The Himalayas, or Himalaya hima (snow) + laya (dwelling),Sanskrit word literally meaning,

"abode of the snow" is a mountain range in South Asia separating the plains of the Indian
subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.
The Himalayan range is home to the planet's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount
Everest. The Himalayas include over a hundred mountains exceeding 7,200 metres (23,600 ft) in
elevation. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia Aconcagua, in the Andes is 6,961
metres (22,838 ft) tall The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia. Many
Himalayan peaks are sacred in both Buddhism andHinduism.
Besides the Greater Himalayas of these high peaks there are parallel lower ranges. The first
foothills, reaching about a thousand meters along the northern edge of the plains, are called
the Sivalik Hills or Sub-Himalayan Range. Further north is a higher range reaching two to three
thousand meters known as the Lower Himalayanor Himachal or Mahabharat Range.
The Himalayas abut or cross five countries: India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Pakistan, with the
first three countries having sovereignty over most of the range.
[3]
The Himalayas are bordered on
the northwest by theKarakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau,
and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Three of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in
the Himalayas. While the Indus, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra rise near Mount Kailash, the
Ganges rises in the Indian state ofUttarkhand. Their combined drainage basin is home to some
600 million people.
Lifted by the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate,
[4]
the Himalayan range
runs, west-northwest to east-southeast, in an arc 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) long. Its western
anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river, its eastern
anchor, Namcha Barwa, just west of the great bend of the Tsangpo river. The range varies in
width from 400 kilometres (250 mi) in the west to 150 kilometres (93 mi) in the east.
Ecology[edit]
Main article: Ecology of the Himalaya
The flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate
ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice and snow at the highest
elevations. The amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of
the range. This diversity of altitude, rainfall and soil conditions combined with the very high snow
line supports a variety of distinct plant and animal communities. For example the extremes of
high altitude (low atmospheric pressure) combined with extreme cold
allow extremophile organisms to survive.
[5]

The unique floral and faunal wealth of the Himalayas is undergoing structural and compositional
changes due to climate change. The increase in temperature may shift various species to higher
elevations. The oak forest is being invaded by pine forests in the Garhwal Himalayan region.
There are reports of early flowering and fruiting in some tree species, especially rhododendron,
apple and Myrica esculenta. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is Juniperus
tibetica located at 4,900 metres (16,080 ft) in Southeastern Tibet.


Panoramic view of Langtang Range
Geology[edit]


The 6,000 km plus journey of the India landmass (Indian Plate) before its collision with Asia (Eurasian Plate)
about 40 to 50 million years ago
Main article: Geology of the Himalaya
The Himalaya are among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consist mostly of
uplifted sedimentary andmetamorphic rock. According to the modern theory of plate tectonics,
their formation is a result of a continental collision ororogeny along the convergent
boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The Arakan Yomahighlands
in Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were also formed as a
result of this collision.
During the Upper Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago, the north-moving Indo-Australian
Plate was moving at about 15 cm per year. About 50 million years ago this fast moving Indo-
Australian plate had completely closed the Tethys Ocean, the existence of which has been
determined by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor, and the volcanoes that fringed its
edges. Since both plates were composed of low density continental crust, they were thrust
faulted and folded into mountain ranges rather than subducting into the mantle along an oceanic
trench. An often-cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is
made of marine limestone from this ancient ocean.
Today, the Indo-Australian plate continues to be driven horizontally below the Tibetan plateau,
which forces the plateau to continue to move upwards. The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at
67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia. About
20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya
southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them
geologically active. The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also makes this
region seismically active, leading to earthquakes from time to time.
During the last ice age, there was a connected ice stream of glaciers between Kangchenjunga in
the east and Nanga Parbatin the west.
[8]
In the west, the glaciers joined with the ice stream
network in the Karakoram, and in the north, joined with the former Tibetan inland ice. To the
south, outflow glaciers came to an end below an elevation of 1,0002,000 metres (3,300
6,600 ft While the current valley glaciers of the Himalaya reach at most 20 to 32 kilometres (12 to
20 mi) in length, several of the main valley glaciers were 60 to 112 kilometres (37 to 70 mi) long
during the ice age.
[8]
The glacier snowline (the altitude where accumulation andablation of a
glacier are balanced) was about 1,4001,660 metres (4,5905,450 ft) lower than it is today.
Thus, the climate was at least 7.0 to 8.3 C (12.6 to 14.9 F) colder than it is today.
[10]

