How to Build the World’s Highest Mountain

The summit rocks of Mount Everest contain fossils of trilobites, arthropods, and other denizens of the ancient Tethys Ocean .

At that elevation, Mount Everest scrapes the jet stream; winds of well over 160 kilometers ( 100 miles ) per hour are common, and temperatures can regularly dip below 30C ( 22F ) Oxygen levels are just one third of what they are at sea level.

We still don’t know when Everest took shape as a mountain peak.

The rocks from which it is assembled range from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years old.

Many have been metamorphosed by the high temperatures and pressures involved in the collision between the Indian and Asian plates.

The South Tibetan Detachment System ( STDS ) separates the GHS from the Tethyan sediments that cap the mountain.

Debate about how and when this happened has yet to be resolved.

The STDS is a normal-sense fault that is oriented nearly horizontally, a distinct oddity in a landscape dominated by thrust faults.

Unlike other normal faults, the rocks above the STDS did not slide down so much as GHS moved up.