WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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[music]

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This is Parsan,

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in northern Pakistan. A day\'s journey
from the great Himalaya range.

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It was here in Parsan 30 years ago

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that a long time geological
mystery unexpectedly surfaced.

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It all began at the University of Peshawar

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where geology student named Qasim
Jan was pondering his future.

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He sought out his professor for advice.

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He took me to this map. Shortly he pointed
out that at this blank area and said

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here is a big chunk of Pakistani territory in the
Northwest Himalaya which has not been previously mapped.

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Go there you can work for all
your life there until you die.

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What Qasim Jan didn\'t know was that

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his quest would lead him to a mountain
unlike any other mountain on earth.

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A mountain that would shed new light on
that great unsold geological mystery.

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What makes a mountain grow.

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Qasim Jan\'s journey

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took him alone in the Karakoram highway.
For thousands of years

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travelers from India and neighboring countries
had converged on this part of Pakistan

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on their journey northward.

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The Karakoram Highway was the only road that
would lead Qasim into the great Himalaya range.

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It was slow going on this narrow highway

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heavily plied by trucks bound for China.

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Heading north the land quickly
became steeper and more unstable,

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entire villages were perched
atop freshly gouge landslides,

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ready to still into the river far below.

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The road itself was extremely precarious.

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It clung to a cliff above the steep gorge of
one of the earth\'s most important rivers,

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the mighty Indus.

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This river once supported, one of the great cultures
of the ancient world; The Indus Valley civilization.

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Today the Indus continues to bring

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life giving water to all of Pakistan.

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[sil.]

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When Qasim Jan reached the blank
spot on his geologic map,

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everything changed. This was Kohistan

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and it was a most medieval place

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in spite of the torrents of water crashing
through the landscape, Qasim thought of it

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as a mountain desert. He
immediately noticed that

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the rocks have Kohistan were completely
unlike anything he had seen on his journey

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and sticking up above
Kohistan was an enormous

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and very strange mountain.

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[music]

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People called it Nanga Parbat,

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Kashmiri words for naked mountain.
Its sides were so steep

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that snow did not blanket it completely

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at 26,660 feet tall,

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it was the ninth highest
mountain in the world.

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Qasim\'s strong impression
was that this mountain was

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completely out of step with the
surrounding area. For one thing

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it was oriented north-south instead of East-West
like all the other Himalayan Mountains.

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And it was so much higher than
the Kohistan terrain around it

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but even though Nanga Parbat was intriguing

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to Qasim Jan, figuring out the Mountains
geology was not his priority.

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His priority was Kohistan

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and it was complicated enough.
Geologically this area is very complex.

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Not only from the processes which
have contributed to its formation

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but also from the point
of view of performing

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geological studies, the relief is very
high it\'s the most highest relief

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we have in the world and it is very
difficult to cover a lot of ground.

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[sil.]

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Filling the hole, in the geologic
map would take years of trekking

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in this difficult terrain crossing
and re-crossing these racing rivers.

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Qasim Jan would have to draw in

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all the mountains rivers and fault-lines
he found in unmapped Kohistan

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and you\'d have to note where
one type of rock ended

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and the next began but only after taking
hundreds of rock samples back to the lab

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for analysis. Qasim\'s teacher was right,

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this could take a lifetime.

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Logistically too, the area
has many complications.

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Neither guesthouses not hotels are
available. You can camp but then you need

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a lot of supplies and porters.
So it becomes expensive,

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medical facilities are very poor in
the area, road conditions are good

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and under these circumstances

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geological studies are not
easy to be carried out.

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[sil.]

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The good thing about the era; however, is that
the people are very helpful and hospitable

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and the scenery is fantastic despite
that it is a mountain desert.

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So, Qasim Jan immersed himself in Kohistan.

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He could only hope that someone
else would come along to help

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make sense of Nanga Parbat.
What he didn\'t guess was that

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the help would be coming from another
legendary mountain range; the Alps.

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[music]

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While Qasim Jan toiled in the Himalayas,

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a geologist named Arnaud Pecher
from Joseph Fourier University

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was working in the French Alps.

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Like Qasim Arnaud was the product
of a mountainous region.

