A new geological study has uncovered striking evidence that the Indian Plate, the massive slab of Earth’s crust driving the rise of the Himalayas, is tearing and warping deep beneath the mountain range.

The findings offer fresh insight into the powerful underground forces that continue to shape the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, two of the planet’s most dynamic geological regions.

For decades, scientists have known that the Himalayas formed as the Indian Plate collided with and pushed beneath the Eurasian Plate, a process that began around 50 million years ago. But new 3D seismic data, obtained through S-wave receiver function imaging, show that this process is far more complex than previously thought.

According to the research, published in pre-print, the Indian Plate does not mo

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