The colorful swirls and stripes that characterize China's Rainbow Mountains would have remained hidden without the epic tectonic collision that created the Himalayas.
China's Rainbow Mountains were born around the same time as the Himalayas. QUICK FACTS Name: Rainbow mountains Location: Zhangye Danxia National Geopark, Gansu, China Coordinates: 38.96080921027964, 100.07034421783024 Why it's incredible: The mountains' folded rocks form stunning rainbow patterns. As the name suggests, China's Rainbow Mountains are multicolored formations in the northwest of the country. The landscape in this region is otherworldly, with vibrant bands that look like they were spray-painted onto the rocks. The Rainbow Mountains are located in the foothills of the rugged Qilian mountains and likely formed around the same time as the Himalayas, approximately 50 million years ago, according to NASA's Earth Observatory . Land that was once relatively flat was scrunched up and folded into jagged terrain when the Indian tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate. This was because these plates have a similar rock density, so neither could slip beneath the other to form a subduction zone , according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). But the basis for the…