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Having grown up in the Alps,

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he was well acquainted with the mountains
look and feel, their structure.

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As a young man

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deciding on a field of study Arnaud concluded
that structural geology would suit him well.

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The idea was to have a work

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where you combine work
outside and work in the lab

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where you can be involved
in, I was a Mountainair

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and liking to climb because a good
way to join the two things climbing

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and intellectual work.

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[music]

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For me, my main instrument is a compass.
I have to take a lot of measurements.

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Using this tiny instrument Arnaud measures

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the orientation and relationships
of rocks; this lets him generalize

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to the large amount and figuring out
if it\'s rocks are bent or flat,

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turns sideways or sticking up.

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Arnaud loved working in his own backyard.
But like all Mountain geologists,

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he began to hear the call of the
greatest mountain range of them all,

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The Himalayas.

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[music]

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It was only a matter of time before
Arnaud was on route to Pakistan.

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[music]

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As the plane approach the border
between Pakistan and China,

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high peaks suddenly loomed up
directly in its flight path.

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[music]

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This was truly the roof of the world.

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[music]

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Clustered here are more
high mountains in one place

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than anywhere else on Earth. They
are part of the Karakoram Range.

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The highest of these high peaks is K2

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at 28,250 feet K2 is the
second highest mountain

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in the world after Mount Everest in Nepal.

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Here two stones the majestic Rakaposhi.

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According to local folklore,

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Rakaposhi\'s high peak is inhabited by
spirits that dwell in fairy castles.

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[music]

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Just when it seemed the
peaks had finally run out,

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a huge mountain. Perhaps the biggest
mountain in the world in terms of sheer boat

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appeared at the window.
It was Nanga Parbat;

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the mountain had a tremendous presence

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like a gigantic sprawling creature
raising up it\'s massive bulky head.

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Right away Arnaud saw that

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there was something very strange about
the way Nanga Parbat was situated.

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The way it stood off by itself

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and turn sideways to the rest of the Himalayas;
beckoned Arnaud to take a closer look.

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[music]

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Once on the ground,

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Arnaud follow the legendary old
Silk Road south from China

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through this remote and magical land

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had Journey to the silk
traders of antiquity

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and pilgrims conquerors and kings.
Above them all

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towered to the high jagged peaks.

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Studying those peaks; what impressed
Arnaud about the Himalayas

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was that the mountains lined
up in neat regular rose

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all the way from Pakistan through
India and Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan.

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So far, the geology of this place

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seems straight forward and easy to picture

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but that was about to change.

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Arnaud followed the Silk Road
towards the fabled valley of Hunza.

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Along the way the sacred rocks of Hunza

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told the stories of 2000
years of travelers.

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High above stood the 700
year old Baltit fort.

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Then the mountains opened
up unfolding away below

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was the Green Valley of Hunza.

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It was a refreshing site
to the road weary traveler

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legend had it

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that the people of the Hunza never fell
ill and led exceptionally long lives.

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They grew wheat here and maize and apricot

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that terraces climb straight
up the mountain sides.

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For irrigation they siphoned water
from the ends of melting glaciers.

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[sil.]

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Leaving Hunza behind, finally Arnaud reach

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Nanga Parbat and from the ground,

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the mountain looked every bit as
peculiar as it had from the air.

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So, then when he arrived here
everything is different.

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The regular pattern of

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the rest of the Himalayas had
abruptly ended. At Nanga Parbat

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the entire range made a
giant sweeping curve.

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When you arrive you know the power but
you have this bending of the belt

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and this make your things very particular

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and maybe more difficult
to understand, to explain.

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Difficult, yes but that
bend in the Himalayas

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would prove to be a major clue to the
mystery of Nanga Parbat\'s formation.

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[sil.]

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Do you think that this
is one of the youngest…

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It wasn\'t long before Arnaud and
Qasim Jan met to compare notes.

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Each was pleased to find a colleague

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who could fill in the
gaps in his knowledge.

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Luckily they weren\'t completely in the
dark to begin with. In geologic circles

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it was already well established that the
Himalayas were a product of plate tectonics

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about 150 million years ago

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tectonic forces deep in the earth

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caused the supercontinent called
Gondwana land to crack apart.

