The next time you climb Mt. Whitney, stop for a moment at Trail Crest. Look at Consultation Lake 1800 feet below you to the east. Now the surface of the Earth is moving slowly to achieve the lowest possible energy state. Some places rise. Some places fall.
Some places move east.
Some move west. Small movements occur to relieve local areas of high stress. This current process is merely the natural reaction to the process that created the landscape we see today. It is not the process that created the landscape in the first place. The Peak and the Pendulum Mountain peaks were formed in a process that is similar to our pendulum illustration.