GEOLOGY
MOUNTAINS ARE LIKE TENT PEGS
In geology, the phenomenon of ‘folding’, is a recently
discovered fact. Folding is responsible for the
formation of mountain ranges. The earth’s 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 reliefs that constitute the
mountains.
Geologists tell us that the radius of the Earth is
about 6,035 km and the crust on which we live is
very thin, ranging between 2 to 35 km. Since the
crust is thin, it has a high possibility of shaking.
Mountains act like stakes or tent pegs that hold
the earth’s crust and give it stability. The Qur’an
contains exactly such a description:
أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ
الْأَرْضَ مِهَادًا 78:6وَالْجِبَالَ
أَوْتَادًا 78:7
“Have We not made
the earth as a wide expanse,
and the mountains as pegs?”
[Al-Qur’an 78:6-7]
The word awtaad means stakes or pegs (like
those used to anchor a tent); they are the deep
foundations of geological folds.
A book entitled ‘Earth’ is regarded as a basic
reference textbook on geology in many universities
around the world. One of the authors of this book is
Dr. 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.1 According to Dr. Press,
the mountains play an important role in stabilizing
the crust of the earth.
The Qur’an clearly mentions the function of the
mountains in preventing the earth from shaking:
وَجَعَلْنَا فِي
الْأَرْضِ رَوَاسِيَ أَن تَمِيدَ بِهِمْ
“And We have set on the earth
mountains standing firm,
lest it should shake with them.”
[Al-Qur’an 21:31]
The Qur’anic 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.
*** Earth, Press and Siever, p. 435. Also see Earth Science,
Tarbuck and Lutgens, p. 157
*** A similar message is contained in the Qru'an in 31:10 and 16:15
Mountain formations occur at the boundary of the
plates. The earth’s 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 Qur’an refers to the strong
mountain foundations in the following verse:
وَالْجِبَالَ
أَرْسَاهَا
“And the mountains hath He firmly fixed.” [Al-Qur’an 79:32]1
Thus, the information contained in the Glorious
Qur'an about the nature of mountains, is in perfect
agreement with recent discoveries in geology.
*** A similar message is contained in the Qur’an in 88:19.
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