Sivalik Hills

The Sivalik Hills, also called the Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas extending roughly 2,400 kilometers from the Indus River eastward to near the Brahmaputra River, across parts of India, Pakistan and Nepal, with widths of 10 to 50 kilometers and average elevations of 1,500 to 2,000 meters. The range is built from sandstone and conglomerate, poorly consolidated sedimentary deposits eroded from the higher Himalayas and laid down 16 to 5.2 million years ago during the Tertiary period, making the Sivaliks geologically young compared to the main Himalayan range. The hills are bounded on their southern edge by the Main Frontal Thrust fault system, which produces steep southern slopes and marks the transition to the Indo-Gangetic plains below. The name Sivalik means tresses of Shiva in Sanskrit.