
STS080-704-22
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Nuevo Leon, Mexico: Sierra Madre Oriental (near Monterey)
formed about 60 million years ago, when one of the crustal plates of
the Pacific collided with what is now western Mexico. Beneath the
massive limestone layers, which are now buckled up into the ridges of
the Sierra, were thick layers of rock salt and other evaporite
minerals. Salt behaves plastically when even minor stress is applied;
here it has allowed the overlying slabs of rigid rock to rumple like
a rug and has flowed into the cores of the steep-sided ranges.
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STS080-707-93
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Himalayan foothills: Uncommonly sharp view of the southern
Himalayan foothills that illustrate drainage adjustments to the
ongoing uplift of the mountains and clearly delineate deforested
areas.
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STS080-770-76
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Himalayan foothills: Uncommonly sharp view of the southern
Himalayan foothills that illustrate drainage adjustments to the
ongoing uplift of the mountains and clearly delineate deforested
areas.
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STS080-711-36
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Potrero Garcia and Potrero La Mula: Potrero Garcia and Potrero
La Mula are breached salt-cored folds immediately north of the Sierra
and Monterey. Individual limestone layers can be resolved in this
beautifully detailed view, as can the tilt of the layers outward from
the center of the fold (anticline). Most of the salt has been eroded
from the core of the structure, but what remains is now being mined.
In Las Grutas de Garcia (Garcia Caverns) the limestone bedrock has
been dissolved and both limestone and gypsum formations decorate the
cave.
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STS080-732-72
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Everest: Everest.
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STS080-740-51
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Hangduan Shan range, Yulongxue Shan: Yulongxue Shan (Hangduan
Shan range, western Yunnan Province, near the India/ Burma/China
border junction). One of many south-trending mountain masses in this
region, Yulongxue Shan rises to 18,800' and the course of the Yangtze
River is sharply deflected around the prominence. As with the main
ranges of the Himalaya, these have been uplifted in response to the
collision of India with the Asian continent; along the eastern margin
of the Indian block, the trend of the ranges changes from easterly to
southerly. There is also lateral movement on the long, steeply
inclined faults bounding the ranges, as blocks are crowded out to the
southeast during the continued northward march of India.
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