The Himalayas are part of a series of Eurasian mountains from the Alps to Southeast Asia, all of which were formed by global plate tectonic forces that caused great uplift of the crust in the past 65 million years.
About1800,000 years ago in Jurassic, a deep geosyncline-Tethys Ocean-bordered the southern edge of Eurasia, and the Gugongdwana supercontinent began to disintegrate. One of the fragments of Gondwavanni, the lithospheric plate that formed the Indian subcontinent, moved northward in the following1300,000 years and collided with the Eurasian plate; The Indo-Australian plate gradually confined the Tethys geosyncline to a huge clip between itself and the Eurasian plate.
In the next 30 million years, as the seabed was pushed forward by the Indo-Australian plate, the shallow part of the Tethys Ocean gradually dried up. Formed the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. On the southern edge of the plateau, the marginal mountains (today's Himalayas) have become the main watershed in this area, and have risen enough to become a climate barrier.
Only in the past 600,000 years, in the Pleistocene (6,543.8+0.6 million years to 6,543.8+0.0 million years ago), the Himalayas became the highest mountain range on the earth.
Once the great Himalayas became a climate barrier, the marginal mountains in the north were deprived of rain and became as dry as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The center of the whole mountain system is the Great Himalayas, which is higher than the permanent snow line. The mountains reach their highest peak in Nepal; Nine of the 65,438+04 highest peaks in the world are in this mountain range, each exceeding 7,925 meters (26,000 feet). From west to east, it is Dalajiri, Anna Poorna 1, Manas Aivi Lu 1, Zhuooyou Peak, Jiachongkang 1, Mount Qomolangma and Lodz.
China is located in the southeast of Eurasia plate, sandwiched between Indian Ocean plate and Pacific plate. Since the Early Tertiary, various plates collided with each other, which had an important influence on the modern geomorphological pattern and evolution of China. Since Eocene, the Indian Ocean plate subducted northward, resulting in strong north-south compressive force, which led to the rapid uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the formation of the Himalayas. This tectonic movement is called Himalayan movement. Himalayan movement can be divided into early and late stages. In the early Himalayan movement, the Indian Ocean plate collided strongly with the Asian continent along the suture line of the Yarlung Zangbo River. The Himalayan geosyncline closed and folded into land, merging the Indian continent with the Asian continent. At the same time, the eastern China and the Pacific plate cracked and the basin sank, which made the eastern edge of Chinese mainland enter the stage of marginal island development. Especially important is the late Himalayan movement from Pliocene to Pleistocene. Under the interaction of the Asia-Europe plate, the Pacific plate and the Indian Ocean plate, there has been a strong difference movement, and the terrain of the whole country has been divided on a large scale. The intensity of differential movement changes from weak to strong from east to west. Due to the continuous expansion of the Indian Ocean, the rigid Indian Ocean plate is pushed to subduct and compress along the Yarlung Zangbo River suture zone to the southern edge of the Asian continent, and the Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are greatly lifted. The Indian Ocean plate, which dived under the Eurasian plate with a small dip angle, continued to press northward, and encountered the resistance of rigid blocks (Tarim, China, Korea and Yangtze) with a long history of consolidation in the north, which produced a strong reaction force, resulting in a high concentration of tectonic forces, overlapping crust, intensified material movement in the upper mantle, and intensified deep and surface tectonic movements, which led to a sharp thickening of the crust and a sharp rise in a large area of the surface, forming the magnificent Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and forming the first topography of China.