K2

Hey again! It's been three amazing days of lazing around on the beach since I last blogged and I received a note today under my door.Here is what it said: Hope you enjoyed your time in shorts and t-shirts! Time to pack up and put on you fleeces and coats, you are headed to the Himalayas! Go to the airport and then take a right, you will find a small private jet waiting for you on the far right side of the plane boarding area.  Your plane will take you to India. After you spend a bit of time here in a layover get on a helicopter to the Himalayas!
It's freezing here, but doing worry I have plenty of warm clothes, and don't worry about me getting hurt either, turns out Lucy and Nolan are expert climber! And I can stop climbing as soon as I want, we don't have to reach the summit, and I don't plan on doing it. While I was in India I tried some awesome food. One of my favorites was called Shahi Paneer. It is ground of garlic and onions and chili pepper mixed with Paneer  and gravy and it tastes delicious! (Though it might be a bit spicy for you.)
 <--Shahi Paneer
After my three hour layover in India, we headed over to the mountains in a small rickty helicopter the took us to the base camp at the bottom of K2, one of the larger mountains in the Himalayans. As it turns out, Lucy and Nolan read my blog, and they learned about my intrest in tectonic plates, and as it happens, they are tectonic plate expert! (Seems like they are good at everything!)  So here is what I learned from them! The Himalayan mountains were formed by a collision boundary.
This is when two continental plates collide into each other and both crash upwards creating mountains which then connects the two continents into one. The Himalayan Mountains are formed because the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate are colliding into each other. There is a large amount of earthquake activity because the two plates are still pushing up into each other, make the Himalayan Mountains higher and higher. There are no volcanoes here because neither plate is being pushed under the other and heating up to bubble back up to the surface as magma. The most recent earthquake here was on September 18, 2011 with a magnitude of 6.9. There were 91 casualties and it hit the areas of India, Nepal, and Tibet. Here is a map on the strength of past earthquakes:

These mountains are in Asia, in case you didn't know, and I start hiking tomorrow. Won't be able to write to you for a couple of days.
Love,
Cami

Map photo credit: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=stFThIP-JEtH4M:&imgrefurl=http://geology.about.com/od/seishazardmaps/ss/World-Seismic-Hazard-Maps_15.htm&docid=vq-iLqE2XSnhnM&imgurl=http://0.tqn.com/d/geology/1/0/a/j/1/india.png&w=750&h=825&ei=OBd9T8eJKoXJiQL_wa2JDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=791&vpy=295&dur=24&hovh=235&hovw=214&tx=120&ty=116&sig=117457442753924091099&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=131&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0,i:87
Shahi Paneer: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=gplCzMwMCoUH3M:&imgrefurl=http://chefinyou.com/2010/04/paneer-makhani-recipe/&docid=fk0dnqri9tw-7M&imgurl=http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q371/d-k-photos/paneer-butter-masala11.jpg&w=518&h=346&ei=6wp9T-itDInfiALD0KXuDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=358&vpy=196&dur=676&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=190&ty=49&sig=117457442753924091099&page=1&tbnh=145&tbnw=190&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:86
Collision Boundary: http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tectonics/tectonics-collide.html