Geological

History of
Himalayas
By Yanwei Yang
Teacher: Mr. McKeon
Himalayas? What is that?
The highest mountain range in the world. The
Himalayan range is far-reaching, spanning
thousands of miles, and Himalayas holds an
exceptionally diverse ecology. Coniferous and
subtropical forests, wetlands, and montane
grasslands are as much a part of this world as
the inhospitable, frozen mountaintops that
tower above.
Formation of Himalayas
The Himalayan mountain range and Tibetan
plateau have formed as a result of the collision
between the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate
which began 50 million years ago and continues
today. 225 million years ago, India was a large
island situated off the Australian coast and
separated from Asia by the Tethys Ocean.

(continue next slide)

Formation of Himalayas
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 subducted due to their low density. 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.
Shocking fact: Himalayas was
once the ocean !
According to the Continental Drift, we can
assume the Himalayas was formed by the
collision between India EuroAsia. India
charged across the equator at rates of up to
15 cm/year, in the process closing an ocean
name Tethys that had separated fragments
of Pangea. This ocean is entirely gone today,
although the sedimentary rocks and the
fossils of marine creatures that settled on its
ocean floor and the volcanoes that fringed
its edges remain to tell the tale of its
existence.
What evidence do I have
for this statement?
Geologists founded the
fossils of Ammonites in
Himalayas !!!
Fossils on Mount Everest:
Ammonites
Ammonites, which is an extinct group of marine
mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of
the class Cephalopoda, are one of the worldwide
index fossils. These creatures lived in the oceans
between 240 - 65 million years ago. However,
these fossils are found in limestone beds in the
Himalayas of Nepal.
Radioactive Isotope
Geologists found carbon-14 which
has gone through 39473 half-lives in
the bedrock. One half-life of carbon-
14 is 5700 years. Therefore, the
carbon-14 that has gone through
39473 half-lives is found in the
bedrock, we could know the bedrock
of Himalayas is 225 million years.
How do we know when was
the Himalayas formed?
Fault, a crack in the Earth's
crust
Since the Himalayas was formed by the
collision between the India Plate and the
Eurasian Plate, the age of the fault between
these two Plates is the age of the Himalayas.
By determining the age of the sedimentary
rock layers that this fault had gone through,
we could know how old the fault is. According
to the research of the University of Arizona,
the fault which is under the Himalayas is 50
million years old. Thus, we know the
Himalayas is 50 million years old.
What else happened during
the formation of
Himalayas?
Mammals start to be in charge
of the land
The oldest known fossils of most of the modern mammal orders appear
within a brief period during the early Eocene (56-33.9 million years ago). At
the beginning of the Eocene, several new mammal groups arrived in North
America. These modern mammals, like artiodactyls, perissodactyls and
primates, had features like long, thin legs, feet and hands capable of
grasping, as well as differentiated teeth adapted for chewing. Dwarf forms
reigned. All the members of the new mammal orders were small, under 10
kg; based on comparisons of tooth size, Eocene mammals were only 60% of
the size of the primitive Palaeocene mammals that preceded them. They
were also smaller than the mammals that followed them. It is assumed that
the hot Eocene temperatures favored smaller animals that were better able
to manage the heat. (Thats why the geologists could discover the caveman
in Himalayas.
History of Mankind living in
Himalayas
Importance of Himalayas
Melted ice water from the Himalayas goes through the extensive
glacial networks and feeds Asias major rivers including the Ganges,
Indus, and Brahmaputra. More than a billion people rely on these
glacier-fed water sources for drinking water and agriculture. The
Himalayas are not only a remarkable expanse of natural beauty.
Theyre also crucial for our survival.
Caveman in Himalayas
In the 1990s, a high Himalayan cave in Upper Mustang,
Nepal was discovered to contain 42 ancient people, buried
on wooden bunk beds. American archaeologist Dr. Mark
Aldenderfer believes there must be more burial caves, but
the challenge is how to find them deep within cliff faces in
the cold and inhospitable environment of the Himalaya. He
enlists the world's best technical climbers to do the
searching. Aldenderfer's theory is the funerary caves were
carved out by the earliest people to have settled in the
Himalaya. If he can find their remains and extract their
DNA, he'll learn who these people were and what brought
them to the toughest parts of the planet to live.
Thank You for your
listening!
High & Dry Sea Creatures from answersingenesis.org

Birth of the Himalaya from www.pbs.org

The Himalayas from www.pds.com

CONTINENTAL/CONTINENTAL: THE HIMALAYAS from

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/
Geology-Himalayas by Peter Molnar
www.library.arizona.edu