Adeeba Ifrah12636

Formation of Himalayas
225 million years ago India was a large island situated off the Australian
coast and separated from Asia by the Tethys Ocean. The supercontinent
Pangea began to break up 200 million years ago and India started a
northward drift towards Asia. 80 million years ago India was 6,400 km south
of the Asian continent but moving towards it at a rate of between 9 and 16
cm per year. At this time Tethys Ocean floor would have been sub ducting
northwards beneath Asia and the plate margin would have been a
Convergent oceanic-continental one just like the Andes today.

Between 40 and 20 million years ago the rate of northward drift slowed as the two continental plates collided and
the former Tethys Ocean closed. Neither continental plate could be sub ducted due to their low density/buoyancy.
This caused the continental crust to thicken due to folding and faulting by compressional forces. The continental
crust here is twice the average thickness at around 75 km. The thickening of the continental crust marked the end
of volcanic activity in the region as any magma moving upwards would solidify before it could reach the surface.

The Himalayas are still rising by more than 1 cm per year as India continues to move northwards into Asia, which
explains the occurrence of shallow focus earthquakes in the region today. However the forces of weathering and
erosion are lowering the Himalayas at about the same rate. The Himalayas and Tibetan plateau trend east-west
and extend for 2,900 km, reaching the maximum elevation of 8,848 meters (Mount Everest).

The True Formation --- Chronology

Mountain formation mechanism

The mechanism of mountain formation was discovered long ago. When two continents clashes in the point of
contact rocks are exposed by enormous strength. These strengths crush rocks, gathers it in flexures, compress,
deform, and change its elemental composition. Some parts of rocks mount and turn into mountain peaks, others
press in the depth of the earth mantel and form roots of mountains. Mountain range like Himalayas present in
fact thickness of crust, consisting of rocks pushed out upwards and downwards.
Besides, abyssal mantel of the Earth consists of more solid rocks than the earth's crust above it. When the crust
becomes thicker it emerges in some way above mantel and mountain range becomes higher. However this
descent is balanced by weathering. Influence of weather conditions smooths little by little mountain peaks.

Mountain peaks
On this photo you can see Annapurna one of the Himalayas peaks, which height exceeds 8 km above sea level.
Up to now these peaks rises to 10 cm in the century, but is weathered with the same speed. Fractions of rocks
are carried away in the sea by powerful rivers, such as Gang.

25 million years ago

While India was moving towards Asia rocks collapsed into folds. One of them were pressing down, thus forming
roots of the mountains, others were going up in the form of mountain ranges. The crust that was lying between
two continents shortened on 2500 km and big platform of continental crust with the width about 290 km has
probably crept in Asian platform thus raising Tibet.

Nowadays
High pressure changes chemical structure
of rocks at the bottom of mountain range. Carrying capacity pushes out mountain upwards, but their peaks are
ruined under the influence of wind and water. Subduction of India under Asia continues at speed of 5 cm a year.

Roof of the world

peaks of

On this photo from cosmos one can see

flood-lands of the river Gang (in the left),
Himalayas and Tibetan plateau, covered with snow (in
the right).

Future of the Himalaya

Over periods of 5-10 million years, the plates will continue to move at the same rate, which allows us to forecast
fairly reliably how the Himalaya will develop. In 10 million years India will plow into Tibet a further 180km. This is
about the width of Nepal. Because Nepal's boundaries are marks on the Himalayan peaks and on the plains of
India whose convergence we are measuring, Nepal will technically cease to exist. But the mountain range we
know as the Himalaya will not go away.
This is because the Himalaya will probably look much the same in profile then as it does now. There will be tall
mountains in the north, smaller ones in the south, and the north/south width of the Himalaya will be the same.
What will happen is that the Himalaya will have advanced across the Indian plate and the Tibetan plateau will
have grown by accretion. One of the few clues about the rate of collision between India and Tibet before the GPS
measurements were made was the rate of advance of Himalayan sediments across the Ganges plain. There is an
orderly progression of sediments in front of the foothills. Larger boulders appear first, followed by pebbles, and
further south, sand-grains, silts, and finally very fine muds. This is what you see when you drive from the last hills
of the Himalaya southward 100 km. The present is obvious, but the historical record cannot be seen on the
surface because the sediments bury all former traces of earlier sediments. However, in drill holes in the Ganges
plain, the coarser rocks are always on the top and the finer pebbles and
muds are on the bottom, showing that the Himalaya are relentlessly
advancing on India.