Andes Grew to Towering Heights in Two Explosive 'Growth Spurts'

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | January 23, 2019 04:02pm ET

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The Cuernos del Paine in Chile are part of the Andes Mountain range.
Credit: Shutterstock

Far from a process of smooth, inevitable ascendance, the formation of the iconic Andes Mountains was downright explosive. As the peaks rose skyward along the western coast of South America dozens of millions of years ago, violent volcanic activity rocked the continent , a new study finds.

Researchers made the discovery by studying the buried remnants of the continent's tectonic plates. And what the scientists found surprised them.

The 4,300-mile-long (7,000 kilometers) Andes — the longest continuous mountain range in the world — didn't form in the way that scientists had long thought. Previously, geologists held that the Nazca oceanic plate, which lies under the eastern Pacific Ocean, had steadily and continuously subducted (slipped under) South America, which made the ground rise and eventually create the towering Andes. [Photos: The World's Tallest Mountains]

"The Andes Mountain formation has long been a paradigm of plate tectonics," study co-author Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology at the University of Houston, said in a statement.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/64571-andes-mountains-plate-tectonics.html