The Tibetan Plateau today is on average 4,500 meters above sea level. It is the biggest mountain-building zone on Earth. Most analyses to date indicated that, back in the Eocene period some 40 million years ago, the plateau was about as high as it is today. Dr. Svetlana Botsyun of the University of Tübingen’s Geoscience Department tested this theory using comprehensive tools. Working with an international team of colleagues, she made use of a wide range of palaeoclimate data and came to a surprising conclusion: The data showed that the plateau had an elevation of no more than 3,000 meters in the Eocene. This new scenario helps researchers to understand the geological forces involved in the formation of mountain ranges along the edges of tectonic plates. The study has been published in the latest edition of the journal Science.