Historical Geology Understanding Our Planet\'s Past

ranges on the northern and southern flanks (Fig. 187). The contact between
the continents initiated a major mountain building episode that raised the Alps
and other ranges in Europe and squeezed out the Tethys Sea.
This episode of mountain building, called the Alpine orogeny, raised the
Pyrenees on the border between Spain and France, the Atlas Mountains of
Northwest Africa, and the Carpathians in East-Central Europe. The Alps of
northern Italy formed in much the same manner as the Himalayas, when the
Italian prong of the African plate thrust into the European plate.
In South America, the mountainous spine that comprises the Andes
running along the western edge of the continent rose throughout much of
the Cenozoic due to an increase in crustal buoyancy from the subduction of

Figure 186The collision

of the Indian subcontinent

with Asia uplifted the

Himalaya Mountains and

the Tibetan Plateau.

TERTIARY MAMMALS

India

Indian

Ocean

H

IM

AL

AYAS

H

IM

AL

AYAS