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Himalaya  The Himalaya (the Himalayan Range) is a mountain range in Asia, separating India and the Northern Areas of Pakistan on the south and southwest from the vast Tibetan plateau (now part of China) on the north. The proper name for the range is Himalaya, though the name Himalayas is commonly used. Nepal and Bhutan are sovereign nations in the southern foothills. The Himalaya connects with the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan. The word Himalaya is of Sanskrit origin and means abode of snow (Sanskrit 'him'-snow, and 'aalaya'-home or abode). In its Hindi/Sanskrit pronunciation, Himalaya is pronounced with a long first 'a' and a short last 'a', i.e. as 'himaal-ya', rather than as 'him-u-l-yu' or 'him-u-layaa'. The world's highest mountains, including Everest (8850 m), K2 (8611 m) and Kanchenjunga (8598 m), are situated in the Himalaya.
How the Himalaya were formedAccording to plate tectonics, the Himalaya is the result of a convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian Plates. The continued movement of these plates means the Himalaya are still growing in size. Geologists believe that the Himalaya would rise at the rate of about 8 to 10 centimeters per year if plate tectonics were the only factor. There are also, however, forces of erosion which are wearing the mountains down. The approximate net growth of the Himalaya amounts to 2.5 to 5 centimeters per century. HimalHimal is Nepalese for "range" and is used to name the various regions of the Himalaya. In Nepal, these are as follows:
Notable individual peaks
See also
External Links
da:Himalaya de:Himalaya es:Himalaya fr:Himalaya it:Himalaya ms:Himalaya nl:Himalaya ja:ヒマラヤ山脈 pl:Himalaje pt:Himalaia sv:Himalaya uk:Гімалаї zh-cn:喜马拉雅山脉
Categories: Asia | Mountain ranges
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