Eroding the Himalaya

Abstract

The Himalaya have been one of the key natural laboratories for the study of the interactions between erosion, climate and tectonics due to a number of first-order features which make this range one of the most singular geological settings on Earth. This chapter highlights the most notable characteristics of Himalayan erosion, such as the main processes involved in and the spatial patterns of erosion, the coupling of erosion with tectonic and climatic forcing, as well as the temporal variability of these processes over periods ranging from single events to millions of years. The chapter presents the three families of surface processes responsible for eroding the Himalayan range. These include: Himalayan rivers, the glaciated high range, and critical hillslopes. Denudation processes slowly shape landscapes over millions of years, but this long-term evolution results in many cases from the incremental contribution of brief and intense events.