Low-pressure area mesocyclones, but more often develop from environments of high instability and low vertical wind shear. In deserts, lack of ground and plant moisture that would normally provide evaporative cooling can lead to intense, rapid solar heating of the lower layers of air. The hot air is less dense than surrounding cooler air. This, combined with the rising of the hot air, results in a low-pressure area called a thermal low. Monsoon circulations are caused by thermal lows which form over large areas of land and their strength is driven by how land heats more quickly than the surrounding nearby ocean.
High pressure metamorphic terranes along the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone High pressure metamorphic terranes along the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone High pressure terranes along the ~1200 km long east-west trending Bangong-Nujiang suture zone (BNS) on the Tibetan Plateau have been extensively mapped and studied. Understanding the geodynamic processes in which these terranes are created is key to understanding the development and subsequent deformation of the BNS and Eurasian deformation as a whole. With an average elevation of just above 5,000 m, the Tibetan Plateau is the largest elevated region on Earth. Explaining how such a large area (2.5 million km) can have such high elevations has perplexed geologists for some time.