The Himalayas, which stretch for about 2,900 kilometers between India, Pakistan, China and Nepal, are the highest mountain range in the world.
In addition to Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world with a height of 8,848 meters, the wreath has several other mountain peaks above 8,000 meters. It is the only mountain range whose mountains exceed 8,000 meters, while the second highest mountain range in South America, whose highest peak is 6,962 meters.
A million years ago, these mountains did not exist. Asia was almost untouched, but India was an island that floated not far from the coast of Australia. About 220 million years ago, at the time when Pangea separated, India began to move north. It traveled some 6,000 kilometers before finally colliding with Asia about 40-50 million years ago. Then part of the Indian mainland began to submerge below the Asian, moving it upwards, which contributed to the rise of the Himalayas. It is believed that the Indian coast was denser and more firmly attached to the seabed, which is why the softer Asian soil was pushed upwards, instead of the other way around.
The mountain range has grown rapidly compared to most mountain ranges and is actually still growing. Mount Everest and its peers actually grow by an inch every year. In relation to it, the Appalachian Mountains, which developed more than 300 million years ago, are shrinking. The continuous growth of the Himalayas is most likely due to the Indian tectonic plate, which is still moving slowly, but surely to the north. We know that the plate is still moving thanks to frequent earthquakes in the region.
If we deal with mathematics, we will see that the Himalayas would have been 400 kilometers high if they had grown on average, which is present today in the past 40 million years.
What happened?
In part, the average vertical growth has varied over time in favor of horizontal growth. In addition, of course, gravity and erosion have significantly limited mountain growth.
The theory of India diving into Asia has become a generally accepted theory of how the Himalayas originated around 1912. Then Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, came up with the "Theory of the movement of continents" which gave us the first ideas about Pangea, tectonic plates and continents that move farther or closer to each other.
What will the Himalayas look like in the future?
Undoubtedly, the mountains will continue to grow, although they will erode at the same time. Also, the wreath will undoubtedly continue to grow, since it does not look like the Indian tectonic plate will slow down in the foreseeable future. That means more earthquakes and, over time, slightly larger mountains.
Another interesting fact
The highest point of the Himalayas is officially located at 8,848 meters, but often this number varies depending on the measurement criteria. Thus, for China, the height of the Himalayas is four meters lower because they do not count the snow and ice cover when measuring the height, while for the United States, which measured the Himalayas with GPS technology, Mount Everest is at a height of 8,850 meters.
Mount Everest was first measured in 1856, almost 100 years before Sherpas Tencing Norgay and New Zealand alpinist Edmund Hillary reached this peak in 1953.
Best regards!
Do you know that Dragan, the owner of Takovo osiguranje, went with the mountaineers to conquer the Himalayas? On the way, they stayed in small villages and he came across a boy who served him and took care of him. As a sign of gratitude, Dragan paid him financial resources for the future and his education :) I know that this story of mine has nothing to do with the mountain range, but when I read the Himalayas, I remembered our fellow citizen and his story: D