Editing Australian Alps (section)

==Geology==
Unlike the high mountain ranges found in places like the [[Rocky Mountains|Rockies]] (highest peak {{convert|4401|m||abbr=on}}), the European [[Alps]] (highest peak {{convert|4,808|m|abbr=on}}) or the [[Himalayas]] (highest peak {{convert|8,848|m|abbr=on}}), the Australian Alps were not formed by two [[continental plate]]s colliding and pushing up the Earth's rocky mantle to form jagged, rocky peaks. Instead, the Australian Alps consist of a high plateau, with significantly softer rolling hills spread across a long, wide plateau that was lifted thousands of feet up by the movement of magma when [[Gondwana]] began to break up between 130 and 160 million years ago. The highest peak in the Australian Alps is [[Mount Kosciuszko]] ({{convert|2,228|m}}).<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2014-05-15 |title=Highest Mountains |url=https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/landforms/highest-mountains |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=Geoscience Australia |language=EN}}</ref>

Formation of the Australian Alps was largely complete by around 100 million years ago, but during the past 90 million years, a number of minor uplift episodes occurred, with occasional eruptions of basalt lava from small volcanoes, which flowed across the landscape and down some of the valleys, filling in the low-lying areas to form the flat landscapes of these high plains.

During the [[Pleistocene]] ice age, commencing around 2 million years ago, when ice caps formed on many high ranges around the world, as well as at the poles, small glaciers were formed on the very highest parts of the Australian Alps, mostly in the vicinity of Mount Kosciuszko. Whilst no glaciers remain today, evidence of their past presence can be found in the numerous tarns and cirques found in that region, such as Club Lake, Blue Lake, and Hedley Tarn.