Editing Ganges (section)

==Geology==
The [[Indian subcontinent]] lies atop the [[Indian Plate|Indian tectonic plate]], a minor plate within the [[Indo-Australian Plate]].{{sfn|Ali|Aitchison|2005}} Its defining geological processes commenced seventy-five million years ago, when, as a part of the southern supercontinent [[Gondwana]], it began a northeastwards [[Plate tectonics|drift]]—lasting fifty million years—across the then unformed Indian Ocean.{{sfn|Ali|Aitchison|2005}} The subcontinent's subsequent collision with the [[Eurasian Plate]] and [[subduction]] under it, gave rise to the Himalayas, the planet's highest mountain ranges.{{sfn|Ali|Aitchison|2005}} In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast [[trough (geology)|trough]], which, having gradually been filled with sediment borne by the [[Indus River|Indus]] and its tributaries and the Ganges and its tributaries,<ref>{{Harvnb|Dikshit|Schwartzberg|2007|p=7|Ref=dikshit}}</ref> now forms the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]].<ref>{{cite journal
 |last        = Prakash
 |first       = B.
 |author2     = Sudhir Kumar
 |author3     = M. Someshwar Rao
 |author4     = S. C. Giri
 |title       = Holocene tectonic movements and stress field in the western Gangetic plains
 |journal     = Current Science
 |volume      = 
 |issue       = 
 |year        = 
 |pages       = 438–49
 |url         = http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252000/prakash.pdf
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110504075319/http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252000/prakash.pdf
 |archive-date = 4 May 2011}}</ref>

The Indo-Gangetic Plain is geologically known as a foredeep or [[foreland basin]].<ref name="Dmowska2003">{{cite book|last=Dmowska|first=Renata|title=Advances in Geophysics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikFcqh1u1Q0C&pg=PA14|year=2003|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0120188468|page=14}}</ref>