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The Indian plate broke
away and headed north.

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The tens of millions of years

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India was completely surrounded by ocean.

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Eventually, another continent

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loomed on the horizon; it was Asia.

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Then about 50 million years ago

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the Rocky continents of India
and Asia finally collided.

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There rocks crunched and buckled upward.

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The Himalayas were born

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or so the theory headed.

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The Kohistan rock samples Qasim Jan was
bringing back to Peshawar University

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told a different story.

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Around Nanga Parbat things
were not so straightforward.

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We started geological
investigations in the Kohistan area

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and within three or four years time,

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we started realizing that the type of
rocks that we found in the Kohistan

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were not typical of the continental crust

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of the Indian plate to the South.
Now with the Kohistan rocks

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typical of the Asian plate to the north.

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So where did these rocks come from?
More studies led to

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a fascinating finding.

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Subsequent geochemical studies
showed that indeed several rocks

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in the Kohistan region had
closer similarities with those

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found in an island arc.
Islands in the Himalayas.

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An island Arc is a string
of volcanic islands

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lined up in the ocean. How did
rocks from volcanic islands

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wind up on top of the Himalayas.
A thousand miles from any ocean.

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[music]

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If this discovery that
come ten years earlier;

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it would have been tremendously
puzzling but new theories

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about plate tectonics provided an
elegant explanation for Kohistan.

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About a 120 million years ago,

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as India drew close to Asia;

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a chain of volcanoes erupted
on the ocean floor.

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This was the Kohistan island arc.

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When the Indian continent crushed
into Asia, the Kohistan island arc

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was matched between them.
Eventually, the islands called

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back on top of India and
that was the rocky ground

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where Qasim Jan was doing his mapping.

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With this geologic story has seen
filled in a large part of his maps

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blank spot but poking up in the
middle of the Kohistan island arc

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remained the gigantic mountain Nanga Parbat

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still as big a riddle as ever.
What was it doing there?

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[sil.]

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The pioneering work of Qasim Jan

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and his colleagues created worldwide
interest in Nanga Parbat.

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It caught the attention of an American
geomorphologist named Jack Shroder

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(inaudible)

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that will go around the
corner and (inaudible).

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Jack had been working for years in
the nearby HinduKush of Afghanistan.

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Now he\'s set up camp on the
flanks of Nanga Parbat.

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There was something contradictory
about the mountain

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that fascinated him.

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Jack had noticed right away that

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Nanga Parbat was being eroded extremely
quickly yet the mountain was

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still so very high. The only way
that both things could be true

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was if Nanga Parbat were actually growing

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and not only growing but growing
extraordinarily quickly;

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reasons for the mountains rapid erosion

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soon became obvious to Jack.
Nanga Parbat is eroding so fast

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because it sticks up in the air
is a huge knife-edge ridge.

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All out alone in front
of the Himalaya cuts off

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the southeast monsoon rains that
pouring across India and it catches

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the westerly rains in the winter snows
that come in from the Mediterranean area.

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So it has an enormous quantity or
precipitation that comes to it.

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There is an enormous
collection of snow and rain

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on this mountain that pours off the slopes
makes huge glaciers, makes landslides

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and a whole lot falls down in the valleys below and
then we have one of the mightiest rivers in the world,

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the Indus river which goes it all
down and dumps it into the ocean.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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The rivets were what really
impressed Jack Shroder.

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Their appetite for Nanga
Parbat was ferocious.

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Streams captured all winter

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in the thick ice the glaciers
broke that chains in summertime

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and swell the rivers to
an amazing (inaudible)

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like frantic beats they hold themselves
down the mountain through narrow gorges.

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[music]

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In places they seem to lose their bearings

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and churn backwards. It was
as though entire oceans

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had been forced into the riverbeds.

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These were the wildest rivers on Earth
and they were amazingly colorful.

