The Earth’s tectonic plates made the Himalayas — and could rip them apart
In the heart of Asia, deep underground, two huge tectonic plates are crashing into each other — a violent but slow-motion bout of geological bumper cars that over time has sculpted the soaring Himalayan mountains.
In the heart of Asia, deep underground, two huge tectonic plates are crashing into each other — a violent but slow-motion bout of geological bumper cars that over time has sculpted the soaring Himalayan mountains. But the ongoing tectonic collision that formed the highest mountains in the world may also be cleaving Tibet in two, according to new research.
A team of scientists in China and the U.S. studied seismic waves underground from earthquakes that struck in and around Tibet and analyzed the geochemical makeup of gases in hot springs at the surface. They found that the Indian plate may be behaving in surprising ways as it smashes into the Eurasian plate.
The findings have not yet been peer-reviewed, but a preprint version of the study was posted online and the researchers presented their work in December at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Scientists have known that the collision of the two tectonic plates, which began roughly 60 million years ago, caused the edge of the Eurasian plate to buckle, bulging and twisting into what we now recognize as the Himalayas. But precisely what is happening underground as the Indian plate continues its charge has been something of a mystery.
Some experts have suggested that as the Indian plate is subducting, the technical term for being forced under the Eurasian plate, it is pushing horizontally beneath Tibet, while others think the Indian plate is diving deep underground in a more vertical fashion.
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