Convergence of the Indian Plate towards Eurasia has led to the building of the Himalaya, the highest mountain range on Earth. Active mountain building involves a complex interplay between permanent tectonic processes and transient seismic events, which remain poorly understood. In this Review, we examine the feedbacks between long-term tectonic deformation (over millions of years) and the seismic cycle (years to centuries) in the Himalaya. We discuss how surface morphology of the Himalaya indicates that the convergence is largely accommodated by slip on the Main Himalayan Thrust plate boundary fault, which developed in the roots of the mountain range over millions of years. At shorter (decadal) timescales, tectonic geodesy reveals that elastic strain is periodically released via earthquakes. We use examples from earthquake cycle models to suggest that partial ruptures could primarily occur in the downdip region of the Main Himalayan Thrust. Great (Mw 8+) Himalayan earthquakes are more commonly associated with complete megathrust ruptures, which release accumulated residual strain. By synthesizing numerous observations that co-vary along strike, we highlight that tectonic structures that developed over millions of years can influence stress accumulation, structural segmentation, earthquake rupture extent and location, and, consequently, the growth of the mountain range.

印度洋板块向欧亚大陆的汇聚导致建造了喜马拉雅山，这是地球上最高的山脉。活跃的山地建筑涉及永久性构造过程和瞬态地震事件之间的复杂相互作用，对此人们仍然知之甚少。在这篇评论中，我们研究了喜马拉雅山的长期构造变形（数百万年）与地震周期（数年至几个世纪）之间的反馈。我们讨论了喜马拉雅山的表面形态如何表明收敛主要由喜马拉雅主冲断层板块边界断层的滑动所适应，该断层在数百万年的山脉根部发育。在较短（十年）的时间尺度上，构造大地测量表明，弹性应变是通过地震周期性释放的。我们使用地震周期模型的实例表明部分破裂可能主要发生在喜马拉雅主冲断层的下倾地区。喜马拉雅山（Mw 8+）大地震通常与完整的特大推力破裂有关，从而释放出累积的残余应变。通过综合沿罢工而变化的众多观察结果，我们强调了数百万年发展起来的构造结构可以影响应力累积，结构分段，地震破裂的程度和位置，进而影响山脉的增长。