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CONTINENTS

The classic example of two continents colliding is the sub continent of


India colliding with the continent of Asia. A European example can be
found where Italy collided with the rest of Europe, now Switzerland
and Austria.

Asia
India

India has been


steadily drifting
North away from
Africa after
Mantle PANGEA broke up.
As India moved towards Asia, the sea between the two land masses,
called the Sea of Tethys had new layers of sediment laid down on the
sea bed, brought by rivers flowing off the two continents

Rivers carry masses of


sediment into the sea
Sea of Tethys

Asia
India
India bulldozes the sea floor sediments up into folds, making the Sea of
Tethys even shallower.

Sea get shallower as


sediments builds up and is
pushed into folds by India
acting like a bulldozer.

Asia
India

Descending plate re-melts in


the upper mantle.
Gradually as the sediments get pushed even higher, the Sea of
Tethys begins to disappear, leaving stranded salt lakes

Salt lakes

Asia
India

Layers of sediment
get increasingly
folded.
As the sea dries up, the salt lakes become the salt
deposits of the future, trapped in fold mountains.

The sea has now gone,


leaving a range of young
fold mountains.

Asia
India
The folding becomes more dramatic and complex as the fold
mountains get higher.

Volcanic
activity
increases.

Asia
India
Asia India
The new range of mountains is called the Himalayas. They
are entirely made from sedimentary and metamorphic rock.

Asia India
As the two continents collide, the destructive plate margin
becomes inactive and volcanic activity almost stops. There is
still some forward movement of the Indian plate, so the
Himalayas are still growing higher.

Asia
India
Eventually, some time in the future, a new destructive plate
margin will form at the edge of the Indian Ocean.

Asia
India

New plate margin


forms under the
Indian Ocean.
The next sequence of slides
shows the process again,
without the labels.

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