October 19, 2025 • 9 mins
A recent review challenges the long-held view that the Himalayas formed solely from a continuous collision between India and Asia, proposing instead a shorter, sharper collision followed by significant uplift driven by mantle dynamics and complex geological processes. This new model has implications for how scientists understand mountain building, plate tectonics, and seismic hazards globally.
Read the full article at https://www.paperleap.com/blog/articles/rethinking-the-complex-geology-of-the-himalayas-0cccyl
Read the full article at https://www.paperleap.com/blog/articles/rethinking-the-complex-geology-of-the-himalayas-0cccyl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the paper Leap podcast, where a science takes
the mic. Each episode, we discuss cutting edge research, groundbreaking discoveries,
and the incredible people behind them, across disciplines and across
the world. Whether you're a curious mind, a researcher, or
just love learning, you're in the right place before we start.
(00:21):
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an insight.
All the content is also available on paper leap dot com. Okay, ready,
let's start. On any world map, one feature immediately stands out,
the vast Tibetan plateau, often called the roof of the world.
(00:42):
Rising more than forty five hundred meters above sea level
and stretching across two million square kilometers, it dominates every
other highland on Earth. For decades, geologists have explained its
formation with a familiar story, India collise with Asia about
fifty million years ago, and the force of that slow
(01:05):
motion crash lifted to bet skyward. But what if that story,
taught in geology textbooks and repeated in countless documentaries, is
only partly true. That's the balt claim made by Young Faizang,
a geologist at the University of Science and Technology of China,
(01:25):
whose paper was published in Earth Science Reviews. Zeg argues
that two of the most widely accepted ideas about the
India Asia collision don't actually hold up when you look
closely at the evidence, and if he's right, it changes
how we understand the Himalayas and also reshapes how scientists
(01:47):
think about mountain building, plate tectonics, and the deep workings
of our planet. Since the nineteen seventies, earth science students
have been taught two core assumptions about the India Asia collision.
The collision has been ongoing throughout the entire Cenozoic era.
The past sixty five million years, the Indian continent has
(02:10):
been steadily sliding or underthrusting beneath Tibet like one bumper
of a car crumpling under another. These assumptions seemed to
explain the rise of the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayan peaks,
including Everest. They also fit nicely with the then new
theory of plate tectonics, which emphasizes the role of subduction
(02:34):
one slab of crust sinking beneath another as the engine
of mountain building. But Zeng points out something surprising. These
ideas were accepted long before there was strong evidence for them,
and over the decades, new data have raised more problems
than they solved. So what really happened? Zang's review of geological, geophysical,
(03:00):
and geochemical data suggests that the actual collision between Indian
Asia was surprisingly short lived. The crunch began when the
Neotethus Ocean, once separating India from Asia, finally disappeared. India's
northern edge scraped into Asia around fifty five to forty
(03:20):
five million years ago, producing what geologists called soft collision.
Imagine a car bumper grazing another before hitting harder. Soon after,
a hard collision followed, where continental crust shortened and rocks
were shoved up into thrust belts, creating the beginnings of
the Himalayas. But by about forty five million years ago,
(03:44):
the main collisional phase was already over. India did not
keep burrowing far under Tibet as many had assumed. Instead,
the geological evidence points to only shallow subduction, no more
than two hundred to three three hundred kilometers deep beneath
the Yar Lung zong Poh suture, the geological scar that
(04:06):
still marks where the two continents met India didn't wedge
its way under Tibet for tens of millions of years.
The big impact was quick geologically speaking. If the collision
was short lived, what explains Tibet's enormous uplift? What caused
the roof of the world to rise thousands of meter skyward,
(04:28):
mostly in the past thirty million years. Zang's answer shifts
the focus from crustal collision to mantle dynamics. Deep beneath
our feet, Earth's rigid outer shell, the lithosphere floats on
a softer, hotter layer called the astinosphere. After the early collision,
(04:48):
Zang argues that pieces of the dense lithospheric mantle beneath
Tibet began to founder, that is, break off and sink
into the deeper mantle. This allowed buoyant a sthenosphere to
well upward, heating the crust, melting rocks, and causing dramatic uplift.
It's a bit like removing heavy weights from a raft.
(05:11):
The raft bobs higher in the water. In this case,
Tibet rows as the heavy mantle roots peeled away. This
process also explains other puzzling geological signs, young granetic rocks
formed by crustal melting, metamorphic core complexes that domed upward,
and changes in the style of faulting from compression to extension.
