Last month’s blog looked at the effect of erosion (both natural and man-made) upon mountainscapes and indeed on our lives, as negative or tumultuous experiences leave parts of us exposed and vulnerable.
In the final blog in this series on mountains, I’m going to look at collision – some mountain ranges (usually the highest ones such as the Himalayas) are formed when the Earth’s tectonic plates crash together and the edges are forced upwards. Tectonic plates are also at work under the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes causing land masses to crash together, and at other times causing them to separate.
At various periods in the past, the Earth's geography has been very different to what it is today. Continents have united and moved apart, and then regrouped in other ways. Oceans have appeared and disappeared. Because of the movements, places that are now part of the present-day continents may once have been at very different latitudes, and may even have been linked to very different areas. Studies of plate tectonics tell us that Ireland once had a very different setting within world geography. In fact, some 450 million years ago north-west Ireland belonged to a landmass that is now mainly in North America, whereas the rest of Ireland lay beyond an ocean several thousand miles to the south. The two parts of Ireland finally merged about 400 million years ago when the separating ocean closed and the two plates collided. The impact of that prolonged collision is still evident in Ireland today, being expressed in the way mountains over much of the island, display(ing) long axes that trend north-east to south-west - a direction that reflects the line along which the plates clashed.
These great long-time shifts in plate relations now provide the framework within which the geology of Ireland is studied. As well as mountain-building, the impact of plate tectonics is expressed in earthquakes and in the faulting or fracturing of the earth's crust.
Things happen in our own lives – sometimes seen and sometimes without our knowing it – that set the scene for massive and lasting changes in how we feel and experience things. Sometimes the shifting of the “tectonic plates” we are standing on and feel safe on is sudden, such as a forced move to a new area, job loss, bereavement etc. and at other times the movement is happening slowly but steadily over time, such as the breaking down of a relationship or health issues. Before we know it, we are colliding with a new reality or separated from what we thought was going to last forever.
COVID is probably the event that has affected more people than anything else in recent years, some in a challenging but quite minor way; others have had their lives and relationships turned upside down by this microscopic virus. We all have more personal shifts in our lives, some of which we choose to share and others we keep private. Nevertheless, the new landscapes that are thrown up in our lives become the new normal quicker than we expect – as human beings, we can adapt and make the most of change like few other creatures…at least if we are well enough and have the right support.
Please do reach out if this post touches something in your situation; please share with someone if you are struggling to navigate the upheavals and collision in your life at the moment; please remember that the new horizon ahead of you will soon become familiar as long as you keep moving.
Until next time, please share this blog with anyone you think it might be of value to…and let’s keep learning...
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