GEOPORN

Crazy flutings, found here

So I was going to look at the formation of the Himalayas but that can wait. This picture took my eye. How do those eye catching flutings form? It's certainly not just laid down that way. This article suggests they form in stormy conditions where the wind currents carry granular snow and erode these gulleys but they are probably also partly formed due to some melting of the surface snow followed by channel erosion, this is only possible where the temperature alternates about zero but no for long and these flutings are therefore very typical of mountain ranges in the tropics. They certainly look similar to the cliff in Hawaii shown bellow which would have been a result of both small landslides and fluvial action.

They are surprisingly strong even at steep angle as this draw dropping skiing footage shows (Skip to 1:45 for the good stuff but you know you want to watch the whole thing) probably due to a lack of layers which act as the basis for most avalanche activity.

Who knows what I'll look at next time but check in to check it out!