Greater Himalaya

Also called: Himadri, Inner Himalaya, Great Himalayan range, Central axial range · Topic: Structure and Physiography of India: Himalayas, Plains, Peninsula, Coasts and Islands · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "Geographical Diversity of India"; Class 11, Ch 2 "Structure and Physiography"; Class 11, Ch 3 "Drainage System"

Meaning

The Greater Himalaya (also called Himadri, meaning "abode of snow") is the northernmost and highest continuous range of the main Himalaya. It averages about 6,000 m in height, has a granite core, and is covered by permanent snow and glaciers. Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat and Nanda Devi stand on it.

It matters because it holds the world's highest peaks, and its glaciers feed rivers that flow all year across north India. It is also tested often through peak–location matches and questions on the order of the ranges.

Explanation

How it formed

• Cause: the Indian plate pushed into the Eurasian plate.
• Process: the rock layers between them crumpled and rose. This happened during the Tertiary Himalayan orogeny (a period of mountain building). So the Himalaya is a young fold mountain (mountains formed when rock layers are squeezed and pushed up).
• Result: the Himalaya rose as a set of parallel ranges. From north to south they are: Trans-Himalaya → Greater Himalaya → Lesser Himalaya → Shiwalik. The Greater Himalaya is the highest of them. Height falls as you go south.
• It is still rising. India keeps pushing north. Along the Main Himalayan Thrust, the boundary between the two plates, rocks slip by about 12-21 mm a year [5]. Strain builds up and is released as earthquakes.

Main features

• Height: about 6,000 m on average. It is the highest and most continuous Himalayan range.
• Width: 50-75 km [4].
• Rock: a granite core. Granite is a hard rock that forms when molten rock cools slowly deep underground.
• Snow and ice: it is covered by permanent snow and glaciers. These feed perennial rivers (rivers that flow all year).
• People: very few people live here. It is too cold and too steep.
• Gorges: rivers such as the Indus, Satluj and Brahmaputra are older than the mountains. They kept cutting down while the land rose, so they now cross the ranges in deep gorges. Rivers like this are called antecedent rivers. The Tsangpo makes a sharp U-turn around Namcha Barwa and cuts one of the deepest gorges in the world.

Boundaries (thrust faults)

• A thrust fault is a crack in the crust where one block of rock is pushed up and over another. All the main Himalayan thrusts slope down towards the north [5].
• Southern edge: the Main Central Thrust (MCT) separates the Lesser Himalaya from the Greater Himalaya [5].
• Northern edge: the South Tibetan Detachment (STD) separates the Greater Himalaya from the Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) [5]. A suture zone is the line where two plates have joined.

Peaks and the two ends

Peak	Height	Where	Key fact
Mount Everest	8,848.86 m (2020) [2]	Nepal-China (Tibet) border	world's highest; called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet
Kanchenjunga	8,586 m	Sikkim-Nepal border	world's 3rd highest; highest peak in land India actually controls
Nanga Parbat	8,126 m	Gilgit-Baltistan	western anchor of the Himalaya
Nanda Devi	7,816 m	Uttarakhand	highest peak wholly inside India
Namcha Barwa	about 7,755 m	Tibet	eastern anchor of the Himalaya
Kamet, Trisul, Badrinath	—	Uttarakhand	other big Himadri peaks

• Everest's height:
• In 2020, China and Nepal jointly announced a new height of 8,848.86 m (29,031.69 ft). It is now widely accepted [2].
• The exact height is still debated, because snow depth, gravity and the bending of light all affect the survey [2].

• Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first climbed it in 1953.

• The ends: Nanga Parbat (west) and Namcha Barwa (east) are the two "anchors". Near both, the Himalaya bends sharply. These sharp bends are called syntaxes.

Where it occurs

• Overall extent: it runs as one unbroken wall from Nanga Parbat (Gilgit-Baltistan) in the west to Namcha Barwa (Tibet) in the east.
• India:
• Uttarakhand: Nanda Devi, Kamet, Trisul, Badrinath.
• Sikkim: Kanchenjunga, on the Sikkim-Nepal border.
• Jammu and Kashmir: the Greater Himalaya forms the northern wall of the Kashmir valley. The valley lies between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya.

• Arunachal Pradesh: after its U-turn around Namcha Barwa, the Tsangpo enters here as the Siang. It later becomes the Brahmaputra.

• Nepal and Tibet (China): Mount Everest stands on the Nepal-China border.

• Pakistan-held Gilgit-Baltistan (claimed by India): Nanga Parbat.

Don't confuse with

• Trans-Himalaya (Tibetan Himalaya): this lies north of the Greater Himalaya and includes the Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar and Kailash ranges. K2 (8,611 m) is in the Karakoram, not the Greater Himalaya.
• Lesser Himalaya (Himachal): this lies south of the MCT and averages 3,700-4,500 m [3]. It has the hill stations (Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital, Darjeeling) and ranges such as the Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar. The Greater Himalaya has almost no settlements.
• Shiwalik (Outer Himalaya): this is the southernmost and youngest belt, at 900-1,100 m. It is made of loose river gravel, not a granite core.
• Highest peak questions: K2 is India's officially claimed highest. Kanchenjunga is the highest in land India controls. Nanda Devi is the highest wholly inside India. Only Kanchenjunga and Nanda Devi are Greater Himalaya peaks.

Prelims Hooks

• Order from north to south: Trans-Himalaya → Greater Himalaya (Himadri) → Lesser Himalaya (Himachal) → Shiwalik.
• Fault boundaries: the MCT is the southern limit of the Greater Himalaya (Lesser/Greater). The South Tibetan Detachment is its northern limit (Greater/ITSZ) [5].
• Peak–state pairs: Nanda Devi (7,816 m) is in Uttarakhand, the highest peak wholly inside India. Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) is on the Sikkim-Nepal border.
• Anchors: Nanga Parbat is the western anchor. Namcha Barwa is the eastern anchor, where the Tsangpo makes its U-turn gorge.
• Everest trap: the new height of 8,848.86 m was announced jointly by China and Nepal in 2020, not by India [2].
• Key figures: about 6,000 m average height, 50-75 km wide [4], granite core.

Mains Points

• Hazards (GS-III): the Greater Himalaya brings glacier and avalanche risk.
• India is still moving north, and the plate boundary slips about 12-21 mm a year [5].

• Strain builds up for great earthquakes. So building codes, land-use zoning and disaster planning must be matched to each belt.

• Water security (GS-I/GS-III): the snow and glaciers of the Greater Himalaya feed perennial rivers such as the Indus, Satluj and Brahmaputra.

• These rivers support farming and hydropower across north India.

• The rivers cross international borders (Tibet → Arunachal as the Siang), so the health of these glaciers also affects India's relations with its neighbours.

• Relief and settlement (GS-I): the height, cold and steep slopes keep the Himadri almost empty of people. This is very different from the crowded Lesser Himalaya and the duns. The Himadri also acts as a high natural wall on India's northern frontier.

Related concepts

• Lesser Himalaya
• Shiwalik
• Ladakh and Zaskar ranges
• Kailash range
• Mount Everest
• Kanchenjunga
• Namcha Barwa
• Pir Panjal range

Read more

• The parallel ranges: Trans-Himalaya, Greater Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya and Shiwalik