Just like honey slowly dripping from a spoon, parts of the rocky outermost layer of Earth’s shell are continuously sinking into the more fluid layer of the planet’s mantle over the course of millions of years. Known as lithospheric dripping—named for the fragmenting of rocky material that makes up Earth’s crust and upper mantle—the process results in significant deformations at the surface such as basins, folding of the crust and irregular elevations.
Click here for original story, Earth’s crust has been ‘dripping’ beneath Andes Mountains for millions of years
Source: Phys.org