Description
If you need proof that beauty can come from chaos, look no further than the Rainbow Mountains of Zhangye, China . When Insular India collided with the Eurasian tectonic plate 55 million years ago, the punishing force crumpled Earth's crust so drastically it formed not only the mighty Himalayas , but this watercolour landscape some 600 miles to the northeast. As tremendous tremors reconfigured vast swaths of flatland, once-smooth layer cakes of hardened silt and sand were thrust off kilter, creating the angular stripes we can see today.