Himalaya 292 (Hordeum vulgare, var. himalaya 292) is a novel, hull-less barley cultivar with a single nucleotide change in the gene encoding starch synthase IIa (EC 2.4.1.21). This leads to loss of enzyme activity, resulting in a grain with less total starch and a higher proportion of amylose. These changes, plus higher total and soluble nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP), could increase its resis...

[1] We model evolution of a continent-continent collision and draw some parallels with the tectonic evolution of the Himalaya. We use a large-scale viscoplasto-elastic thermomechanical model that has a free upper surface, accounts for erosion and deposition and allows for all modes of lithospheric deformation. For quartz/olivine rheology and 60 mm/yr convergence rate, the continental subduction...

In an actively deforming orogen, maintenance of a topographic steady state requires that hillslope erosion, river incision, and rock uplift rates are balanced over timescales of 10–10 years. Over shorter times, < 10 years, hillslope erosion and bedrock river incision rates fluctuate with changes in climate. On 10-year timescales, the Marsyandi River in the central Nepal Himalaya has oscillated ...

[1] The southern flanks of the central Nepalese Himalaya correspond to a sharp transition in landscape morphology and bedrock mineral cooling ages that suggests a change in rock uplift rate. This transition can be explained by either (1) accretion of footwall material to the hanging wall across a ramp in the décollement separating India from Eurasia, thereby enhancing rock uplift rates above th...

The determination of metamorphic conditions is critical to the understanding of the formation of mountain belts. However, all collisional mountain belts contain large volumes of accreted sediments generally lacking metamorphic index minerals and are therefore not amenable to conventional petrologic investigations. By contrast, these units are often rich in carbonaceous material, making it possi...