New research led by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland has found that an unprecedented abundance of ocean life played a fundamental role in the creation of Earth’s mountains approximately two billion years ago.  While the formation of mountains is generally linked to the collision of tectonic plates causing large stabs of rock to be thrust skywards, this new study has identified another possible trigger. The abundance of nutrients in the oceans two billion years ago caused an unprecedented explosion in planktonic life.  When the plankton died,...