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In Geology, the phenomenon
of folding is a recently discovered fact. Folding is responsible for the
formation of mountain ranges. The earths crust, on which we live, is like a
solid shell, while the deeper layers are hot and fluid, and thus
inhospitable to any form of life. It is also known that the stability of
the mountains is linked to the phenomenon of folding, for it was the folds
that were to provide foundations for the relief that constitute the
mountains. Geologists tell us that the radius of the Earth is about 3,750
miles and the crust on which we live is very thin, ranging between 1 to 30
miles. Since the crust is thin, it has a high possibility of shaking.
Mountains act like stakes or tent pegs that hold the earths crust and give
it stability. The Quraan contains exactly such a description in the
following verse:
Have We not
made The earth as a wide Expanse, And the mountains as pegs? [Al-Quraan
78:6-7]
The word awtad
means stakes or pegs (like those used to anchor a tent); they are the deep
foundations of geological folds. A book named Earth is considered as a
basic reference textbook on geology in many universities around the world.
One of the authors of this book is Frank Press, who was the President of
the Academy of Sciences in the USA for 12 years and was the Science Advisor
to former US President Jimmy Carter. In this book he illustrates the
mountain in a wedge-shape and the mountain itself as a small part of the
whole, whose root is deeply entrenched in the ground. According to Dr.
Press, the mountains play an important role in stabilizing the crust of the
earth.
The Quraan
clearly mentions the function of the mountains in preventing the earth from
shaking:
And We have set
on the earth Mountains standing firm, Lest it should shake with them.
[Al-Quraan 21:31]
The Quraanic
descriptions are in perfect agreement with modern geological data.
Mountains Firmly Fixed
The surface of
the earth is broken into many rigid plates that are about 100 km in
thickness. These plates float on a partially molten region called
aesthenosphere. Mountain formations occur at the boundary of the plates.
The earths crust is 5 km thick below oceans, about 35 km thick below flat
continental surfaces and almost 80 km thick below great mountain ranges.
These are the strong foundations on which mountains stand. The Quraan also
speaks about the strong mountain foundations in the following verse:
And the
mountains Hath He firmly fixed. [Al-Quraan 79:32]
(*A similar message is
contained in the Qur'aan in 88:19, 31:10 and 16:15)
(* Earth, Press and Siever, p. 435. Also see Earth Science,
Tarbuck and Lutgens, p. 157.)
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