Question

Write a note on the formation of himalaya

Answer 1

A) The earth is composed of several plates. In the past there was only one huge land mass or the Pangea. This Pangea broke up and drifted apart from one another. The Gondwana land was the southern part of this Pangea. Due to conventional current, this Gondwana land was further broken down and split into several parts. One part of this Gondwana, the Indo-Australian plate started drifting towards the North. As a result it collided with the Eurasian plate in the North. This collision caused the sedimentary deposition of the Tethys to get folded forming the Himalayas.

B) Himalayas are regarded to be still youth because these have been formed in the late Cretaceous-Tertiary Period i.e. relatively recently in the earth's history, compared to older mountain ranges like the Aravallis in India, and the Appalachian in the USA.

C) The India Plate continuously moving north at the rate of about 2 cm per year and so the Himalayas are still geologically active and structurally unstable.

Answer 2

1. Himalayas is one of the young fold mountains in the world. It extends from Pamir Knot in Tajikisthan in the west to the east. Himalayas is one of the major mountain systems of the continent of Asia.
2. In India, Himalayas extends from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Arunaachal Pradesh in the northeast. Himalayas as well as many mountain ranges get included in the Himalayan mountain system. Shivalik is the southernmost mountain range of Himalayas. It is the youngest mountain ranges of Himalayas.
3. As we move from Shivalik range in the south to the north, we come across lesser Himalayas, greater Himalayas and Trans Himalayan ranges respectively.
4. The Himalayan mountains ranges can also be divided from west to east into Western Himalayas, Central Himalayas and Eastern Himalayas.