Indian Plate

The Indian Plate or India Plate is a major tectonic plate

straddling the equator in the eastern hemisphere. Origi-
nally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, In-
dia broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana
100 million years ago and began moving north.[2] Once
fused with the adjacent Australia to form a single Indo-
Australian Plate, recent studies suggest that India and
Australia have been separate plates for at least 3 mil-
lion years and likely longer.[3] The Indian plate includes
most of South Asia—i.e. the Indian subcontinent—and
a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including
parts of South China and Eastern Indonesia,[4][5][6] and
extending up to but not including Ladakh, Kohistan and
Balochistan.[7][8][9]

1 Plate movements
Until roughly 140 million years ago, the Indian Plate
formed part of the supercontinent Gondwana together
with modern Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and South
America. Gondwana broke up as these continents drifted
apart at different velocities,[10] a process which led to the
opening of the Indian Ocean.[11]
In the late Cretaceous, approximately 100 million years
ago and subsequent to the splitting off from Gondwana
of conjoined Madagascar and India, the Indian Plate split
from Madagascar. It began moving north, at about 20
centimetres (7.9 in) per year,[10] and is believed to have
begun colliding with Asia as early as 55 million years
ago,[12] in the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic. However,
some authors suggest that the collision between India and Due to plate tectonics, the India Plate split from Madagascar and
Eurasia occurred much later, around 35 million years collided (c. 55 Ma) with the Eurasian Plate, resulting in the for-
ago.[13] If the collision occurred between 55 and 50 Mya, mation of the Himalayas.
the Indian Plate would have covered a distance of 3,000
to 2,000 kilometres (1,900 to 1,200 mi), moving faster
than any other known plate. In 2012, paleomagnetic
data from the Greater Himalaya was used to propose shortening estimates in the Himalaya and paleomagnetic
two collisions to reconcile the discrepancy between the data from India and Asia.
amount of crustal shortening in the Himalaya (~1300 km) In 2007, German geologists[10] suggested that the rea-
and the amount of convergence between India and Asia son the Indian Plate moved so quickly is that it is only
(~3600 km).[14] These authors propose a continental frag- half as thick (100 kilometres or 62 miles) as the other
ment of northern Gondwana rifted from India, traveled plates[15] which formerly constituted Gondwana. The
northward, and initiated the “soft collision” between the mantle plume that once broke up Gondwana might also
Greater Himalaya and Asia at ~50 Ma. This was followed have melted the lower part of the Indian subcontinent,
by the “hard collision” between India and Asia occurred which allowed it to move both faster and further than
at ~25 Ma. Subduction of the resulting ocean basin that the other parts.[10] The remains of this plume today
formed between the Greater Himalayan fragment and In- form the Marion Hotspot (Prince Edward Islands), the
dia explains the apparent discrepancy between the crustal Kerguelen hotspot, and the Réunion hotspots.[11][16] As

1
2 5
India moved north, it is possible that the thickness of
the Indian plate degenerated further as it passed over
the hotspots and magmatic extrusions associated with the
Deccan and Rajmahal Traps.[11] The massive amounts of
volcanic gases released during the passage of the Indian
Plate over the hotspots have been theorised to have played
a role in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, gen-
erally held to be due to a large asteroid impact.[17]
The collision with the Eurasian Plate along the boundary
between India and Nepal formed the orogenic belt that
created the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya Mountains,
as sediment bunched up like earth before a plow.
The Indian Plate is currently moving north-east at 5 cen-
timetres (2.0 in) per year, while the Eurasian Plate is mov-
ing north at only 2 centimetres (0.79 in) per year. This
is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the Indian
Plate to compress at a rate of 4 millimetres (0.16 in) per
year.
2 Geography
The westerly side of the Indian Plate is a transform
boundary with the Arabian Plate called the Owen
Fracture Zone, and a divergent boundary with the
African Plate called the Central Indian Ridge (CIR). The [15] The lithospheric roots in South Africa, Australia, and
northerly side of the Plate is a convergent boundary with
the Eurasian Plate forming the Himalaya and Hindu Kush
mountains.
3 See also
• List of tectonic plates
• List of tectonic plate interactions
• Paleogeography
4 Notes
[1] “Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates”. Geol-
ogy.about.com. 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-13.
[2] Oskin, Becky (2013-07-05). “New Look at Gondwana’s
Breakup”. Livescience.com. Retrieved 2016-01-13.
[3] • Stein, Seth; Sella, Giovanni F.; Okai, Emile A.
(2002). “The January 26, 2001 Bhuj Earthquake
and the Diffuse Western Boundary of the In-
dian Plate” (PDF). American Geophysical Union.
doi:10.1029/GD030p0243. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
[4] Sinvhal, Understanding Earthquake Disasters, page 52,
Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2010, ISBN 978-0-07-
014456-9
[5] Harsh K. Gupta, Disaster management, page 85, Univer-
sities Press, 2003, ISBN 978-81-7371-456-6
REFERENCES
[6] James R. Heirtzler, Indian ocean geology and biostratig-
raphy, page American Geophysical Union, 1977, ISBN
978-0-87590-208-1
[7] M. Asif Khan, Tectonics of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis and
the Western Himalaya, page 375, Geological Society of
London, 2000, ISBN 978-1-86239-061-4
[8] Srikrishna Prapnnachari, Concepts in Frame Design, page
152, Srikrishna Prapnnachari, ISBN 978-99929-52-21-4
[9] A. M. Celâl Şengör, Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Re-
gion, Springer, 1989, ISBN 978-0-7923-0067-0
[10] Kind 2007
[11] Kumar et al. 2007
[12] Scotese 2001
[13] Aitchison, Ali & Davis 2007
[14] van Hinsbergen, D.; Lippert, P.; Dupont-Nivet, G.; Mc-
Quarrie, N.; Doubrivine, P.; Spakman, W.; Torsvik,
T. (2012). “Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two-
stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia”. Pro-
ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109
(20): 7659–7664. Bibcode:2012PNAS..109.7659V.
doi:10.1073/pnas.1117262109.
Antarctica are 300 to 180 kilometres (190 to 110 mi)
thick. (Kumar et al. 2007) See also Kumar et al. 2007,
figure 1
[16] Elsevier, Gondwana Research Volume 10, Issues 3–4,
November 2006, Pages 340–348, Paleomagnetic evi-
dence for a stationary Marion hotspot: Additional pale-
omagnetic data from Madagascar. J.G. Meert, Endale
Tamrat
[17] Schulte, Peter; et al. (5 March 2010). “The
Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the
Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary”. Science. AAAS.
327 (5970): 1214–1218. Bibcode:2010Sci...327.1214S.
doi:10.1126/science.1177265. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID
20203042. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
5 References
• Aitchison, Jonathan C.; Ali, Jason R.; Davis,
Aileen M. (2007). “When and where did India and
Asia collide?". Journal of Geophysical Research.
112 (B5). Bibcode:2007JGRB..11205423A.
doi:10.1029/2006JB004706. ISSN 0148-0227.
Retrieved January 12, 2016.
• Chen, Ji (January 4, 2005). “Magnitude 9.0 off W
coast of northern Sumatra Sunday, December 26,
2004 at 00:58:49 UTC: Preliminary rupture model”.
U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original
on March 5, 2005. Retrieved 28 December 2004.
 3

