MOUNTAINS BENEATH OUR FEET

FAR BELOW THE SURFACE, THE EARTH'S MANTLE IS CHURNING HEAT, MOVING CONTINENTS, SPARKING QUAKES, AND EVEN LIFTING THE HIMALAYAS, ENSURING THAT THE PLANET IS ANYTHING BUT STILL

- HRITHIK KIRAN BAGADE

WHEN one stands before the towering peaks of the Himalayas, gazing skyward at their snow-laced summits, it is natural to marvel at their sheer scale and beauty.

But the true grandeur of the Earth's mountains does not begin at the surface, nor does it end at the ridgelines we can see. Far beneath the crust we tread upon lies a lesser-known world-a landscape of titanic forces, slow convulsions, and even, quite astonishingly, mountains of a very different kind. Within the Earth's mantle, beyond the reach of sunlight or storm, hidden mountains rise and fall, reshaping the planet in profound ways. Their story is one that remains largely invisible, but is integral to the very existence of ranges like the Himalayas.

To understand these subterranean mountains, one must first appreciate the mantle itself. The Earth's structure is layered like an onion. Beneath the crust-our thin and fragile outer shell-lies the mantle, an immense zone of rock stretching down some 2,900 km to the outer core.