(05:36):
These events mostly happened thirty to ten million years ago,
well after the supposedly long lived collision. Another key point
Zang makes is that Tibet is not one single uniform
block of crust. Instead, it's a mosaic of ancient terrains,
its small continental fragments in island arcs that were stitched
(05:59):
onto Asia long before India arrived. These sutures and weak
zones were later reactivated during the short lived collision and
again during post collisional mental upwellings. So the Himalaya Tibet
region isn't one single mountain belt created by one collision.
It's more like a collage assembled over hundreds of millions
(06:22):
of years and remodeled again and again by shifting tectonic forces.
The implications of these findings are significant. For one, the
India Asia collision has long been treated as the archetype
of continental collision. Geologists use it to interpret mountain belts
around the world, from the ancient Appalachians in North America
(06:44):
to the Alps in Europe. If our model of the
Himalayas is off, then much of our global tectonic thinking
may need to be revisited. It also changes how we
think about plate tectonics itself. The traditional view sees continents
as stiff bulldozers, pushing and shoving each other indefinitely. Zeng's
work highlights that mantle processes what happens beneath the crust
(07:09):
in the unseen depths of Earth, can be just as
important in raising mountains and shaping continents. Finally, Zeng's work
also has practical implications. The Himalayas are still seismically active,
home to devastating earthquakes. Understanding whether the collision is ongoing
or whether mantle upwellings are now the dominant process could
(07:33):
influence how geologists model seismic hazards in the region. Of course,
these two assumptions have been baked into decades of research,
from palaeomagnetic studies to seismic imaging. Therefore, some geophysicists still
interpret deep anomalies under Tibet as evidence of India plunging northward. Others, however,
(07:55):
see the same anomalies as fragments of foundered lithosphere. Just
as Zeng suggest. What makes Zeng's work stand out is
its synthetic approach. Rather than relying on one type of data,
he brings together geology, geophysics, and geochemistry, showing how multiple
strands point to the same conclusion. It's humbling to realize
(08:20):
that even the tallest mountains on Earth don't have a
simple origin story. The Himalayas, it seems, are less a
monument to a single titanic collision than the product of
multiple phases of assembly, collision and deep mantle dynamics, and
the Everest is the result of the restless, invisible flow
(08:41):
of Earth's mantle, reshaping the surface in ways we're only
beginning to understand. That's it for this episode of the
Paperlea podcast. If you found it thought provoking, fascinating, or
just informative, share it with the fellow science nerd. For
more research highlights and full articles, visit paperleef dot com.
(09:05):
Also make sure to subscribe to the podcast. We've got
plenty more discoveries to unpack. Until next time, Keep questioning,
keep learning,
Welcome to the paper Leap podcast, where a science takes
the mic. Each episode, we discuss cutting edge research, groundbreaking discoveries,
and the incredible people behind them, across disciplines and across
the world. Whether you're a curious mind, a researcher, or
just love learning, you're in the right place before we start.
(00:21):
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an insight.
All the content is also available on paper leap dot com. Okay, ready,
let's start. On any world map, one feature immediately stands out,
the vast Tibetan plateau, often called the roof of the world.
(00:42):
Rising more than forty five hundred meters above sea level
and stretching across two million square kilometers, it dominates every
other highland on Earth. For decades, geologists have explained its
formation with a familiar story, India collise with Asia about
fifty million years ago, and the force of that slow
(01:05):
motion crash lifted to bet skyward. But what if that story,
taught in geology textbooks and repeated in countless documentaries, is
only partly true. That's the balt claim made by Young Faizang,
a geologist at the University of Science and Technology of China,
(01:25):
whose paper was published in Earth Science Reviews. Zeg argues
that two of the most widely accepted ideas about the
India Asia collision don't actually hold up when you look
closely at the evidence, and if he's right, it changes
how we understand the Himalayas and also reshapes how scientists
(01:47):
think about mountain building, plate tectonics, and the deep workings
of our planet. Since the nineteen seventies, earth science students
have been taught two core assumptions about the India Asia collision.
The collision has been ongoing throughout the entire Cenozoic era.
The past sixty five million years, the Indian continent has
(02:10):
been steadily sliding or underthrusting beneath Tibet like one bumper
of a car crumpling under another. These assumptions seemed to
explain the rise of the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayan peaks,
including Everest. They also fit nicely with the then new
theory of plate tectonics, which emphasizes the role of subduction
(02:34):
one slab of crust sinking beneath another as the engine
of mountain building. But Zeng points out something surprising. These
ideas were accepted long before there was strong evidence for them,
and over the decades, new data have raised more problems
than they solved. So what really happened? Zang's review of geological, geophysical,
(03:00):
and geochemical data suggests that the actual collision between Indian
Asia was surprisingly short lived. The crunch began when the
Neotethus Ocean, once separating India from Asia, finally disappeared. India's
northern edge scraped into Asia around fifty five to forty
(03:20):
five million years ago, producing what geologists called soft collision.
