The Himalayas, which include the world's tallest mountains, weren't born the way geoscientists thought. The tectonic plates that collided to form the peaks 45 million to 59 million years ago were already pushing against each other, causing the Himalayan mountains to rise to more than half their current elevation, before the big crash gave them a violent shunt upward, scientists say.
This means the iconic mountains may have started their ascent into the sky far earlier than previously believed — around 63 million to 61 million years ago — due to the subduction of the oceanic part of the Indian tectonic plate.
