<P> The next Himalayan Indian state, Himachal Pradesh, lacks very high mountains, but is noted for its hill stations, particularly Shimla, the summer capital of the British Raj, and Dharmasala, the centre of the Tibetan community in exile in India . This area marks the start of the Punjab Himalaya and the Sutlej river, the most easterly of the five tributaries of the Indus, cuts through the range here . Further west, the Himalayas form most of the southern portion of the disputed Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir . The twin peaks of Nun Kun are the only mountains over 7000 m in this part of the Himalayas . Beyond lies the renown Kashmir Valley and the town and lakes of Srinagar . Finally, the Himalayas cross the Line of Control into Pakistan and reach their western end in the dramatic 8000 m peak of Nanga Parbat, which rises over 7000 m above the Indus valley and is the most westerly of the 8000 m summits . </P> <P> The Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock . According to the modern theory of plate tectonics, its formation is a result of a continental collision or orogeny along the convergent boundary between the Indo - Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate . The Arakan Yoma highlands in Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were also formed as a result of this collision . </P> <P> During the Upper Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago, the north - moving Indo - Australian Plate (which has subsequently broken into the Indian Plate and the Australian Plate) was moving at about 15 cm per year . About 50 million years ago this fast moving Indo - Australian Plate had completely closed the Tethys Ocean, the existence of which has been determined by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor and the volcanoes that fringed its edges . Since both plates were composed of low density continental crust, they were thrust faulted and folded into mountain ranges rather than subducting into the mantle along an oceanic trench . An often - cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is made of marine limestone from this ancient ocean . </P> <P> Today, the Indian plate continues to be driven horizontally at the Tibetan Plateau, which forces the plateau to continue to move upwards . The Indian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia . About 20 mm per year of the India - Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya southern front . This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them geologically active . The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also makes this region seismically active, leading to earthquakes from time to time . </P>

When did the himalayan mountains start to form