Sivalik Hills
The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about 2,400 km (1,500 mi) from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is 10–50 km (6.2–31.1 mi) wide with an average elevation of 1,500–2,000 m (4,900–6,600 ft). Between the Teesta and Raidāk Rivers in Assam is a gap of about 90 km (56 mi).[1] The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'.[2] Sivalik region is home to the Soanian archaeological culture.[3] The hills are well known for their Neogene and Pleistocene aged vertebrate fossils.[4]
Geology
Geologically, the Sivalik Hills belong to the Tertiary deposits of the outer Himalayas.[5] They are chiefly composed of sandstone and conglomerate rock formations, which are the solidified detritus of the Himalayas[5] to their north; they are poorly consolidated. The sedimentary rocks comprising the hills are believed to be 16–5.2 million years old.[6]
They are bounded on the south by a fault system called the Main Frontal Thrust, with steeper slopes on that side. Below this, the coarse alluvial Bhabar zone makes the transition to the nearly level plains. Rainfall, especially during the summer monsoon, percolates into the Bhabar, then is forced to the surface by finer alluvial layers below it in a zone of springs and marshes along the northern edge of the Terai or plains.[7]
Prehistory
The Sivalik Hills are well known for fossils of vertebrates, spanning from the Early
Remains of the Lower Paleolithic Soanian culture dating to around 500,000 to 125,000 BP were found in the Sivalik region.[10] Contemporary to the Acheulean, the Soanian culture is named after the Soan Valley in the Sivalik Hills of Pakistan. The Soanian archaeological culture is found across Sivalik region in present-day India, Nepal and Pakistan.[3]
Sivapithecus (a kind of ape, formerly known as Ramapithecus) is among many fossil finds in the Sivalik region.[11]
A number of fossil
Demographics
The low human population density in the Sivalik Hills and along the steep southern slopes of the Lower Himalayan Range created a cultural, linguistic, and political buffer zone between populations in the plains to the south and the hills beyond the Mahabharat escarpment, enabling different evolutionary paths with respect to language and culture.[citation needed]
In culture
The
See also
- Subranges of Sivalik (from north to south)
- Geological subdivisions of Himalayas (from north to south)
- Indus-Yarlung suture zone
- Karakoram fault system
- Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains
- Main Himalayan Thrust
- Lower/Lesser Himalaya
- Geographical subdivisions of Himalayas (from east to west)
- Eastern Himalaya
- Indian Himalayan Region, Geology of Bhutan and Geology of Nepal
- Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Geography of Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Geology of Pakistan
References
- ISBN 978-81-7387-135-1.
- ISBN 9788184659757.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-119-05547-1.
- .
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 163–164.
- hdl:2115/38248.
- ^ Mani, M.S. (2012). Ecology and Biogeography in India. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 690.
- .
- ^ Patnaik, Rajeev (31 January 2013), "Chapter 17. Indian Neogene Siwalik Mammalian Biostratigraphy An Overview", Fossil Mammals of Asia, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, retrieved 22 August 2023
- .
- ISSN 0047-2484. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
- .
27°46′N 82°24′E / 27.767°N 82.400°E
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