The Tibetan Plateau, known as the Roof of the World because of its lofty altitude, is a remote and unforgiving place.
Roads are few and utilities even scarcer.
Yak dung is the major source of fuel. Hearn and two NMSU graduate students recently returned from nine weeks in Tibet, where they placed more than 50 seismometers in the ground along a 400-kilometer section in the middle of the world's highest plateau. Scientists know the plateau, and the Himalayan Mountains along its southern edge, was created by the collision of India and Asia that started about 40 million years ago. But much of what is happening beneath the surface remains a mystery. Scientists also are uncertain whether the plateau rose to its heights of 15,000 to 16,000 feet as a result of the Indian continent thrusting under the southern edge of Asia and pushing it upward, or because of some accordion-like shortening of the two colliding continental plates, Ni said.