Alpine-Himalayan belt
Also called: Mid-continental belt · Topic: Interior of the Earth: Earthquakes, Volcanoes and the Layered Earth · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Distribution of Oceans and Continents"
Meaning
The Alpine-Himalayan belt is a long zone of frequent earthquakes and some volcanoes. It runs from the Alps through Turkey and Iran to the Himalayas, Myanmar and Indonesia. It forms where the African, Arabian and Indian plates push into the Eurasian plate. The rocks crumple, crack and slip, so quakes are common. The foci (the points inside the earth where quakes start) are often deep. The belt also has volcanoes such as Etna and Vesuvius in Italy.
Example
The Himalayas along India's northern border lie in this belt. Great quakes here include Kangra (1905), Bihar-Nepal (1934), Assam-Tibet (1950) and Gorkha in Nepal (2015).
Don't confuse with
- Ring of Fire: this is the belt around the rim of the Pacific. It releases most of the world's earthquake energy and has most active volcanoes. The Alpine-Himalayan belt is a land-based collision zone that runs east-west across Europe and Asia.
Related concepts
- Seismic gap
- Assam-Tibet earthquake (1950)
- Gorkha earthquake (2015)
- Turkey-Syria earthquake (2023)
- Myanmar earthquake (2025)