week 5

This week I am writing about the lovely Himalayan Mountains. If you aren't aware of this, it is a mountain range located in Asia which separates the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas have over 50 mountains. It has over 52.7 million inhabitants that are spread across 5 countries including, Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, and Pakistan. Its name is known as "snow" and "receptacle, dwelling". Since it is known for being the land of snow.


Over 50 million years ago, the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate collided and formed the Himalayans. As India approached Asia, the Tethys sea began to shrink and slowly pushed upwards. Then disappeared 20 million years ago. The light sedimentary rock and metamorphic rock pushed against Tibet and creating a massive mountain fold..
 
The Tethys ocean floor was completely subducted with all the sediments of the Indian margin of the floor. So this is considered to be a convergent oceanic- continental. This means that it has a low density and is very thick. It does NOT subduct. So when the two continental plates collide, they just smash all together. Earthquakes and metamorphic rock are created from the force of the collision.
  

Today, the plates are still moving averaging about 2 cm each year!



https://www.ck12.org/earth-science/continent-continent-convergent-plate-boundaries/lesson/Continent-Continent-Convergent-Plate-Boundaries-MS-ES/

https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Plate-Tectonics/Chap3-Plate-Margins/Convergent/Continental-Collision

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-himalayas-tectonic-motion-making-the-himalayas/6342/