they say that gravity causes the planets to be round, if so over millions of years will the mountains go flat?

Question

they say that gravity and errosion causes the planets to be round. so over millions of years will the mountains start to fade away, eventually going flat. like one flat round planet? i know you smart people know some facts.

Answer 1

It is not the rotation of the earth that will render mountains flat, but the work of water and wind against the mountains. As water flows down a mountain side, it carries with it, over extremely long periods of time (hundreds of millions of years) bits and pieces of rock from that mountain. Wind does the same thing. However, it is the force of gravity that makes water flow downhill, so if you look at it that way, gravity does, however indirectly, cause mountains to erode into flatness.

But, even as mountains are being eroded, they are also being built. Plate tectonics pushes continents into each other and in the process builds mountains like the Himalayas. So, no, the earth will never be completely flat. Unless of course plate tectonics stops and the terrain of the earth is flattened by erosion. There is some speculation that this is what happened to Mars.

Answer 2

Yes and no. Mountains are structurally strong enough to hold themselves up without collapsing, just like buildings are. Gravity alone usually won't flatten them.

However, wind, water, and other erosive agents do flatten mountains over time. The Appalachians were as high as the Himalayas back before the dinosaurs, they aren't any more. And there are even older mountain ranges that have been totally eroded away and can now be identified only by geologists.

If you stopped plate tectonics for long enough (maybe 200 million years or so) all the mountains would indeed be eroded away. You wouldn't get a perfectly flat planet: the continental cratons and ocean basins will still be there, but there would be no high mountains anymore. The continents would be nothing but heavily eroded arid tableland.

Of course realistically if plate tectonics stopped it would mean the mantle was solidifying, and when that happens the magnetic field of the Earth is going to diminish as the core cools and what happened to Mars will happen to us. Solar wind erosion will strip away much of the atmosphere, the planet will become too cold for liquid water, and this means without water erosion will slow dramatically. Mars hasn't had much in the way of plate tectonics for something like two billion years and it still has high mountains.

Answer 3

Planets are shaped in a sphere because it is the most efficient way gravity can act on other particles. Erosion doesn't have much to do with it.

Over time, some mountains will erode away. However, since there is so much volcanic activity and plate tectonics happening, new mountains are being built all the time.

As a matter of fact, Mt. Everest is gradually getting taller, due to plate tectonics. The huge land mass that crashed into another and created the Himalyas is still moving.

Answer 4

Spinning around does not reason planets to be around. If a device of debris is close sufficient and massive sufficient, they might have sufficient mutual charm to collect at the same time. A sphere is a three dimensional state of equilibrium, so a very great mass will sort something like a ball over the years. additionally, products in area are concern to collisions, inflicting imperfections. additionally, planetary bodies rotating around an axis tend to bulge alongside their equators. Earth working example, is incredibly flat on the poles.

Answer 5

There is constant uplift of the Earth's crust as plates collide and roll over one another.

At one time, the mountains in the eastern US, the Appalachians, were as high as the Alps today. In millions of years, the Himalayas might be small hills and future cockroachmen mountaineers look to North Africa for challenges.

Answer 6

these ones will yes, but new mountains will be formed again. the canadian shield, and the appalachian mountains are two examples of worn down moutains. the rockies are fairly new as are the himalayas

Answer 7

I think the tectonic plates will prevent that from happening. Just my guess though.