The Karakoram Mountains form the western side of the Himalaya Mountain Range. This range extends from the Pakistan-Afghanistan region into Tibet. Formation of this great mountain chain began when India drifted away from Gondwanaland (a land mass that consisted of all the southern continents of Pangea) and moved northwards colliding into Asia (as seen in The Break up of Pangea Diagram and Animation to the right), giving rise to the tallest mountains in the world (Windley 1988). This collision was caused by plate subduction. In the process of plate tectonics where two plates are converging, one plate will be pushed down by another plate as they come together (as seen in the two Subduction Diagrams to the right). During the formation of the Karakoram Mountain range, it is the Indian plate that was subducted by the Asia plate (Rex et al 1988). This under thrusting of the plates at continental convergence zones causes crustal thickening (crustal thickening is illustrated in the picture: Subduction Zone For Converging Plates), which is was ultimately formed the mountains (Rex et al 1988). Although the Karakoram Plate is a subduction zone, scientists have found some strike-slip faults, some of which are still active (Kahn and Glenn 2006, and Rex et al 1988). The biggest strike-slip fault in the region is called the Karakoram Fault and it extends about 800km in length. (Phillips et al 2004).
Mountains
Within the Karakoram Mountain Range lies a sub range known as the Baltoro-Muztagh. This is home to the world's second largest mountain as it is over 8.6 km tall, which is just shy of Mount Everest (by roughly 200ft). It was originally named K2 as a reference to the 35 mountains peaks that are found with in the Karakoram, but later it was renamed Mount Godwin Austen after an explorer (image of K2 can be viewed on the left). Natives to the region, however, prefer to call the peak Chogo Ri or Qogir, both translating into "big mountain" (Encarta). In addition, the glaciers around it heavily impact this mountain. The arêtes and cirques are easily distinguishable and have been created by glacier movement (as seen in the picture to the left). The arêtes appear as steep jagged ridges that separate glacial valleys. These glacial valleys create the cirques, which take a semicircular shape at the top of where the glacier begins. Also found in this region is the Nanga Parbat peak which reaches a height of 8.1km.
Glaciers and Valleys
One process that still continues to create geomorphologic change is the formation of glaciers. These features have greatly impacted the landscape of the Karakoram Mountain to this day. Glacier movement has carved out landmasses of the mountains and left sediment deposits that have created valleys. There is a valley that surrounds every glacier, but they are not considered true "valleys" because they have interrupted depths due to mountain spurs that project out from the main valley areas. The moraine walls that separate most of these glaciers acts as a barrier to protect the lateroglacial valleys from glacial activities. The valleys can be as long as 20 km and as wide as several hundred meters (Iturrizaga 2001). The valleys that have been formed through glacial erosion are often broad and exhibit a "U" shape (see picture on right). Iturrizaga also shows evidence that the largest lateroglacerial valleys are often formed by smaller glaciers. Glacieral deposits, commonly known as moraines, create the lateroglacerial valleys. These glacial sediment deposits can have distances of over tens of kilometers. Aside from carving out valleys, the glaciers have also been responsible for the creation of temporary lakes that have become dammed by such glaciers, which has inevitably led to flooding. Some of the glaciers can be 2500m-5000m in thickness and run about 60km long (Iturrizaga 2001). These Mountains are home to the largest mountain glacier, the Baltoro Glacier. It takes part of its name from the ranges of mountains that it is situated between, which are called the Baltoro-Muztagh. The Baltoro is so large that it can actually be seen from satellite images taken from space. In fact, the Baltoro is noted as the main trough glacier. It acquires some of its mass to the glaciers around it that feed into it such as The Godwin Austen Glacier, the Gasherbrum Glaciers and the Abruzzi Glacier. All of the smaller glaciers that flow into the main trough are considered tributary glaciers.