Arabian Plate
The Arabian Plate is the 14th-largest of the 52 plates in the PB2002 plate model, covering 4.9 million km² (1.9 million sq mi), or 1.0% of Earth’s surface. The Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria and Jordan, with the floor of the Arabian Sea.
- Area
- 4.9 million km² (1.9 million sq mi)
- Share of Earth’s surface
- 1.0%
- Speed across the plate
- 3.5 to 5.8 cm a year (1.4 to 2.3 in)
- Direction at its center
- Toward the northeast
- Length of its edges
- 10,640 km (6,610 mi)
- Neighboring plates
- 5
- Edges by type
- 40% convergent · 34% divergent · 26% transform
- Volcanoes on it
- 38 active in the past ~12,000 years
What happens at its edges
It is moving north into Eurasia, closing the Persian Gulf and raising the Zagros Mountains of Iran. On its southwestern side it is pulling away from Africa, opening the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Its western edge with the African Plate runs along the Dead Sea Transform, through the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.
How fast it moves, and which way
At its center (23.7°N, 47.0°E) the Arabian Plate moves about 4.8 cm (1.9 in) a year toward the northeast. Because a plate turns around a pole rather than sliding in a straight line, the speed changes across it: from 3.5 cm (1.4 in) a year to 5.8 cm (2.3 in) a year, with an area-weighted average of 4.8 cm a year. That average makes it the 21st fastest of the 52 plates.
These figures are measured against the average motion of all the plates together (the “no-net-rotation” frame), which is how plate speeds are usually quoted. Measured against the Eurasian Plate instead, the Arabian Plate moves about 3.2 cm (1.2 in) a year toward the north-northeast at its center.
In the model it rotates about a pole at 46.3°N, 6.1°W at 0.585° per million years. The speeds are averages over years to millions of years of measurement; earthquakes move the ground near a boundary in sudden steps instead.
Neighboring plates and boundaries
Its edges run for 10,640 km (6,610 mi): 40% convergent, where plates move together; 34% divergent, where they move apart; and 26% transform, where they slide past each other.
| Neighbor | Shared edge | Boundary types | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurasian Plate | 3,330 km (2,070 mi) | Convergent 87% · Transform 13% | 3.5 cm a yearup to 4.4 cm |
| African Plate | 3,160 km (1,960 mi) | Divergent 63% · Transform 23% · Convergent 14% | 1.4 cm a yearup to 2.1 cm |
| Somali Plate | 1,920 km (1,190 mi) | Divergent 67% · Transform 33% | 2.4 cm a yearup to 2.8 cm |
| Indian Plate | 1,660 km (1,030 mi) | Transform 49% · Convergent 34% · Divergent 17% | 0.7 cm a yearup to 0.7 cm |
| Anatolian Plate | 570 km (360 mi) | Convergent 52% · Transform 34% · Divergent 14% | 1.6 cm a yearup to 1.7 cm |
Relative speed is how fast the two plates move against each other along their shared edge, averaged over its length.
Countries and territories on the Arabian Plate
7 lie entirely on it; the other 11 are split between plates. The share is the part of each country’s land on this plate.
- Saudi Arabia all
- Yemen about 99%
- Iraq about 94%
- Oman all
- Syria about 96%
- Jordan all
- Turkey about 11%
- United Arab Emirates all
- Iran about 3%
- Ethiopia about 3%
- Eritrea about 23%
- Kuwait all
- Djibouti about 52%
- Qatar all
- Israel about 19%
- Lebanon about 38%
- Egypt under 1%
- Bahrain all
Volcanoes on the Arabian Plate
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program lists 38 volcanoes on this plate that have been active in roughly the past 12,000 years. The most recent eruptions on record:
- Erta Ale Ethiopia, 2025
- Hayli Gubbi Ethiopia, 2025
- Zubair Group Yemen, 2013
- Nabro Eritrea, 2012
- Tair, Jebel at Yemen, 2008
- Manda-Inakir Ethiopia and Djibouti, 1928
Where the edges are blurred
Parts of this plate lie in the Persia-Tibet-Burma zone, which the model marks as broad belts of deformation rather than sharp plate edges. There the motion between plates is spread over many faults, and a single boundary line is a simplification.
Sources
Outline, area, boundary types and motion: Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252. Released by its author into the public domain (CC0 1.0). Areas are the model’s published figures; speeds, directions, boundary lengths and countries are calculated from its outlines, boundary steps and rotation poles.
Volcanoes: Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution, Volcanoes of the World (v. 5.4.0). Country outlines: Natural Earth.