The story is at https://phys.org/news/2023-08-paleoaltimetry-assumptions-formation-himalayas.html … and https://scitechdaily.com/600-million-year-old-time-capsule-new-discoveries-from-the-himalayas-shed-light-on-earths-past … which was sent in by Gary. A new paper in Nature Geoscience has measured historic altitudes in sedimentary rocks to show the Himalayas did not form as geologists have long argued. What was there before the Himalayas? The new study claims the edge of two tectonic plates were already quite high prior to their collision with each other. They were in effect already 35 km in height, on average. That is over 60 per cent of their current height. Does that mean Plate Tectonics is not all its cracked up to be?
The SciTech blurb differs as it concerns events 600 million years ago – long before the Himalayas were a twinkle on the landscape. It is the same story but from a different emphasis. Water droplets trapped in mineral deposits thought to be the remnants of an ancient ocean, were used by the research team. The water may not derive from an ancient ocean, of course. It may be water from inside the body of the earth.
At https://scitechdaily.com/avalon-explosion-life-on-earth-didnt-arise-as-described-in-textbooks … as described in textbooks. This involved rock samples from a mountainous regions. These are the McKenzie Mountains in Canada and the Yangtze Gorge in China. New findings shift the goal posts.