Shivalik

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The outer range of low forested foothills along the southern edge of the Himalayas in northern India and Nepal
2. A chain of hills lying at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, stretching across parts of northern India and Nepal
3. A belt of lower sandstone and clay ridges that fringes the Himalayas, running through India, Nepal, and Pakistan

Etymology: Shivalik is a Sanskrit compound, most likely built from "Shiva", the god, and "alaka", meaning a lock of hair, so the name is usually read as "locks of Shiva". The name refers to the low, forested outer ridges that run along the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Geologists also use "Siwalik", the common English spelling, for a thick sequence of sediments laid down by rivers flowing off the young mountains, from the Miocene into the early Pleistocene. These rocks preserve abundant mammal fossils, so the name became attached to a whole geological group and to the fossil record it contains.