Reason behind the Colour of Great Mountains of Peru

Great Mountains of Peru have an amazing and fascinating beauty associated with them; number of people is astounded by their beauty. Want to know the reason that revolves around its surprising beauty, read this article to know all about.

The reason because of which we see the rainbow coloration in the stratigraphic layers of the Ausangate Mountain is mainly due to mineralogy and weathering. The Red colour of sedimentary layers of these mountains often indicates that the iron oxide rust as a trace mineral. Just as to how a nail rusts and turns red when oxidized sediments which are iron rich change when they are exposed to air i.e. oxygen and water in the form of water vapour.
This above phenomenon, in combination with the uplift as well as tectonically driven crustal shortenings have tilted the sedimentary layers i.e. these mountains on their side exposing stripped the stratigraphic intervals.

The different coloration that is present there is also because of the different environmental conditions as well as mineralogy that might have happened and occurred when the sediment was originally deposited as well as subsequently dia-genetically altered. Moreover the introduction of oxidized limonite or goethite will also further introduce a brownish coloration to sandstones. Bright yellow coloration on the mountains could be because of iron sulphide as the trace minerals within the pore cement. as well as chlorite will many a times colour sediments varying shades of green which are dependent on digenetic history and the concentration.

These scientific facts result in a beautiful nature, also if we see closely a lot of our nature comprises of such facts that are hidden behind their beauty.

By: Prerana Sharma

Content: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/01/21/welcome-rainbow-mountains-peru/