How did the collision between India and Asia form the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau?

The formation of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau is the result of the ongoing continental collision between the Indian subcontinent and Eurasia, which began approximately 40 to 50 million years ago during the Cenozoic Era.123

As India moved northward, it consumed the intervening Tethys Ocean floor through subduction. Upon the collision of the two buoyant continental plates, neither could be fully subducted. Instead, the leading edge of India was thrust beneath southern Asia, causing intense crustal shortening and thickening.2341

The Plateau of Tibet formed as the Asian continental lithosphere was compressed and thickened, effectively doubling its crustal depth. Simultaneously, the Himalayas rose as metamorphic and sedimentary rocks were scraped off the Indian margin and thrust upward in massive sheets. This process continues today, with India moving northward at about 6 cm per year, maintaining the high elevations of these regions through ongoing tectonic pressure and crustal deformation.413