Rock, not drama, sets the Himalayas apart. Where most ranges ride on mixed oceanic and continental plates, this chain sits on two buoyant continental slabs locked in a long collision, so instead of one plate diving cleanly into the mantle, both crumple and thicken into an unusually tall stack of crust.That stubborn buoyancy is the key. Continental crust is low density silica‑rich material; it resi...More