Indus Gorge

{{short description|Gorge formed by the Indus River in the Himalayas}}

File:Nanga Parbat Indus Gorge.jpg, the world's ninth-highest mountain, rising to the south]]

The Indus Gorge is a gorge formed by the Indus River as it skirts the Nanga Parbat massif, the western anchor of the Greater Himalayas, before it debouches into the plains of Punjab in Pakistan. The gorge is {{cvt|4,500–5,200|m|ft}} deep near the Nanga Parbat. The massive amounts of erosion due to the Indus River following the capture and rerouting through that area is thought to bring middle and lower crustal rocks to the surface.{{cite journal |doi=10.1029/2000TC001243 |doi-access=free |title=Crustal reworking at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan: Metamorphic consequences of thermal-mechanical coupling facilitated by erosion |year=2001 |last1=Zeitler |first1=Peter K. |last2=Koons |first2=Peter O. |last3=Bishop |first3 = Michael P. |last4 = Chamberlain |first4 = C. Page |last5 = Craw |first5 = David |last6 = Edwards |first6 = Michael A. |last7 = Hamidullah |first7 = Syed |last8 = Jan |first8 = M. Qasim |last9 = Khan |first9 = M. Asif |last10 = Khattak |first10 = M. Umar Khan |last11 = Kidd |first11 = William S. F. |last12 = MacKie |first12 = Randall L. |last13 = Meltzer |first13 = Anne S. |author-link13=Anne Meltzer|last14 = Park |first14 = Stephen K. |last15 = Pecher |first15 = Arnaud |last16 = Poage |first16 = Michael A. |last17 = Sarker |first17 = Golam |last18 = Schneider |first18 = David A. |last19 = Seeber |first19 = Leonardo |last20 = Shroder |first20=John F. |journal=Tectonics |volume=20 |issue=5 |pages=712–28 |bibcode=2001Tecto..20..712Z}} Gilgit is the westernmost tributary of the Indus River.