why do we call the billion year old himalayas as young mountains?

Question

the himalayas the indian mountain range.

Answer 1

If the himalayas were truly a billion years old they would not be considered young. In fact they are nowhere near that.

The mountains formed as the result of a collision of India with Asia (India had broken off from Africa around 200 million years ago together with which it was part of the supercontinent known as pangaea).

The force of the collision between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate resulted in the creation of the Himalayan range.

However, this event did not occur until relatively recently, indeed India only broke away from Africa about 200 million years ago, and hit Asia about 40-50 million years ago - which makes these mountains incredibly young (consider earth is about 100 times that old!).

There's a nice little animation of the last 200 million years of continental drift showing India breaking off from Pangaea and hitting Asia here: http://www.scotese.com/pangeanim.htm (you need to drag your cursor right to left across the image to watch the movement).

Answer 2

Because in terms of Geologic age they are young. The earth is estimated to be 4,000,000,000 years old. The Himalayas started to come into existence about 70,000,000 years ago when the Indian tectonic plate came up against the Asian plate and thrust up the Himalayas and Hindu kush mountains. This region is still "geologically active" which is why there so many earthquakes in northern India and Pakistan, and why the Himalayas continue to grow at the rate of 5 millimeters per year. When we consider the estimated age of the Appalachian mountains in the U.S. which is about 300,000,000 years, we can understand why the Himalayas are called young. Here is a site with a good overview of the Himalayas including the theory of their formation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalaya

Answer 3

Because, geologically speaking, they are young. They came to being much later than other mountain ranges. For example British mountains are a lot older, and that is why they are so small, because they have been around for a while and all the exogenous forces have wore them down. Height is a good way to appreciate the age of mountains. If they are very tall, as the Himalayas are, then they are geologically the youngest.

Answer 4

They are not even a billion years old. Higher the mountains, younger they are. The Himalayas were formed when India collided with Asia. This raised the shallow sea bed of the Tethys Sea which folded up to form the Himalayas.

The Andes, Aravallis etc are much older than the Himalayas.

Answer 5

Because most mountain ranges are NOT a billion years old. Most of them are fairly young- the Himalayas are roughly 25000 to 50,000 years old. The Ozarks in the United States, and Mt Washingtons range in New Hampshire, in the United States are quite old- 250,000 to 1 million and they no longer have "Sharp, cragy rocks" but rolling hills from erosion where the rain and snow has worn down the rocks

Answer 6

we call as a young mountain because the himalayas are only about 70000000 years old.

Answer 7

Because, if they are indeed that old, then probably other mountains are a lot older, relatively speaking. That is if the Hymalayas are a billion years old then most other mountains are maybe 2-9 billion years old (if the earth has been here that long).

Answer 8

In geological terms (age) its very new. What i meant to say is they consider counting the age fromthe the formation of earth...
If we consider that factor then then himalayas were just formed (just 1 billion years ago...)

So it is called as a young mountain...

Hope that it will satisfy you

Answer 9

Because in comparison with other regions (such as siberia plane, for example) who are 4,5 billion years, those mountains are young. It all depends to what you compare their age. It's the same thing for man: a 40 year-old person is young for a 80 year-old one.

Answer 10

Because the earth is 4.6 billion years old, and it was probably the last mountain range formed because the whole inia plate thing.