Page 75 - Allah's Miracles in the Qur'an

Harun Yahya

by isostasy. This balancing property of mountains is described in these
terms in a scientific source:
G.B Airy in 1855 suggested that the crust of the earth could be likened to
rafts of timber floating on water. Thick pieces of timber float higher above
the water surface than thin pieces and similarly thick sections of the
earth's crust will float on a liquid or plastic substratum of greater densi-
ty. Airy was suggesting that mountains have a deep root of lower densi-
ty rock which the plains lack. Four years after Airy published his work,
J.H Pratt offered an alternative hypothesis... By this hypothesis rock
columns below mountains must have a lower density, because of their
greater length, than shorter rock columns beneath plains. Both Airy and
Pratt's hypothesis imply that surface irregularities are balanced by differ-
ences in density of rocks below the major features (mountains and plains)
of the crust. This state of BALANCE is described as the concept of
ISOSTASY. 29

Today, we know that the rocky external layer of the Earth's surface
is riven by deep faults and split into plates swimming above the molten
lava. Since the Earth revolves very quickly around its own axis, were it
not for the fixing effect of the mountains, these plaques would shift. In
such an event, soil would not collect on the Earth's surface, water
would not accumulate in the soil, no plants could grow, and no roads
or houses could be built. In short, life on Earth would be impossible.
Through the mercy of Allah, however, mountains act like nails, and to
a large extent, prevent movement in the Earth's surface.
This vital role of mountains, which has been discovered by mod-
ern geological and seismic research, was revealed in the Qur'an cen-
turies ago as an example of the supreme wisdom in Allah's creation.
… [He] cast firmly embedded mountains on the Earth so that it would
not move under you… (Qur'an, 31:10)

73