Rivers in the Himalaya: Responses to Neotectonics and Past Climate

Abstract

Rivers in Himalaya respond to tectonics and climate of the region on different spatio-temporal scales. Here we present a brief account of Indian contribution, on the study pertaining to the fluvial record from Himalaya during 2011-2015. Total number of papers published in SCI journals and edited books are 64 where authors have mainly focused on the understanding of (i) extreme events and their terrain responses in Himalaya (ii) records of river aggradation-incision and the forcing factors (iii) geomorphic indicators of neotectonic deformation. Emphasis has also been made towards understanding the development of frontal belt of the Himalaya, sediment production, storage and delivery in the wedge.

Lithological and tectonic response on catchment characteristics of Rishi Khola, Sikkim, India

“…The Himalaya, a seismo-tectonically dynamic orogenic belt, exhibits a multitude of neo-tectonic activities in certain localized sectors along with varying seismic patterns (Srivastava et al 2016;Shankar et al 2020). Coupled with climatic and surface processes, these tectonic influences, functioning at variable spatio-temporal scales, tend to shape the present-day landscapes along the entire Himalayan belt (Nakata 1972(Nakata , 1975Finzi 2012;Thakur 2013).…”

“…The drainage network and hillslope morphology in the drainage basins embody decent indicators of tectonics (Nakata 1972;Yang et al 2020). The activity of the related tectonic structure can be also thoroughly traced back by the development and the modification of the landforms (Srivastava et al 2016;Luirei et al 2018;Taromsari 2018). The nature of the river profiles leads to the possibility of acquiring information about tectonic activity that might otherwise be difficult to fetch (Pike et al 2010;Gabet 2019).…”