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The color of the rivers in the
Himalaya is very striking the people

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when you first see them in it but it tells us
exactly what\'s what the rivers running through

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
what it\'s eroding; the grayish rivers

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
are filled with rock flour which is coming from
the glaciers. So wherever you see gray water

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
it\'s coming directly out of
the ice the clear rivers

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
the blue rivers come in from
snow melt and the brown rivers

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
coming out from snow avalanches
loose-snow avalanches.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
That is rather read and full of pine
needles and other things like that.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
[music]

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
The rivers have sculpted Nanga Parbat,

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
they\'re responsible for its steep
cliffs which attract mountain climates

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
from all over the world,

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
climbers have nicknamed it killer
mountain with the 50 people who have died

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
trying to reach the summit.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
The first person to make it to the top was
the Austrian Herrmann (inaudible) in 1953

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
a month after the first successful
ascent of Mount Everest.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Like the mountain climbers

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Jack Shroder ran into a host of problems
in the harsh environment of Nanga Parbat.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
This is one of the toughest
places to work I\'ve ever been in

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
it\'s very very difficult it\'s a physical
environment that\'s extremely challenging.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
People are trying to rest of living

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
off these unforgiving rocks. They pasture
their animals up over 15,000 feet

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
in the summertime. They live here under the snow
in the winter time, there\'s seven months of snow.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
It\'s a real tough place to work.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:53.000
[sil.]

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
The problems of course in
the Himalayas are legendary

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
and most people know about mountain climber problems
up on the high ice. We don\'t actually ever grew up

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
on the high ice because all the day they are
down lower but it\'s a pretty tough place

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
and you\'re gonna fall off things and and you can get
caught in landslide and the roads are horrible;

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
we\'re afraid for our lives in many cases because
of falling rocks. There are earthquakes here

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
several times a year it\'s a very tough
environment to work in but it\'s also

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
a beautiful natural environment and a tremendous
geological laboratories. So, we\'re also excited

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
to work here even though it\'s difficult.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
In spite of the problems

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Jack Shroder, like Qasim Jan and Arnaud
Pecher would return to the Himalayas

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
year after year. He brought with
him students and colleagues

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
from the University of Nebraska in Omaha.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
It\'s wonderful to be in the
Himalayas; it\'s a beautiful place.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
It\'s also a very buried place it\'s not all
the same you see so many different things.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
I\'ve enjoyed every minute.
It\'s a very dynamic place

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
and extremely interesting
for geology right now.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
Both these over in here is
glacial tilt they came down

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
it actually slid off earlier than a
glacier came in here deposited this tilt

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
probably cleaned off the bedrock in this
area reasonably and it\'s since then

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
taken 9 cubic kilometers of rock
out of this bowl-shaped area

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
and drop it into the river down there and forced
the channel of the river real narrow which is

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
where we start rushing through.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
What Jack and his crew didn\'t
know was that their studies of

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
how Nanga Parbat was being eroded down
would be the key to solving the problem

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
of how the mountain was rising up;
they set about measuring erosion.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
Many erosion processes exist
here but the big ones

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
are landslides glaciers and rivers.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
Basically we try to catch the process,
the erosion process in action

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
and we try to measure the
amount of solid sediment

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
the gravels and the sands and silts that
is rolling along these fire hose rivers.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
It\'s not an easy job because
these rivers are very dangerous

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
and in fact of our graduate
students went for swim in a river

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
that normally would stay a long way away from him
to survive but it was touch and go for a while.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000
[music]

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
Parts of the mountains

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
such as the upper reaches of glaciers
were to treacherous to measure on boat.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
So Jack Shroder\'s colleague Michael Bishop
figured out a hi-tech way to do it.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
He used satellite data

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
to examine the mountain from space.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
This is great idea.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
[sil.]

