Indian Plate
The Indian Plate is the 10th-largest of the 52 plates in the PB2002 plate model, covering 12.4 million km² (4.8 million sq mi), or 2.4% of Earth’s surface. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, eastern Pakistan, parts of Nepal and Myanmar, and the central Indian Ocean floor.
- Area
- 12.4 million km² (4.8 million sq mi)
- Share of Earth’s surface
- 2.4%
- Speed across the plate
- 4.8 to 6.0 cm a year (1.9 to 2.4 in)
- Direction at its center
- Toward the northeast
- Length of its edges
- 17,110 km (10,630 mi)
- Neighboring plates
- 5
- Edges by type
- 52% convergent · 23% divergent · 25% transform
- Volcanoes on it
- 1 active in the past ~12,000 years
What happens at its edges
Its collision with Eurasia, under way for roughly 50 million years, raised the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau and still causes earthquakes across the region. In this model the broad collision belt is mapped as a deforming zone.
Many maps join it to the Australian Plate as the Indo-Australian Plate. Its long eastern edge with the Burma Plate runs past the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the sea off northern Sumatra.
How fast it moves, and which way
At its center (13.0°N, 77.5°E) the Indian Plate moves about 5.7 cm (2.2 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 4.8 cm (1.9 in) a year to 6.0 cm (2.4 in) a year, with an area-weighted average of 5.6 cm a year. That average makes it the 18th 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 Indian Plate moves about 4.7 cm (1.9 in) a year toward the north-northeast at its center.
In the model it rotates about a pole at 45.1°N, 0.5°E at 0.538° 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 17,110 km (10,630 mi): 52% convergent, where plates move together; 23% divergent, where they move apart; and 25% transform, where they slide past each other. It sinks beneath the Burma Plate at subduction zones.
| Neighbor | Shared edge | Boundary types | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurasian Plate | 6,040 km (3,750 mi) | Convergent 72% · Transform 26% | 4.7 cm a yearup to 5.4 cm |
| Somali Plate | 3,820 km (2,370 mi) | Divergent 65% · Transform 32% | 3.0 cm a yearup to 3.6 cm |
| Australian Plate | 3,600 km (2,240 mi) | Convergent 64% · Divergent 29% · Transform 6% | 0.5 cm a yearup to 1.1 cm |
| Burma Plate | 2,010 km (1,250 mi) | Convergent 75% · Transform 25% | 2.5 cm a yearup to 5.1 cm |
| Arabian Plate | 1,660 km (1,030 mi) | Transform 49% · Convergent 34% · Divergent 17% | 0.7 cm a yearup to 0.7 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 Indian Plate
3 lie entirely on it; the other 5 are split between plates. The share is the part of each country’s land on this plate.
- India about 91%
- Pakistan about 46%
- Myanmar about 46%
- Bangladesh all
- Sri Lanka all
- Nepal about 21%
- Bhutan about 14%
- Maldives all
Volcanoes on the Indian Plate
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program lists 1 volcano on this plate that has been active in roughly the past 12,000 years. The most recent eruptions on record:
- Popa Myanmar, about 6,050 BCE
Where the edges are blurred
Parts of this plate lie in the Ninety East-Sumatra and Persia-Tibet-Burma zones, 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.