Geological forces that shaped the Himalayas.

• Position: Satellite Imaging

Gravity data captured by satellite has allowed researchers to take a closer look at the geology deep beneath the Tibetan Plateau. The analysis, published in Nature Scientific Reports, offers some of the clearest views ever obtained of rock movements occurring up to 50 miles below the plateau, in the lowest layer of Earth's crust. There, the Indian tectonic plate presses continually northward into the Eurasian tectonic plate, giving rise to the highest mountains on Earth--and deadly earthquakes, such as the one in 2015 that killed more than 9,000 people in Nepal.

The study supports what researchers long have suspected: horizontal compression between the two continental plates is the dominant driver of geophysical processes in the region, says study coauthor and geodedtic scientist C.K. Shum. 'The new gravity data onboard the joint NASA-German Aerospace Center GRACE gravimeter mission and the European Space Agency's GOCE gravity gradiometer mission enabled scientists to build global gravity field models with unprecedented accuracy and resolution, which improved our understanding of the crustal structure. Specifically, we're now able to better quantify the thickening and buckling of the crust beneath the Tibetan Plateau."

As the two continental plates press together horizontally, the crust piles up. Like traffic backing up on a congested freeway system, the rock follows whatever side roads may be available to relieve the pressure but, unlike cars on a freeway...