Imagine a car bumper grazing another before hitting harder. Soon after,
a hard collision followed, where continental crust shortened and rocks
were shoved up into thrust belts, creating the beginnings of
the Himalayas. But by about forty five million years ago,
(03:44):
the main collisional phase was already over. India did not
keep burrowing far under Tibet as many had assumed. Instead,
the geological evidence points to only shallow subduction, no more
than two hundred to three three hundred kilometers deep beneath
the Yar Lung zong Poh suture, the geological scar that
(04:06):
still marks where the two continents met India didn't wedge
its way under Tibet for tens of millions of years.
The big impact was quick geologically speaking. If the collision
was short lived, what explains Tibet's enormous uplift? What caused
the roof of the world to rise thousands of meter skyward,
(04:28):
mostly in the past thirty million years. Zang's answer shifts
the focus from crustal collision to mantle dynamics. Deep beneath
our feet, Earth's rigid outer shell, the lithosphere floats on
a softer, hotter layer called the astinosphere. After the early collision,
(04:48):
Zang argues that pieces of the dense lithospheric mantle beneath
Tibet began to founder, that is, break off and sink
into the deeper mantle. This allowed buoyant a sthenosphere to
well upward, heating the crust, melting rocks, and causing dramatic uplift.
It's a bit like removing heavy weights from a raft.
(05:11):
The raft bobs higher in the water. In this case,
Tibet rows as the heavy mantle roots peeled away. This
process also explains other puzzling geological signs, young granetic rocks
formed by crustal melting, metamorphic core complexes that domed upward,
and changes in the style of faulting from compression to extension.
(05:36):
These events mostly happened thirty to ten million years ago,
well after the supposedly long lived collision. Another key point
Zang makes is that Tibet is not one single uniform
block of crust. Instead, it's a mosaic of ancient terrains,
its small continental fragments in island arcs that were stitched
(05:59):
onto Asia long before India arrived. These sutures and weak
zones were later reactivated during the short lived collision and
again during post collisional mental upwellings. So the Himalaya Tibet
region isn't one single mountain belt created by one collision.
It's more like a collage assembled over hundreds of millions
(06:22):
of years and remodeled again and again by shifting tectonic forces.
The implications of these findings are significant. For one, the
India Asia collision has long been treated as the archetype
of continental collision. Geologists use it to interpret mountain belts
around the world, from the ancient Appalachians in North America
(06:44):
to the Alps in Europe. If our model of the
Himalayas is off, then much of our global tectonic thinking
may need to be revisited. It also changes how we
think about plate tectonics itself. The traditional view sees continents
as stiff bulldozers, pushing and shoving each other indefinitely. Zeng's
work highlights that mantle processes what happens beneath the crust
(07:09):
in the unseen depths of Earth, can be just as
important in raising mountains and shaping continents. Finally, Zeng's work
also has practical implications. The Himalayas are still seismically active,
home to devastating earthquakes. Understanding whether the collision is ongoing
or whether mantle upwellings are now the dominant process could
(07:33):
influence how geologists model seismic hazards in the region. Of course,
these two assumptions have been baked into decades of research,
from palaeomagnetic studies to seismic imaging. Therefore, some geophysicists still
interpret deep anomalies under Tibet as evidence of India plunging northward. Others, however,
(07:55):
see the same anomalies as fragments of foundered lithosphere. Just
as Zeng suggest. What makes Zeng's work stand out is
its synthetic approach. Rather than relying on one type of data,
he brings together geology, geophysics, and geochemistry, showing how multiple
strands point to the same conclusion. It's humbling to realize
(08:20):
that even the tallest mountains on Earth don't have a
simple origin story. The Himalayas, it seems, are less a
monument to a single titanic collision than the product of
multiple phases of assembly, collision and deep mantle dynamics, and
the Everest is the result of the restless, invisible flow
(08:41):
of Earth's mantle, reshaping the surface in ways we're only
beginning to understand. That's it for this episode of the
Paperlea podcast. If you found it thought provoking, fascinating, or
just informative, share it with the fellow science nerd. For
more research highlights and full articles, visit paperleef dot com.
(09:05):
Also make sure to subscribe to the podcast. We've got
plenty more discoveries to unpack. Until next time, Keep questioning,
keep learning,
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