Himalayan orogeny

The ongoing mountain-building process in which the Indian Plate converges with Eurasia, uplifting the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau.

Indian Plate: A tectonic plate carrying the Indian subcontinent and adjoining Indian Ocean crust. Its northward motion supplies the convergence that drives Himalayan mountain building.
Tethys Ocean: An ancient ocean that once separated parts of Gondwana from Laurasia. Its closure preceded the continental collision that initiated Himalayan uplift.
Plate tectonics: The theory that Earth's outer shell consists of moving plates interacting at their boundaries. It explains the plate motions that bring India into collision with Eurasia.
Tibetan Plateau: A high, broad plateau north of the Himalaya, formed through tectonic uplift and crustal thickening. It is a vast highland outcome of India-Asia convergence, not merely a Himalayan summit region.
Nanga Parbat: A Himalayan massif in northern Pakistan rising to 8,126 metres above sea level. Its rapid uplift and erosion provide a striking local record of active mountain building.
Eurasian Plate: A tectonic plate encompassing most of Europe and Asia. Its resistance to the Indian Plate helps compress and thicken continental crust.
Indus-Yarlung Tsangpo Suture Zone: A tectonic boundary in Tibet marking the former junction of Indian and Eurasian plates. Its rocks preserve evidence of the oceanic basin consumed before collision.
Subduction: The descent of one tectonic plate beneath another into Earth's mantle. Oceanic crust was subducted before buoyant continental India reached the Asian margin.
Himalayan earthquakes: Earthquakes produced by active deformation along and around the Himalayan plate boundary. Ongoing convergence stores elastic strain that is released in damaging earthquakes.
Namche Barwa: A 7,782-metre peak in eastern Tibet near the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. Its steep relief and rapid exhumation highlight concentrated deformation at the eastern syntaxis.

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