The Himalayas may be a good five million years older than earlier estimates of the formation of the world’s highest mountain range, according to a joint study by Indian and British ocean scientists. The new findings position its era of formation to around 13.9-14.4 million years ago as against the earlier theory of eight million years.

The study carried out by Dr KS Krishna of National Institute of Oceanography and his British colleagues, Southampton University professor Jon Bull and Edinburg University professor Roger Scrutton was published in the March issue of the Geological Society of America journal, Geology.

 

The study found that the Earth’s lithosphere within the central Indian Ocean began to deform and fracture 13.9-14.4 million years ago much earlier than previously thought. It focuses on the tectonics-related deformation of the lithosphere below the central Indian Ocean.

 

India and Asia collided around 50 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, large-scale movements of the lithosphere, the study said. “Compression of the lithosphere has caused large-scale buckling and cracking. The ocean floor has been systematically transformed into folds 100-300 mt high, and there are also regularly spaced faults or cracks,” Krishna said.