Rainbow colored mountains may seem unnatural, but they actually exist. The Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park- one place with such mountains in north central China- took form millions of years ago.
It all began with the
lithosphere
. The lithosphere is the layer of Earth that is divided into large plates that are always moving. It caused the plates of India and Asia to collide. This collision, which took place 50 million years ago, caused the Earth to shift upwards, thus creating the mountain range.
Over time, erosion of the rocks helped form new layers on top of the previous ones. Wind, water, and erosion caused them to change colors and create different colored layers.
The mountains have layers of colors kind of like layers to a cake. The layers of rock are called
strata
. The first layer was formed by erosion 24 million years ago.
Cooler yet is that the mountains are not done changing. In another 20 million years, they will look completely different than they do now.
[Source:
National Geographic Kids
]
