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For millions of years global climate change has altered the structure and internal movement of mountain ranges, but the resulting glacial development and erosion can in turn change a mountain’s local climate. The degree of this cause-and-effect relationship has never been clearly observed, until now.
Based on research led by the University of Cincinnati in the St. Elias Mountain Range—located along the Pacific coastal region of North America—the way a mountain range moves and behaves topographically can also change and create its local climate by redirecting wind and precipitation. The repercussions of these changes can in turn, accelerate the erosion and tectonic seismic activity of that mountain range. Based on the researcher’s findings, it shows clear evidence for a strong relationship between global and local climate change and a mountain’s internal tectonic plate shifts and topographic changes.Image credit: Provided by Eva Enklemann, University of Cincinnati
