Sivalik Hills

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Indian English Template:Infobox mountain The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'.<ref name=Balokhra99>Template:Cite book</ref> The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Paleolithic archaeological culture.<ref name=SchugWalimbe2016/>

Geography

The Sivalik Hills are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about Template:Cvt from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River; they are Template:Cvt wide with an average elevation of Template:Cvt. Between the Teesta and Raidāk Rivers is a gap of about Template:Cvt.<ref name=Kohli2002>Template:Cite book</ref> They are known for their Neogene and Pleistocene aged vertebrate fossils.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Geology

Geologically, the Sivalik Hills belong to the Tertiary deposits of the outer Himalayas.<ref name=EB1911>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> They are chiefly composed of sandstone and conglomerate rock formations, which are the solidified detritus of the Himalayas<ref name=EB1911/> to their north; they are poorly consolidated. The sedimentary rocks comprising the hills are believed to be 16–5.2 million years old.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name=Mani>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prehistory

File:Colossochelys atlas.jpg

Skeleton of the gigantic tortoise Megalochelys atlas, the largest known to have ever existed, and one of the best known Sivalik fossils

The Sivalik Hills are well known for fossils of vertebrates, spanning from the Early Miocene, until the Middle Pleistocene, around 18 million to 600,000 years ago.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Some of the best known fossils from the hills include Megalochelys atlas, the largest known tortoise to have ever existed,<ref name="TEWG2015">Template:Cite journal</ref> the sabertooth cat Megantereon falconeri,<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> Sivatherium giganteum, the largest known giraffid,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> and the ape Sivapithecus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Remains of the Lower-Middle Paleolithic Soanian culture dating to around 500,000 to 125,000 years Before Present were found in the Sivalik region.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="SchugWalimbe2016">Template:Cite book</ref>

Ecosystem

The carbon stock and carbon sequestration rates of the Churia forests differ among different forest management regimes and are highest in protected areas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

File:River Ganga meandering through the Shivalik ranges, Rishikesh.jpg

Ganga river cutting through the Sivalik hills

Subranges of Sivalik (from north to south)

• Dundwa Range
• Margalla Hills
• Shivalik Fossil Park

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