Mondo Knows Facts
Ethiopian highlands were lifted by a hot mantle
A rising plume of hot rock domed the crust upward and set off widespread volcanism The highlands form Africa's largest continuous elevated area, with Ras Dashen reaching about 4,550 metres. Because the plateau is high and cool, it catches rain that feeds the Blue Nile. The same uplift helped open the rift that is slowly splitting the region apart. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
The Danakil Depression is one of the hottest and lowest places on EarthLocated in northern Ethiopia, the Danakil Depression sits 125 metres below sea level.Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains in the worldOverlooking Cape Town in South Africa, Table Mountain summit plateau is estimated to be 300 million years old.The Andes form the longest continental mountain range on EarthStretching over 7,000 kilometres along South America west coast, the Andes pass through seven countries.The Zagros folds contain buried salt domesAncient seawater salts rose through the crumpling rock and pushed up rounded domesIndia colliding with Asia raised the HimalayaThe impact crumpled crust upward and the mountains are still risingThe Rwenzori has glaciers almost on the equatorThese peaks on the Uganda and Congo border carry ice despite sitting within a degree of the Equator
🗺️ World Geographyfact 158 of 200
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Tags: mountains, ethiopia, geology
Ethiopian highlands were lifted by a hot mantle: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A rising plume of hot rock domed the crust upward and set off widespread volcanism. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.