Himalayas

Located on the southern edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the Himalayas are the highest mountains in the world, with more than 110 peaks reaching or exceeding 7350 meters above sea level. The Himalayas, with a total length of 2450km and a width of 200-350km, start from namgar Parbat peak in Kashmir (8125m above sea level) in the West and end at Namjagbarwa peak (7782m above sea level) at the great bend of Yarlung Zangbo River in the East.

Himalayas

Himalayas (Sanskrit: hima Alaya, meaning snow), Tibetan means "hometown of snow". Located in the southern edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, it is the highest mountain in the world. It is the natural boundary mountain between the East Asian continent and the South Asian subcontinent, as well as the natural boundary between China and India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and other countries. It starts from namgar Parbat peak in Kashmir (8125m above sea level) in the West and ends at Namjagbarwa peak (7782m above sea level) at the great bend of the Yarlung Zangbo River in the East, with a total length of 2450km and a width of 200-350km.

The main peak is Mount Qomolangma, the world's highest peak (also known as Mount Everest, Tibetan Name: Qomolangma), which means the third Tibetan goddess, with an altitude of 8844.43 meters. According to the latest measurement data, Everest increases by an average of 1 cm per year.

Geography

geographical position

The Himalayas are the tallest and most magnificent mountains in the world. It stands on the southern edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, distributed in China's Tibet and Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, and its main part is at the junction of China and Nepal. It starts from namjagabart peak in the northwest of Qinghai Tibet Plateau in the West and ends at namjagabawa peak at the sharp bend of Yarlung Zangbo River in the East, with a total length of 2450 km and a width of 200-350 km. According to the latest measurement data, Everest increases by an average of 1 cm per year.

Forming history

The Himalayas are formed by the collision between the Indo Australian plate and the Eurasian plate. The Indian plate is still moving northward at a speed of more than 5 cm per year, and the Himalayas are still rising. At the same time, it is still in the plate boundary collision type seismotectonic belt.

According to geological investigation, as early as 2 billion years ago, the vast area of the Himalayas was a vast ocean, known as the ancient Mediterranean Sea. It went through a long geological period and lasted until the end of the Cenozoic Eogene 30 million years ago. At that time, the general trend of crustal movement in this area was continuous decline. In the process of decline, 30000 meters thick sea was accumulated in the sea basin Sedimentary rocks. At the end of the early Tertiary, a strong orogenic movement took place in the crust, which is called "Himalayan movement" geologically. As a result, this area gradually uplifted and formed the most magnificent mountains in the world. Geological investigation shows that the Himalayan tectonic movement has not yet ended, and only after the Quaternary glacial period, it has increased by 1300-1500 meters. It's still rising slowly.

The Himalayas are part of a chain of Eurasian mountains from the Alps to the Southeast Asian mountains, all of which were formed by the global plate tectonics that caused the huge uplift of the earth's crust in the past 65 million years.

About 180 million years ago, in the Jurassic, a deep geosyncline, the Tethys ocean, joined the southern margin of Eurasia, and the ancient Gondwana supercontinent began to disintegrate. One of the fragments of Gondwana, the lithospheric plate that formed the Indian subcontinent, moved northward in the following 130 million years and collided with the Eurasian plate; the Indo Australian plate gradually confined the Tethys geosyncline to the giant clamp between itself and the Eurasian plate.

In the next 30 million years, as the bottom of the Tethys ocean was pushed forward by the India Australia plate, the shallow part of the Tethys ocean gradually dried up and formed the Tibetan Plateau. On the southern edge of the plateau, the marginal mountains (the outer Himalayas) become the primary watershed in the region and rise high enough to act as a climate barrier.

China is located in the southeast of Eurasian plate, which is sandwiched by Indian Ocean plate and Pacific plate. Since the early Tertiary, plates collided with each other, which had an important impact on the modern geomorphic pattern and evolution of China. Since the Eocene, the Indian Ocean plate subducted northward, resulting in a strong north-south compression, resulting in the rapid uplift of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and the formation of the Himalayan mountains. This tectonic movement is called the Himalayan movement. The Himalayan movement is divided into early and late stages. During the early Himalayan movement, the Indian Ocean plate collided strongly with the Asian continent along the Yarlung Zangbo Suture. The Himalayan geosyncline was closed and folded to form a continent, which combined the Indian continent with the Asian continent. Meanwhile, the eastern part of China and the Pacific plate have split, and the basin has sunk, which has led the eastern margin of the Chinese mainland to enter the development stage of the marginal sea island.