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
Basically we\'re trying to
get a locational effects

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
trying to find out where we are on the earth surface latitude
and longitude coordinates to find out what our elevation is

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
and also to find out what the
reflectance characteristics are of

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
this glacial tilt that\'s at this particular
location and then we\'ll also be able to make

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
reference to those
services right over there.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
Measuring glacial erosion is crucial.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Glaciers are perhaps the most
powerful force attacking Nanga Parbat

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
as they slide down the mountain

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
their sides tear-off soil and rocks and
debris, so vigorously that the materials fall

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
on top of the glaciers themselves.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
The result is the distinctly
Himalayan glacier. It\'s top dug

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
with a heavy covering of
rocks sand, mud and sticks.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
[music]

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
The preliminary data was eye-opening.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
Nanga Parbat was being eroded
faster than anyone had expected.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
Faster perhaps than any
other mountain on earth.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
If the findings were confirmed
it meant that to keep pace

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
with erosion; the mountain had to also
be growing at a world record rate.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
[music]

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
Jack badly wanted to know how
fast the mountain was growing

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
but measuring how fast
mountains grow fell outside

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
of Jack\'s expertise. For that kind
of information it have to wait

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
for a rare type of geologists to look
at Nanga Parbat a geochronologist.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
[sil.]

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
[music]

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
Fortunately at Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
there was a geochronologist who had been drawn
to Nanga Parbat by its unsolved mysteries.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Peter Zeitler was a
keeper of geologic time.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
Someone who could pinpoint the
moment in time a rock would form.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
Even if it was millions of years ago.
Peter\'s time machine was

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
a mass spectrometer which gave him the actual
ages of rocks gathered at Nanga Parbat.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
To help him figure out

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
how fast Nanga Parbat was growing Peter
enlisted an old friend from Dartmouth College,

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
a petrologist named Page Chamberlain.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
(inaudible). Lines actually
great I fix the (inaudible).

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
[sil.]

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
I spent my PhD working on the Appalachians
which was the old eroded mountain belt

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
and it was; you know it was
a good training ground

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
and in 1985 I got a call from Peter Zeitler;
he wanted me to come over to the Himalayas

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
and he get that opportunity you take it
and when I went over there it was just

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
it was amazing I mean I mean it\'s
geological Mecca because I\'d worked

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
on these old mountain belts. It was so far eroded
that they really didn\'t have the mountains anymore

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
and here are these just gigantic peaks 20,000
plus and the real beauty of it wasn\'t;

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
it wasn\'t so much just me; I\'m assuming peaks
but all the processes that form mountain belts

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
are occurring today in Himalayas
and that\'s why it\'s so unique.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
Page Chamberlain and Peter Zeitler expected

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
the rocks of the Himalayas to date
back to the time of the big collision

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
about 40 to 50 million years ago.
Peter Zeitler and I

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
started working at K2 and we went to K2
we didn\'t find out that many surprises;

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
the rocks are relatively old; 40 million
years or so but the real surprise came

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
when we came to Nanga Parbat
and we had predicted that

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
it should be 40 to 50 million years old which is
the time of the major collision and so we made it

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
a bunch of bats that bears and all that sort of thing
and then you\'re sitting around the mass spectrometers

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
waiting for information to come off and what
we found out was the granites that were

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
two million years old and which was a very big surprise
because there isn\'t anything like this in the Himalayas.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
Of course anytime there\'s a surprise in
science, it\'s good, it\'s great thing to know.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
More analysis was done

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
using the world\'s most
advanced iron micro probes.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
They revealed that some of the rocks
were as young as one million years old

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
that made Nanga Parbat far younger

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
than most mountains on the planet.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
To put this in an interesting perspective

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
at least for geologist is that the
vast Nanga Parbat are unusual,

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
they very very young. The processes, the mountains
themselves had been sculpted very recently

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
and depending on how you define
what our ancestors seen on earth.

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
Certainly, early forms of (inaudible)
several million years ago;

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
they are walking around on the surface while
the rocks at Nanga Parbat that we see today

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
and the glaciers and the landforms didn\'t
exist. So several million years ago

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
there was no Nanga Parbat as we know it.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
[sil.]

