The Himalaya begin to rise
The highest mountains on Earth start going up, and start pulling carbon out of the air.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 16 million years
- Known to
- ± 3 million years
- Era
- Eocene, Cenozoic
The collision thickens the crust to twice its normal depth and begins raising the Himalaya and, behind them, the Tibetan Plateau. The consequences reach well beyond topography. Fresh silicate rock exposed to monsoon rain weathers rapidly, and silicate weathering consumes atmospheric carbon dioxide — the Raymo hypothesis holds that Himalayan uplift is a principal driver of Cenozoic cooling. The plateau also reorganises atmospheric circulation across Asia and eventually creates the monsoon system that a third of humanity now depends on.