Melbourne: Himalayas were born about 47 million years ago when India and Eurasia initially smashed into each other, an international team of scientists who discovered the first oceanic microplate in the Indian Ocean has found.

Although there are at least seven microplates known in the Pacific Ocean, this is the first ancient Indian Ocean microplate to be discovered, researchers said. Radar beam images from an orbiting satellite have helped put together pieces of this plate tectonic jigsaw and pinpointed the age for the collision, whose precise date has divided scientists for decades.