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Analyzing the young rocks of Nanga
Parbat Page Chamberlain determined

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
how much pressure there had been under and
how hot they had been when they formed.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
Combining this information
with the age of the rocks,

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
Page figured out that they had formed
deep down in the about ten miles down.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
[music]

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
This meant something

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
that was hard to believe; it meant
that the rocks which had hardened

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
from molten material had been
pushed up at least ten miles

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
in only one or two million years that
worked out to an average of about

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
a quarter of an inch per year. An
astounding growth rate for a mountain.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
In fact the world record.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
That gave us an uplift rate which was
astronomical by any geological time

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
now those aren\'t things we\'d sit around you jump out of
the way the mountain. Because it\'s coming up too quickly

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
or if it stops you\'ll fly off the top of it
but for geology times it\'s much much faster

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
than many many rates otherwise.
Like an order of magnitude faster.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:38.000
[music]

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
This new discovery deepen the mystery
of Nanga Parbat even further;

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
what was behind the
mountains phenomenal growth

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
and how could it be growing so fast

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
when it was being ferociously
attacked by erosion.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
It didn\'t add up. Meanwhile

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
a new piece of evidence suggesting
that Nanga Parbat was not growing fast

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
after all. Villages led the geologists

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
to hot springs on the mountain.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
These were a good indication

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
that there could be a large pool
of magma beneath Nanga Parbat.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
The magma pool which might be
fairly close to the surface

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
could be subjecting the rocks around it to
the kind of heat ordinarily experienced

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
by rocks located many miles deeper.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
It\'s, so the million year old rocks Peter
and Page had identified could have formed

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
much closer to the surface which would
mean that they didn\'t have so far

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
to rise up in the course of a million
years and the mountain wasn\'t growing

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
so fast after all.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
[sil.]

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
Peter Zeitler had to find the
magma pool below Nanga Parbat.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
Again a highly specialized
geologist was needed

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
for the task. This time a seismologist.
We take a cross-section

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
along here we can look at
where the epicenters locate

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
at depth. Luckily for Peter

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
seismologist Anne Meltzer were
just down the hall at Lehigh.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
There are ways that we can actually
look deep inside the earth

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
and tease out little bits of information that tell us
about how the earth works, its structure and its history.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
The surface of the earth where we live is
really just a very small part of the earth.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
It\'s just a thin veneer. And
actually all the action is going on

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
down inside the Earth.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
[sil.]

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
Anne\'s idea was to use earthquakes

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
to look for the magma pool
beneath Nanga Parbat.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
It was well-known that villages like
(inaudible) close to the mountain

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
had been hit by devastating earthquakes.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
You basically can use the
earthquake energy to image

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
the interior of the earth just
like people use CAT scan to image

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
the interior of your body. If there is a
large pool of magma beneath the mountain,

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
those energy waves are going to slow
down as they move through that material

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
or in some cases there\'s energy that won\'t
actually propagate through the magma.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
[sil.]

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
But doing a seismology
experiment at Nanga Parbat

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
was a risky proposition. Nothing
like it had ever been attempted

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
in such remote rugged terrain.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Undaunted, Anne and Peter

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
decide to tackle all the lingering
mysteries at Nanga Parbat

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
with one large international
effort a number of the scientists

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
and their students will travel to
Pakistan to join Qasim Jan, Arnaud Pecher

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
and Jack Shroder in the
field they give themselves

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
three years and the latest technology
to find out if Nanga Parbat

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
really is the world\'s fastest
growing mountain and why?

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
[sil.]

00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:03.000
[music]

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
The dusty Himalayan town of Gilgith is the
scientist space while they work at Nanga Parbat.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
Gilgith is and has been for centuries,

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
an important trading center
on the old Silk Road

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
and the new Karakoram highway.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
But the scientists spend little time here.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:43.000
[sil.]

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
Anne is busy surrounding Nanga
Parbat with seismometers.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
These instruments will give Anne a good reading
of the earthquakes that rattle the mountain.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
Seismometer is a sensitive instrument

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
that actually records ground motion
so when an earthquake occurs,

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
energy actually propagates or moves through the
earth and when that energy passes by the machine

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
and actually causes a very small amount of ground motion
and machines very sensitive and it picks that up.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
[sil.]

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
The primary cause of earthquakes in this area
is continental collision. Asia and India

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
began colliding some 50 to 60 million years ago
but this collision is actually still going on

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
and as these continents collide the
rocks tend to deform and they deform

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
by two different mechanisms they can either
fold or exceptionally bend or they break,

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
break along a fault and this is what causes
earthquakes when rocks actually break.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
[sil.]

