New Himalayan Fault

A river cuts through the Himalaya Mountains near where a research team has found a new active "thrust fault."  The discovery highlights a possible connection between climate and continental plate movements.

The new fault is in Nepal, where the Indian subcontinent rams into Asia.  The collision causes the Himalayas to grow a half-inch or more each year.  

"The incredible mass of this uplifted plateau is struggling for someplace to go," said Arjun Heimsath from Dartmouth College. 

Heimsath and colleagues speculate that the weight of the Earth's highest mountains is partly relieved by erosion.  Indeed, the new fault is in the path of monsoons, which cause the area to have some of the highest erosion rates in the world.

"It's possible that focused erosion processes, which remove material at a high rate along the base of the Himalaya, are enabling a reduction in this accumulated potential energy," Heimsath said.

It remains a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem whether the climate drives the erosion that causes the faulting, or if the faulting causes the erosion that influences the climate.

Results of the study will be published in the April 21 issue of the journal Nature. 

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• Earth Movers: Humans Cause Most Erosion

-- LiveScience Staff

Credit: Arjun Heimsath