India's technical plate is very thin

2007/10/18 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Geologia

The mountains of Himalaia are the highest on Earth, not only because India's plate of tectonics collided with that of Eurasia, but because it came to that collision with great speed. But how did the Indian plate have so much speed? A group of geologists from India and Germany found an answer: Because the Indian plate is very thin, much thinner than

the plates that formed with it. It broke 130 million years ago and each fraction made its own way. Antarctica remained in the place of the plate of origin, slowly moving Africa and Australia,

and India headed north at a speed of 20 centimeters a year. The Indian left at that speed for being very thin, just 100 kilometers. Other plates coming from the Gondwanaland plate have thicknesses between 180 and 300 kilometers.