One of the biggest countries is starting to split into two, a new study discovers

There is rarely any mountain as majestic as the Himalayas that tower so high in the sky that humans feel like a dot standing in front of them. But it is a lesser-known fact that the Himalayas are not just picturesque, but also a field considered significant for studying geology. A 2023 research in this region proposed that the Indian tectonic plate, which accounts for a portion of the Himalayas bottom, might be splitting into two. The reason, the plates beneath the Himalayas are undergoing a bizarre process.

Stretching upwards into steep, jagged formations, the Great Himalayas Range comprises hundreds of peaks, with Mount Everest reaching a height of 29,035 feet. It was sculpted for the first time 40-50 million years ago when the Indian Plate bumped into the Eurasian Plate, buckling the surface, and giving shape to the tallest mountain in the world. Since both plates had the same thickness, they didn’t crash each other, but rather, clumped into each other, and gave birth to colossal rocky structures.

A geologist from Stanford University, Simon L Klemperer, went on a hunt to the Himalayan zone in Bhutan, with some of his fellow geodynamicists. There, they investigated the levels of helium present in the Tibetan springs. Although the Himalayas are a mine for elements like gold and silver, the presence of helium, especially in inappropriate amounts, was suggestive of the possibility that there was a dormant volcano hidden somewhere underneath.

The study was carried out following the consideration of two previous theories in mind. One theory was that the Indian Plate was horizontally colliding with the Eurasian Plate, while the second theory suggested that the Indian Plate was dipping beneath the Eurasian Plate, melting into magma and spewing helium. The study found the levels of helium were higher in southern Tibet as compared to northern Tibet. By this, Klemperer concluded that the Indian tectonic plate was splitting in two fragments underneath the Tibetan plateau, in a process known as “delamination.”

Klemperer considered both theories and proposed a third theory, where he said that the processes mentioned in the first two were occurring simultaneously. While the top part of the Indian Plate was rubbing with the Eurasian Plate, the bottom part of the Indian Plate was diverging (subducting) into the mantle. The researchers originally presented their findings in December 2023 at the American Geophysical Union conference. “We didn’t know continents could behave this way and that is, for solid earth science, pretty fundamental,” Douwe van Hinsbergen, a geodynamicist from Utrecht University, told Science.

To carry out the study, Klemperer used a series of isotope instruments to measure helium bubbling in the mountain springs. They collected samples from about 200 springs across 621 miles and found the stark line where mantle rocks linked with the crust rocks. They discovered a group of three springs where the Indian Plate appeared to be peeling like the two yellow peels of a banana.

The layers of a tectonic plate are designed like a layered cake. The bottom-most layer is dense and thicker than the upper layers. But when two plates crash into each other, there is a possibility that the weaker layers may surrender and start to become fractured. So, before this research, scientists were aware that tectonic plates could peel away like this. But this process was mostly observed in the thick continental plates and simulated in computer models, “This is the first time that … it’s been caught in the act in a downgoing plate,” van Hinsbergen said.

This wobbling configuration of the tectonic plates poses a threat to the great mountain range, while also suggesting the danger of unexpected earthquakes and tremors. Though the study revealed precious data, the results depicted the contradictory forces of nature in dance with each other.