• Kind, Rainer (September 2007). “The fastest

continent: India’s truncated lithospheric roots”.
Helmholtz Association of German Research Cen-
tres. Retrieved January 2012. Check date values in:
|access-date= (help)

• Kumar, Prakash; Yuan, Xiaohui; Kumar, M.

Ravi; Kind, Rainer; Li, Xueqing; Chadha,
R. K. (18 October 2007). “The rapid drift
of the Indian tectonic plate”. Nature. 449
(7164): 894–897. Bibcode:2007Natur.449..894K.
doi:10.1038/nature06214. ISSN 0028-0836.

• Scotese, Christopher R. (January 2001). “The col-

lision of India and Asia (90 mya — present)". Pale-
omap Project. Retrieved 28 December 2004.

Coordinates: 34°25′55″N 73°32′13″E / 34.43194°N

73.53694°E
4 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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6.1 Text
• Indian Plate Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Plate?oldid=752927642 Contributors: Wetman, Cncs wikipedia, Enochlau,
Quadell, Adityan, Discospinster, Hydrox, Vsmith, Pmaccabe, Swid, CanisRufus, El C, Spoon!, Interiot, BradBeattie, CJLL Wright,
Chobot, YurikBot, Voyevoda, Siddiqui, Patrick Neylan, DeadEyeArrow, Deepak~enwiki, Pawyilee, StuRat, Arthur Rubin, SmackBot, Sar-
avask, Matthuxtable, Hmains, Ppntori, RobertM525, Colonies Chris, Howard the Duck, Kipala, HelloPeople, JorisvS, Geologyguy, Dr.K.,
Tmangray, Wjejskenewr, Tawkerbot2, Patrick Berry, MrFish, Aditya Kabir, Thijs!bot, Merbabu, Leag, Dawnseeker2000, AntiVandalBot,
Luna Santin, Mikenorton, Faizhaider, The Anomebot2, Khalid Mahmood, Aasim.Kaker, NatureA16, CommonsDelinker, WarthogDemon,
GeoWriter, KylieTastic, Treisijs, Rémih, VolkovBot, Alataristarion, Wiki235, Chienlit, TXiKiBoT, Oshwah, A4bot, Broadbot, Allebor-
goBot, SieBot, Lightmouse, Denisarona, ClueBot, Robbiemuffin, Mild Bill Hiccup, Doseiai2, MushiHoshiIshi, Chaosdruid, Aitias, Roy-
alxOptimum, Addbot, Numbo3-bot, Lightbot, Ettrig, Luckas-bot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Blackknight12, Hunnjazal, ArthurBot, Xqbot,
Chris.urs-o, Sky Attacker, Kochamanita, Fama Clamosa, Defender of torch, Loserhaha, RjwilmsiBot, VOYAGER 1, EmausBot, K6ka,
Shuipzv3, Mar4d, Cymru.lass, 1cr malkin, JonRichfield, ClueBot NG, Helpful Pixie Bot, Bibcode Bot, MKar, Gorthian, BattyBot, Citing,
FoCuSandLeArN, Monkbot, Johnsonne, Conradjagan, Juneymb, KasparBot, Never gonna See me, Stewi101015, GreenC bot, HIMAN-
CHALI, Jiklo1569, AksheKumar and Anonymous: 80

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