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Nature 455, 748-749 (9 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/455748a; Published online 8 October 2008

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Geomorphology: How Tibet might keep its edge

Lewis A. Owen1

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The stability of the margins of the Himalayan–Tibetan mountain belt constitutes a puzzle. Repeated damming of major Tibetan rivers by glaciers, so controlling river erosion, is a possible explanation.

The collision of the Indian and Asian continental plates is the most dramatic tectonic event that Earth has experienced in the past 50 million years. It resulted in the formation of the Himalayan–Tibetan mountain belt, the growth of which initiated the south Asian monsoon, created some of the world's greatest rivers and gorges, and established the most highly glaciated realm outside polar regions.

  1. Lewis A. Owen is in the Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA.
    Email: lewis.owen@uc.edu