Are the Himalayas still growing and if so, how fast

A. Yes, these mountains, of which Everest is part, are still growing as the Earth's continents move, pushing India further north and The Himalayas even higher. The Himalayas are growing about an inch each year as a result of this process.

Q. What are the Himalayas made of

A. The rocks that make up the Himalayan Mountains actually used to be an ancient sea floor. Rocks and soil from mountains in India and Asia were washed into a shallow sea and deposited on its bottom over millions of years. After even more millions of years this sediment built up and the pressure of it compacted the underlying material into rock.

Eventually, around 40 million years ago, this solidified sea floor was forced upwards, a process known as 'uplifting', as the plate that India is part of was shunted into southwest Asia.

Q. Is Everest, in the Himalayas the world's biggest mountain

A. Strictly speaking, no. Mount Everest does hold a world record, but not as the biggest mountain. Everest is the highest elevation on land, but it is only a single peak in an entire mountain range. Mauna Loa is a single mountain on the island of Hawaii.

Only about 13,448 feet of Mauna Loa are above sea level, so it may not seem like a very tall mountain. But, when you start measuring Mauna Loa from its true base on the bottom of the ocean, in the Hawaiian Trough, it's actually almost a mile higher than Everest.

Q. Is it true that the world's longest mountain range is in the sea

A. Yes, the mid Atlantic Ridge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, stretches for 10,000 miles from Iceland to the Antarctic Circle. This is in comparison to the longest range above the waves,

The Andes, which, at only 4,500 miles long, don't even stretch for half the distance covered by The mid Atlantic Ridge.

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by Lisa Cardy