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
Surrounding Nanga Parbat has proven

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
extremely difficult. Roads
out of Gilgith are narrow

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
and terribly rotted. They hand out
over seemingly bottomless reveals.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
One false move here and the Jeep will fly

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
right off the road.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
Mike and Chris two students
from Anne Meltzer group

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
are heading to Tarshing, a tiny village
not far from several seismometers

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
they put in place a few weeks ago
but to get there from Gilgith,

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
they have to pass close to
the disputed Kashmir border.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:40.000
There\'s fighting here and the wrong
term could put them in danger.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
[non-English narration]

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
Finally Mike and Chris have
arrived safely in Tarshing

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
to check on their seismometers. Now
they must negotiate for porters

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
to carry their heavy equipment
in and out of the back country.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
Hiring porters is a fine
art and the students rely

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:15.000
on their guide to negotiate for them.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
In small village like this where wages are
hard to come by the outcome is important

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
to the villages. Okay, so
we\'ll go pack up our bags.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
[music]

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
To get to the first instrument
the expedition picks its way

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
across the Tarshing glacier.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
Crossing glacier would be impossible, were it
not for it\'s thick cover of dirt and rocks.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
The strategy is that we\'ve
deployed the instrument\'s

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
trying to space some and equally
possible surrounding Nanga Parbat,

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
there are approximately five
kilometers apart each instrument

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
and usually they\'re near
villagers shepherd types.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
So we can have somebody watch over and then
we hire somebody to keep an eye on them

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
and they construct fences or
construct shelters instruments.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
[sil.]

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Mike and Chris are relieved to find

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
their first seismometer is still where they left
it hidden in brambles to keep the goats away.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
[sil.]

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
The sense from it we\'re just tracking down
we\'re gonna download the data from it

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
and has 982 earthquakes
that have been recorded

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
in the last 20-25 days and they\'re
probably not all earthquakes.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
It also measures rocks falling
down, go to walking by

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
children throwing rocks at the instrument.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
[sil.]

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
Their first instrument checked Mike
and Chris head off for the next one.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
They\'ve put out a nut seismometers to
detect the magma pool below the mountain

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
if there is one. But they\'ll
have to wait to find out.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
The mountain of information
they\'re collecting will take

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
two years to process.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
Meanwhile the rivers around Nanga Parbat
are the scene of intense activity

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
to figure out how fast
Nanga Parbat is eroding;

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
Peshawar University geologists are
sampling the rivers that drained.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
Mixed in with the water is
sediment that\'s been ripped

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
from the mountain; analyzing
the samples will tell them

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
how much sediment the mountain is shedding.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
[sil.]

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
On the banks of the raging
Indus, geochronology students

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
are collecting rock samples for dating.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
Their advisor Peter Zeitler

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
wants to analyze enough rocks to be sure the
mountain really is as young as he first thought.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
[sil.]

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
A few miles away structural
geology students

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
are working right where the Himalayas
make their turn at Nanga Parbat;

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
their measurements are of particular
interest to Arnaud Pecher who\'s convinced

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Nanga Parbat really is growing fast.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
After years of work Arnaud is just
about ready to put forth his ideas.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
Arnaud has been hold up

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
here at Pakistan\'s Geological
Survey in Islamabad.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
He and his colleagues have collected rooms
for the data that support their new theory

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
in the Map Room, the data is transferred

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
to a geologic map;

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
the more information they add to the map
the more it becomes evident to Arnaud

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
that Nanga Parbat position trapped
in the bend of the Himalayas

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
puts it in a place where it
can grow exceptionally fast.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
Arnaud has worked out geometrically

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
that when the Indian plate crashed
into Asia a sideways force added

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
to the head on force to push
Nanga Parbat out of the ground.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
(inaudible) by mountains bending around it

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
Nanga Parbat was squeezed up fast
like toothpaste being squeezed up

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
out of the tube.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
But there\'s one problem

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
with that idea, rocks
collected around Nanga Parbat

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
by Qasim Jan\'s group showed
that 10 million years ago

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
tens of thousands of feet of Kohistan
island of rock we\'re sitting

