This means that the lower parts of these plateaus have risen several kilometres. Behind which is a wave running in the mantle.
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Plateau increases by 15 to 20 kilometers every 10 lakh years
When Gernon’s team compared these places with topographic maps, it was found that they were formed due to the separation of the continents while rising. Because there is disturbance in the mantle due to the rising continents. Because of this strong waves arise. These waves run inside the mantle. It is because of these that these plateaus rise up. But very slowly. Every million years they grow 15 to 20 kilometers. Because of these, the shape of the plateaus keeps changing.