Apocalyptic Planet - Chapter 7: Mountains Move, Northeast Tibet

This class started off with my proclamation that this is my favorite chapter.  It’s not that I’ve done a lot of river rafting, but I have done a few rides that were thrilling and I loved each one.  I’ve rafted on the Colorado and a couple of times in West Virginia.  Not sure, I may have missed by calling by not moving to Colorado in my youth and becoming a guide…but that’s a whole other story.

Anyway, in this chapter Childs takes us to Northeast Tibet with himself, his step-father (whom he lovingly calls Old Pola) and a group of seasoned, well-experienced river rafters.  The challenge on this trip is rafting a river that has not been run before and for very obvious reasons….it is a wild ride that cannot be scouted in advance.  Not sure when this trip took place.  It could have been years before the book’s publication date of 2012 and I question it because I wonder why they didn’t take a drone and scout by drone.  But, the trip could have been before drones, or, maybe they loved the suspense…who knows??!!

The science in this chapter focuses on plate tectonics and land mass.  Again, as usual for Childs, there is much to be discovered.  Like, who knew that the Tibetan Plateau is so large that it has a direct impact on global weather?  One example given is that for this trip the timing was planned for after the monsoon season.  That particular year the plateau held the heat, the heat pulled moisture from all over and as a result the monsoon lingered, meaning that for their trip instead of the water level lowering as they expected, water level was still rising from the prolonged monsoon; something of a crisis for the planned trip.  

 “The Tibetan Plateau is why there is a deep rainy season throughout Southeast Asia.  But its climatic effect is much larger than monsoons.  It is a planet changer, this massive, high-elevation presence responsible for the multimillion-year cooling phase the earth has been in place since not long after dinosaurs perished.”  Childs noted that one of the earth’s big clocks is changing. 

The river they planned to run was the Salween, third sister to the Yangtze and Mekong.  The river cuts through the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, “exposing the impact of the Indian subcontinent driving into Asia.  This collision jacks up the highest landmass on the planet,” (think Mt. Everest). These thrusts are driven by mega-thrust earthquakes that tend to happen at plate collisions.  

And beyond that, “Over the geologic history of this earth, climates have heaved one way and the next in response to the changing shape of earth’s surface.  The 50 million year rise of the Himalayas and its mother mass of the Tibetan Plateau is what has ultimately allowed for ice ages and the singsong climate of the world as we know it.”

He goes on to say “This planet has a restless heart, its interior swollen with heat turning over itself, crumpling and uncrumpling the surface over tens of millions of years, constantly unleveling the playing field.”  But, without that heat the Earth would look more like Mars or our Moon.  Not sure we want that!!

Other new information that I at least was not aware of before reading this chapter is how newly exposed rock inhales CO2.  Evidentially, whenever new rock is exposed to the air (think earthquakes rising up mountains, or landslides shifting rock exposure) this is what happens.  There is also the mechanism of tectonic forces pushing up from below while gravity pushes down from above.  The process ultimately creates sediment through soil erosion which has increased since the appearance of humans on earth.  It’s kind of like the yin and yang of the earth!!!  Childs notes that “Tectonics does not end at the ground beneath your feet.  It is a dynamic system from the earth’s interior all the way to the sky and back.”  He also notes that we are the only planet in our solar system that has plate tectonics which is no small coincidence is also the only planet with life.

Add to all this science information the telling of the tale of their rafting adventure and you have a chapter that, at least for me, was mesmerizing.  I sat there reading wishing on one hand that I was with them on this trip and on the other, so glad I wasn’t.  

One point made by a class member was how did they get through all the ups and downs, turnovers and tossing about and not lose a single piece of gear.  Good question!!!!