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
on top of Nanga Parbat the mountain could not
have arisen so fast with all of that rock

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
weighing it down.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
When Jack Shroder hears 10 million years
ago, something clicks in his mind.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
At one time

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
the Indus river flowed toward Afghanistan.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
But 10 million years ago the
reverse course began to change

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
the ongoing collision of India and Asia

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
folded the Kohistan rocks in the vicinity
of Nanga Parbat creating a depression.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
The river turned down this new low road

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
taking rocks and soil with it.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
For the next 10 million years, the Indus
scraped away the heavy Kohistan cap,

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
lightning the burden on Nanga
Parbat and letting it rise faster

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
once through Kohistan,

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
the river began to know at the emerging
Nanga Parbat making the mountain lighter

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
and even more mobile.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
The notion that a river can
actually help a mountain road

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
is a radical new concept.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
Traditionally it was thought that the mountains growth
was strictly a matter of forces deep in the Earth

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
pushing it up

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
but the Indus River is not just any river.
It\'s erosive powers

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
are unusually thin.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
Fortunately the ravages of
the river can be explored

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
via this computer model created by Jack
Shroder\'s colleague Michael Bishop.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
The virtual Nanga Parbat
allows the scientist

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
to travel risk-free to even the most
inaccessible parts of the mountain

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
and measure erosion. A chunk
of the mountain is selected

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
and the precise amount of dirt and rock eroded
away can be calculated by the computer.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
[music]

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
Jack Shroder\'s efforts pale.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
His team\'s results show that the Indus
River has indeed been eroding material

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
off Nanga Parbat at a spectacular rate

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
easily fast enough to allow the
mountain to rise up in record time.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
[sil.]

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
The evidence is leaning toward Nanga Parbat

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
being the world\'s fastest growing mountain. But
Anne Meltzer\'s earthquake data is not in yet.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
Will it show a magma pool
beneath the mountain or not.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
If the pool is there,

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
the elegant theories developed by the
Nanga Parbat team are in serious trouble.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
After two years of processing

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
Anne\'s computer displays the data

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
below the hot springs there\'s
a flurry of earthquakes

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
and major earthquake activity is
centered directly beneath the summit

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
but is there anything to indicate
the presence of a magma pool.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
[music]

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
One thing that our work showed

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
with recording the earthquakes and the energy that
they generate is that there really is no evidence

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
for a large magma body
beneath Nanga Parbat.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:33.000
[music]

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
With the magma pools theory

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
put to rest the scientists
feel confident that

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Nanga Parbat is indeed the fastest
growing mountain known on earth.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
A mountain that grew so high within the
short span of our own human history.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
[music]

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
And that\'s not all
geologists have come closer

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
to solving the mystery of
what can make a mountain grow

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
by studying Nanga Parbat,
they\'ve discovered that

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
mountains can grow not in spite of the
ferocious erosion tearing them down

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
but because of it. You might think
it\'s ironic but Nanga Parbat,

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
the force that we often think takes
them away from us as erosion

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
is actually causing them to grow but
really what we\'ve figured out is that

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
erosion of rocks; rivers
carry weight debris and dirt

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
can actually make a big difference in
how the whole crust layer develops

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
that understanding is really a new idea
that a lot of people are thinking about

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
and it\'s going to be in the textbooks. So.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:08.000
[music]

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
Meanwhile Nanga Parbat, the naked
mountain has been revealed

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
or has it

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
as any good geologists knows
uncovering one of Earth secrets

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
leaves many more beneath it.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
Even when detailed studies are performed

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
in the long run I\'m sure that we wouldn\'t
have studied more than about 15% of the area

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
of Nanga Parbat and with that kind of coverage that
obviously would be several question remaining.

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
So, Qasim Jan\'s quest

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
is not over even though his
path has taken a new turn.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
He\'s now the president
of Peshawar University,

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
he hasn\'t forgotten his professors words
about filling the blank spot on the map.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
He was right. I am
therefore almost 30 years

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
and I have barely scratched
it and I would love

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
to be associated with Nanga
Parbat until I passed away.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:35.000
[music]

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:30.000
Funding for this program was provided
by the National Science Foundation.