Table of Contents
What type of plate boundary occurs between the Pacific Plate & the Indo-Australian Plate?
The Hikurangi tectonic plate boundary is a convergent boundary. This means that the Australian and Pacific plates are pushing against each other.
What is happening between the Pacific Plate and Australian Plate?
The Pacific Plate is subducting under the Australian Plate, which forms the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches, and the parallel Tonga and Kermadec island arcs. It has also uplifted the eastern parts of New Zealand’s North Island.
What is the movement of the Pacific Plate?
The Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest at a speed of between 7 and 11 centimeters (cm) or ~3-4 inches a year. The North American plate is moving to the west-southwest at about 2.3 cm (~1 inch) per year driven by the spreading center that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
How did India and Australia move apart?
The northeast side of the Australian plate converges with the Pacific Plate. Long ago, Australia, India, and Antarctica were once connected as the supercontinent Gondwana. As part of the supercontinent cycle, India drifted apart moving northwards.
How does the Indo-Australian Plate move?
Plate movements The eastern part (Australian Plate) is moving northward at the rate of 5.6 cm (2.2 in) per year while the western part (Indian Plate) is moving only at the rate of 3.7 cm (1.5 in) per year due to the impediment of the Himalayas.
How is the Australian plate moving?
All of the Earth’s continents float on tectonic plates, which glide slowly over a plastic-like layer of the upper mantle. And the plate that Australia sits on has been moving relatively fast, about 2.7 inches a year (northward and with a slight clockwise rotation).
Where is the Australian plate moving?
The continent is moving north by about 7 centimetres each year, colliding with the Pacific Plate, which is moving west about 11 centimetres each year. Earthquakes are caused when the build-up of tension between these plates is released.
Which direction is the Australian and Pacific Plate moving?
south
The pacific plate rotates around a point south of Australia. Around Hawaii, the plate is moving at about 7 cm/year, or about as fast as finger mails grow. The evidence for this motion is pretty convincing: earthquakes: earthquakes occur on the boundaries of the plates as they rub past each other.
Why is the Pacific Plate the most active?
Pacific Plate Tectonic Boundary Types As these two plates pull apart from each other, it forms new oceanic crust. Already mentioned, the Pacific Ring of Fire has the most active chains of volcanoes in the world. This is because tectonic plates collide and sink at these zones of subduction (convergent plate boundaries).
What kind of plate is Indo-Australian Plate?
The Indo-Australian Plate is a combination tectonic plate, including areas of continental plate and areas of oceanic plate. The continental portions…
Which direction is the Australian plate moving?
northward
All of the Earth’s continents float on tectonic plates, which glide slowly over a plastic-like layer of the upper mantle. And the plate that Australia sits on has been moving relatively fast, about 2.7 inches a year (northward and with a slight clockwise rotation).
Is Indo-Australian Plate oceanic or continental?
The Indo-Australian Plate is a combination tectonic plate, including areas of continental plate and areas of oceanic plate.