Especially important is the late Himalayan movement which occurred in Pliocene Pleistocene. Under the interaction of the Eurasian plate, the Pacific plate and the Indian Ocean plate, a strong differential ascending and descending movement took place, resulting in a large-scale high-low differentiation of the terrain in China. The intensity of the differential motion changes from weak to strong from east to west. Due to the continuous expansion of the Indian Ocean, the rigid Indian Ocean plate was pushed to subduction and squeeze along the Yarlung Zangbo Suture to the southern margin of the Asian continent, resulting in the large-scale uplift of the Himalayas and the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. The Indian Ocean plate, which subducted under the Eurasian plate with a small dip angle, continued to press northward. In the north, it encountered the resistance of rigid blocks (Tarim, China Korea and Yangtze) with a long history of consolidation, resulting in strong reaction force, highly concentrated tectonic force, overlapping of crust, strengthening of upper mantle material movement and intensification of deep and surface tectonic movement It leads to the rapid thickening of the earth's crust and the rapid uplift of the earth's surface in a large area, thus forming the majestic Qinghai Tibet Plateau, which constitutes the first step of China's topography.

Geomorphological features

The most typical features of the Himalayas are the soaring height, steep and uneven peaks on one side, amazing valleys and alpine glaciers, topography deeply cut by erosion, unfathomable river valleys, complex geological structures, and a series of altitude zones (or regions) showing different ecological relations between animals, plants and climate. From the south, the Himalayas are like a huge crescent moon, with its main optical axis beyond the snowline. Snowfields, alpine glaciers and avalanches all supply water to the low valley glaciers, which become the source of most Himalayan rivers. But most of the Himalayas are below the snow line. The orogeny that created this mountain range is still active, with water erosion and large-scale landslides.

The Himalayas can be divided into four parallel vertical belts of different widths, each belt has its own distinct topographic features and geological history. From south to north, they are named outer or sub Himalayas; small or low Himalayas; large or high Himalayas; and Tethys or Tibetan Himalayas.

The Himalayas, stretching more than 2400 km from east to west and 200-300 km from south to north, are composed of several parallel mountains in an arc protruding to the south. They are the main parts of the Himalayas in China and Nepal. With an average altitude of 6000 meters, it is the most magnificent mountain range in the world. There are 40 peaks above 7000 meters, 10 peaks above 8000 meters (as of 1997, there are only 14 peaks above 8000 meters in the world). The main peak, Mount Everest, is 8848.43 meters above sea level, the highest peak in the world.

Geological structure

The terrain structure of Himalayas is asymmetric, with gentle north slope and steep south slope. In the piedmont area of the north slope, it is the lake basin belt of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau in China. The lakeside pasture is rich and beautiful, which is a good pasture. Almost all the rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean originate from the north slope, cut through the great Himalayan mountains, and form a grand canyon 3000-4000 meters deep. The rivers are running like waterfalls and contain huge water resources. The high peaks of the Himalayas block the moist air from the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the south slope of the Himalayas has abundant rainfall and luxuriant vegetation, while the north slope has less rainfall and sparse vegetation, forming a sharp contrast. With the increase of mountain height, the natural landscape of the mountain area is also changing, forming an obvious vertical natural zone.

Ice tower distribution

On the north slope of the middle part of the Himalayas, there is the world's most magnificent and varied ice tower forest on the valley glacier. The height of the ice tower ranges from several meters to more than 30 meters, and its appearance is like hills and pyramids. There are dense shallow round ablation pits on the surface of some ice towers, which are crystal clear and shining. There are ice lakes scattered among some ice towers, which is very wonderful. Some ice towers have river channels inside. Under the long-term effect of these ice melt water, ice bridges and crystal palace like ice caves, ice curtains, ice stalactites, icicles and ice shoots are formed, which are like natural ice sculptures.

There are two main factors for the formation of the ice Tower: first, after the confluence of multiple ice streams, the glacier movement makes the ice fold and vertical and horizontal cracks, which is a necessary premise; second, in the low latitude alpine region, the extremely strong solar radiation makes the temperature of the exposed ice surface rise, and the melting intensity of the ice surface is far greater than that of the middle and high latitude glaciers

Chinese PinYin : Xi Ma La Ya Shan Mo