Geosyncline Theory of Formation of Himalayas

There are two theories of formation of Himalayas mountains, the first theory is “The Geosyncline Theory” and the second theory is “The Plate Tectonic Theory”. In this article, we’re going to learn about the Geosyncline Theory.

200 million years ago the super continent Pangea started to disintegrate into smaller continents. The northern part of Pangea was known as Lauratia or Angaraland and the southern part of the Pangea was known as Gondwana land.

As you can see in the image above, the supercontinent Pangea started to disintegrate into Lauratia and Gondwanaland and a vast empty space was formed between these two giant continents. You also know that most of the rivers today fall into the sea and all the debris, eroded material and other objects that the rivers bring with them are deposited into the sea.

The same way, rivers from Lauratia and Gondwanaland brought immense amount of eroded material and debris with them and poured it into the Tethys sea.

This process of deposition went on for several millions of years and eventually during the Cretaceous period the bed of the Tethys sea started to rise which led to the formation of three successive ranges of the Himalayas.

The first uplifting occurred during the Eocene Period and led to the formation of Greater Himalayas. The second uplifting took place during Miocene period and led to the formation of Lesser Himalayas and the third uplifting took place during the Pliocene period and the Shiwaliks or the outer Himalayas were formed.

​I hope you understood what the theory of Geosyncline is all about.
The theory of Geosyncline origin is supported by Argand, Kober and Suess.