The Andes and the Himalayas are the two of the largest mountain ranges on Earth, yet one is full of volcanoes and the other isn't. Why are they different? Discover more by clicking the link below.
The Himalayas are enormous, running over 1,400 miles from end to end. The multitude of 25,000+ foot mountains in this range is astonishing, with a full 18 peaks reading that elevation. Yet, none of those mountains are volcanic. Instead, they are built by the collision of two tectonic plates that has been going on for tens of millions years.The Indian subcontinent and Eurasian are at odds with each other. India has been moving steadily northward and when it struck Eurasia, things got messy.
Just like the Himalayas, the Andes are a chain of large mountains. The Andes are actually a much longer chain, running 5,500 miles down the west coast of South America. The mountains themselves aren't as tall as the peaks of the Himalayas. The tallest Andean mountain is that comes in at ~22,800 feet, a full 7,000+ feet shorter than Everest. That being said, there are dozens of mountains in the Andes that are taller than 20,000 feet.
Unlike the Himalayas, two continents aren't colliding to form the Andes. Instead, the South American continent is interacting with oceanic tectonic plates that are more dense and much thinner than continental plates. This means that when they slam together, instead of both plates crumpling, the oceanic plate just gets jammed underneath the thicker, less dense continent.
, which is an intuitive enough name. Because neither plate is being fed back into the mantle to deliver any water, little-to-no magma form and you don't have any volcanoes., which is a much less intuitive name. However, what you can try to remember is submarines go under water like an oceanic plate goes under a continent. Melting happens thanks to all the liberated water and you get volcanoes.
Both of these boundaries are convergent as plates are moving towards each other, so beyond building mountain, the Andes and Himalayas are also a focus of earthquakes. Interestingly, although you might think that two continents mashing into each other would make bigger earthquakes, it is theNow, there are still other ways to get mountains to form, but at least in terms of the biggest chains on Earth today, it is the collisions of plates that creates them.
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