FORMATION OF THE HIMALAYAS

The Himalaya is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet. It was formed as a result of a collision between two tectonic plates, the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. A continental collision began in the early cretaceous period some 70 million years ago along the line separating the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian plates, resulting in an orogeny which led to the formation of the Himalaya.  The modern theory relating to the forces that produce movement, deformation and faulting of the Earth's crust has it that the north-bound Indo-Australian Plate was moving at about 15 cm/year at the time of the collision. Later, this plate completely locked in the Tethys Sea as a result of which weathering and erosion occurred leading to the formation of sediments, which, instead of sinking, rose upward to form the Himalaya.  At present, the Indo-Australian plate is moving 67 mm/year and it has been projected that it would have traveled about 1,500 km into Asia over the next 10 million years.