Continents Collide: The Appalachians and the Himalayas
January 14, 2012 - May 20, 2012
View in the fall southward from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesville, NC
Summit of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world (8850 meters above sea level), as viewed from Rongbuk valley, Tibet
Tilted layers of gneiss in the Chattooga River, GA-SC
Metamorphic rocks injected by lighter granite veins on a vertical cliff with glacial ice above and below, near Cho La pass (5300 m) in region southwest of Mount Everest
Curated by Professor and Distinguished Scientist Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. and Assistant Professor Micah Jessup, both from UT's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the exhibition focuses on the formation of mountain ranges and the forces that continually alter them. Our own beautiful landscapes of East Tennessee and western North Carolina, part of the Appalachian Mountains, whose genesis was more than 250 million years ago, is one focus of the exhibit; the other is the striking and rugged Himalaya Mountains, the much younger and still rising result of tectonic movements, the global effects of which we learn about often in the news.
Introducing the subject in the gallery will be a fifteen minute video, created by award-winning producer Steve Dean (the Heartland Series) and featuring views of a number of sites in the Blue Ridge and Smokies sections of the Appalachians as well as original images of Himalayan locales and the Tibetan plateau. The dynamics of plate tectonics and processes of erosion are explained in animated segments.
Breathtaking as the surface topography may be, the exhibit will also delve into the structure of the respective ranges, as that is where the keys to the how and the why may be found. Three-dimensional maps, video animations, and of course, rocks will show visitors how we know what we know, and perhaps give viewers a new way to look at the world as well as the landscape around them. The past, the present, and the tectonic future await.
The Museum is grateful to the sponsors of Continents Collide: The Appalachians and the Himalayas, including the Raoul and Marie L. Verhagen Museum Fund, UTK Ready for the World International and Intercultural Awareness Initiative, The Trust Company, Cobble Family Foundation, C. Howard Capito, Robert S. Young, the Wildcat Cove Foundation, and Tengasco, Inc.