Trango Tower

[Ubiq]

Could the Trango Tower simple be a solidified magma plug pushed up by pressurized magma under it?

[GaryN]

Hi Ubiq,
Looking at the feature from 10 miles altitude on Google maps, the whole region takes on a very dendritic look, very electrical, IMO. (You will have to zoom out the map.)

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13413402

[Steve Smith]

Zane Parker recently reminded me that his CRT experiments produce "towers":

http://cybertrails.com/~zrwoaz/reflectioncheck7.html
http://cybertrails.com/~zrwoaz/reflectioncheck8.html

I mentioned in the article why I don't think they're plutons -- what Ubiq called a "magma plug."

[Ubiq]

The [url2=http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input? ... ,76.183333]mountain range of the Trango Towers[/url2] is an area where the Eurasian plate pushes against the Indian plate causing wrinkling of a [url2=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/str ... wnload.php]thicker than average crust[/url2]. Although this could be created by electrical activity, I don't see any evidence of pitting or cratering, as shown in the links provided by Steve and planetary images of craters. Also, the formation of spidering channels in the geographic aerial images are more consistent with erosion caused by melting snow because sedimentation from erosion can be seen in the river valleys in the images of the link provided by GaryN.

[mharratsc]

It would be interesting to see rock sample data from the Tower and compare it to the composition of the surrounding hillsides. The reason why I bring that up is- that sucker looks a whole lot like a fulgurite to me!

It is much taller than most of the surrounding strata that I could see, and the bases of the surrounding strata look much more eroded and sloped than the tower does- almost as if it isn't eroding at that same rate as the surrounding terrain. That would be characteristic of a fulgurite as it changes it's physical composition under the extreme electrical charge from a lightning bolt.

Just a thought.