Hydrology[edit]


Indus River


The Himalayan range at Yumesongdong in Sikkim, in theYumthang River valley
The Himalayas have the third largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after Antarctica and
the Arctic. The Himalayan range encompasses about 15,000 glaciers, which store about
12,000 km
3
(3000 cubic miles) of fresh water Its glaciers include
the Gangotri and Yamunotri (Uttarakhand) and Khumbu glaciers (Mount Everest region),
and Zemu (Sikkim).
Owing to the mountains' latitude near the Tropic of Cancer, the permanent snow line is among
the highest in the world at typically around 5,500 metres (18,000 ft).
[13]
In
contrast, equatorial mountains in New Guinea, the Rwenzoris and Colombiahave a snow line
some 900 metres (2,950 ft) lower.
[14]
The higher regions of the Himalayas are snowbound
throughout the year, in spite of their proximity to the tropics, and they form the sources of several
large perennial rivers, most of which combine into two large river systems:
The western rivers combine into the Indus Basin, of which the Indus River is the largest. The
Indus begins in Tibet at the confluence of Sengge and Gar rivers and flows southwest
through India and then through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. It is fed by the Jhelum,
the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beas, and the Sutlej rivers, among others.
Most of the other Himalayan rivers drain the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin. Its main rivers are
the Ganges, theBrahmaputra and the Yamuna, as well as other tributaries. The Brahmaputra
originates as the Yarlung Tsangpo River in western Tibet, and flows east through Tibet and
west through the plains of Assam. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra meet in Bangladesh,
and drain into the Bay of Bengal through the world's largest river delta,the Sunderbans.
[15]

The easternmost Himalayan rivers feed the Ayeyarwady River, which originates in eastern Tibet
and flows south throughMyanmar to drain into the Andaman Sea.
The Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huang He (Yellow River) all originate from parts of
the Tibetan plateau that are geologically distinct from the Himalaya mountains, and are therefore
not considered true Himalayan rivers. Some geologists refer to all the rivers collectively as
the circum-Himalayan rivers. In recent years, scientists have monitored a notable increase in the
rate of glacier retreat across the region as a result of global climate change. For example, Glacial
lakes have been forming rapidly on the surface of the debris-covered glaciers in the Bhutan
Himalaya during the last few decades. Although the effect of this will not be known for many
years, it potentially could mean disaster for the hundreds of millions of people who rely on the
glaciers to feed the rivers of northern India during the dry seasons.
[18]
Some of the lakes present
a danger of a glacial lake outburst flood. The Tsho Rolpa glacier lake in the Rolwaling Valley is
rated as the most dangerous in Nepal.
[19][20]

Lakes[edit]


A high Himalayan lake at an altitude of around 5,000 metres Sikkim, India
The Himalayan region is dotted with hundreds of lakes. Most lakes are found at altitudes of less
than 5,000 m, with the size of the lakes diminishing with altitude. Tilicho Lake in Nepal in the
Annapurna massif is one of the highest lakes in the world.Pangong Tso, which is spread across
the border between India and China, and Yamdrok Tso, located in central Tibet, are amongst the
largest with surface areas of 700 km, and 638 km, respectively. Other notable lakes
include Gurudongmar Lake, in North Sikkim, and Lake Tsongmo, near the Indo-China border in
Sikkim.
The mountain lakes are known to geographers as tarns if they are caused by glacial activity.
Tarns are found mostly in the upper reaches of the Himalaya, above 5,500 metres.
[21]

A number of Tibetan Buddhist sites are situated in the Himalayas, including the residence of
the Dalai Lama. There were over 6,000 monasteries in Tibet.
[25]
TheTibetan Muslims had their
own mosques in Lhasa and Shigatse