Himalayas is one of the Mightiest creations of Almighty God. The word Himalaya means "abode of snow" and this majestic range is considered as the “roof of the world”.
This awe inspiring mighty creation is made up of 30 mountains which has nine among the world's highest mountain peaks. As we all know, Mount Everest is the world's highest peak which was named by Major General Sir Andrew Scott Waugh in 1856 out of respect for Colonel Sir George Everest who was a British surveyor and geographer. From 1830 to 1843 Colonel Sir George Everest served as Surveyor General of India.
The Mighty Himalayas
Facts of Himalayas
1. The Mighty Himalayas; the Himalayan mountains are situated on India's northern border and spread across six countries such as India, Nepal, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan.
2. This mighty Himalayan range runs over a length of 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) forming an arc from northwest to southeast. The maximum width of this arc is around 400 kilometres and minimum width is around 150 kilometres.
3. One astonishing fact is that the Himalayas cover 0.4% of the earth's area, that is it occupies 612,021 square kilometres out of earth's 153,295,000 square kilometres.
4. Himalayas holds the incredible record of having top 9 tallest mountains in the world. The Himalaya mountains are Everest 8,848 meters, K2 8,611 meters, Kanchenjunga 8,586 meters, Lhotse 8516 meters, Makalu 8481 meters, Cho Oyu 8201 metres, Dhaulagiri I 8167 meters, Manaslu 8156 meters and Nanga Parbat 8,126 meters.
5. Though Majestic and huge they are the youngest mountain range on earth of approximately 70 million years old. They have 50 mountains or peaks above 7,000 meters height and 14 mountains of 8,000-metres height.
6. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing) were the first two people to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953. It is estimated that Mount Everest was climbed by more than 5000 people. The pair two Sherpas; Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi reached the summit an incredible of 21 times thus holding record for most Everest ascents.
7. The Himalaya ranges were pushed up by the tectonic plate movements that pushed India and Tibet together. It is estimated that the height of Himalayas is increasing 5mm per year due to convergence of Indian tectonic plate with the Asian plate.
8. The main or major Himalayan Rivers are Ganges, Indus, Yarlung, Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Nujiang. Indus is the largest of them originating in Tibet and drain into the Arabian Sea. The Ganges-Brahmaputra system includes The Ganga, The Yamuna and The Brahmaputra; they merge together and drain into the Bay of Bengal through the Sunder bans, the largest river delta in world.
9. The Himalayas comprises about 15,000 glaciers storing about 12,000 km3 of fresh water. The largest glacier is the Siachen glacier which is about 48 miles long. Other glaciers include the Gangotri, the Yamunotri, the Khumbu glaciers, the Langtang glacier and the Zemu glacier. The Himalaya contains the world’s 3rd largest deposit of ice and snow.
10. The Himalayas have such diverse topography that its ecological systems can include coniferous forests, grasslands, sub-tropical broad leaf forests, tropical rain forests, and glaciers
11. Snow leopard, Himalayan blue sheep, Himalayan musk deer, Himalayan tahr, the takin, the Himalayan serow, the Himalayan goral, brown bear, Red Panda, Gee's golden langur, Kashmir gray langur are some animals found at different parts of Himalayas. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is called Juniperus tibetica (4,900 m).
No comments:
Post a Comment