The Insight
The verse describes mountains using the Arabic word awtad (أَوْتَاد, pegs), implying they extend deep below the surface just as tent pegs are mostly buried underground. Modern geology confirms that mountains possess deep root systems. Through isostasy, the crust thickens dramatically beneath major mountain ranges: under the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau it reaches around 70 km, roughly double the average continental thickness, forming a hidden root that extends downward just as the buried part of a peg anchors it in the ground. This geological knowledge was scientifically established only in the 19th and 20th centuries.