PHYSIOGRAPHY_2

The Indian mainland can be divided into five physiographic units namely
i. The Great Mountains of the North
ii. The North Indian Plains
iii. The Peninsular Plateau
iv. The Coastal Plains
v. The Islands

Northern Mountains

• The mountains of the north are young fold mountains
• The Himalayas are the most prominent among these mountain ranges. Besides this, the trans-Himalayan ranges and the hill ranges of Purvachal are the important units.

The Himalayas

THE GREAT HIMALAYA

 

• It is one of the youngest mountain systems in the world and comprise mainly sedimentary rocks.
• The Indus valley in Kashmir and the Brahmaputra valley in Arunachal Pradesh are accepted as the western and the eastern limits of the Himalayas in India.
•  The Himalayan region is considered the largest snow field in the world outside the polar ice caps
•  The Himalayan chain measures about 2,500 km from west to east and width of this fold system varies between 150 and 400km

• According to the plate tectonics theory, the Indian plate moved northwards and its forward edge penetrated below the southern edge of the Tibetan plate. This resulted in the folding and uplift of the Himalayas.

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