According to the modern theory of plate tectonics, Indian plate split off from Gondwanaland about 90 million years ago in Cretaceous period. Than it fused with the Australian Plate and named "Indo-Aus
tralian plate". After that it began moves towards north, at about 20 cm per year and collided with the Eurasian Plate. The collision began in the Upper Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago, before it collides there was a Tethys Ocean between India and China. About 50 million years ago, this fast moving Indo-Australian plate had completely closed the Eurasian Plate. Geologists suggested that the reason the Indian Plate moved so quickly is that it is only half as thick as the other plates which formerly constituted Gondwanaland. Due to this collision the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks settled on the ocean floor, and the volcanoes that fringed its edges had uplifted and formed a mountain ranges known as "Himalayas". These Himalayas are among the youngest mountain ranges on the world. Mount Everest (8848 m) the highest peak of the world of Nepal and the Arakan Yoma highlands in Myanmar and the Andaman Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were also formed as a result of this collision. The Indo-Australian plate continues to be driven horizontally below the Tibetan plateau, which forces the plateau to move upwards. About 20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by trusting along the Himalaya southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year. The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 5 cm per year, while the Eurasian Plate is moving north at only 2 cm per year. This is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the India Plate to compress at a rate of 4 mm per year and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1500 km into Asia.
