The engines driving the growth of the world’s highest mountains into the sky run deep beneath the planet’s skin. Geologists have some idea of the mechanisms at work, but evidence has so far left plenty of room for debate over the details.
Combined with a fresh look at previous research, a recent analysis of new seismic data collected from across southern Tibet has delivered a surprising depiction of the titanic forces operating below the Himalayas.
Presenting at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco last December, researchers from institutions in the US and China described a disintegration of the Indian continental plate as it grinds along the basement of the Eurasian tectonic plate that sits atop it.
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