Indian Plate - wikipedia Indian Plate Indian Plate Type Major Approximate area 11,900,000 km Movement north - east Speed 26 - 36mm / year Features Indian Ocean, Himalayas Relative to the African Plate The Indian Plate or India Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator in the eastern hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, India broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana 100 million years ago and began moving north. 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 million years and likely longer. 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 western Indonesia, and extending up to but not including Ladakh, Kohistan and Balochistan. Contents 1 Plate movements 2 Geography 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References Plate movements Due to plate tectonics, the India Plate split from Madagascar and collided ( c. 55 Ma ) with the Eurasian Plate, resulting in the formation of the Himalayas. 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, a process which led to the opening of the Indian Ocean. 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, and is believed to have begun colliding with Asia as early as 55 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic. However, some authors suggest that the collision between India and Eurasia occurred much later, around 35 million years ago. If the collision occurred between 55 and 50 Mya, 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 two collisions to reconcile the discrepancy between the amount of crustal shortening in the Himalaya ( ~ 1300 km ) and the amount of convergence between India and Asia ( ~ 3600 km ). These authors propose a continental fragment of northern Gondwana rifted from India, traveled northward, and initiated the `` soft collision '' between the Greater Himalaya and Asia at ~ 50 Ma. This was followed by the `` hard collision '' between India and Asia occurred at ~ 25 Ma. Subduction of the resulting ocean basin that formed between the Greater Himalayan fragment and India explains the apparent discrepancy between the crustal shortening estimates in the Himalaya and paleomagnetic data from India and Asia. In 2007, German geologists suggested that the reason the Indian Plate moved so quickly is that it is only half as thick ( 100 kilometres or 62 miles ) as the other plates which formerly constituted Gondwana. The mantle plume that once broke up Gondwana might also have melted the lower part of the Indian subcontinent, which allowed it to move both faster and further than the other parts. The remains of this plume today form the Marion Hotspot ( Prince Edward Islands ), the Kerguelen hotspot, and the Réunion hotspots. As 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. 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, generally held to be due to a large asteroid impact. 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 centimetres ( 2.0 in ) per year, while the Eurasian Plate is moving 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. 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 northerly side of the Plate is a convergent boundary with the Eurasian Plate forming the Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountains. See also List of tectonic plates List of tectonic plate interactions Paleogeography Notes Jump up ^ `` Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates ''. Geology.about.com. 2014 - 03 - 05. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 13. Jump up ^ Oskin, Becky ( 2013 - 07 - 05 ). `` New Look at Gondwana 's Breakup ''. Livescience.com. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 13. Jump up ^ * Stein, Seth ; Sella, Giovanni F. ; Okai, Emile A. ( 2002 ). `` The January 26, 2001 Bhuj Earthquake and the Diffuse Western Boundary of the Indian Plate '' ( PDF ). Geodynamics Series. American Geophysical Union : 243 -- 254. doi : 10.1029 / GD030p0243. Retrieved 2015 - 12 - 25. Jump up ^ Sinvhal, Understanding Earthquake Disasters, page 52, Tata McGraw - Hill Education, 2010, ISBN 978 - 0 - 07 - 014456 - 9 Jump up ^ Harsh K. Gupta, Disaster management, page 85, Universities Press, 2003, ISBN 978 - 81 - 7371 - 456 - 6 Jump up ^ James R. Heirtzler, Indian ocean geology and biostratigraphy, page American Geophysical Union, 1977, ISBN 978 - 0 - 87590 - 208 - 1 Jump up ^ 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 Jump up ^ Srikrishna Prapnnachari, Concepts in Frame Design, page 152, Srikrishna Prapnnachari, ISBN 978 - 99929 - 52 - 21 - 4 Jump up ^ A.M. Celâl Şengör, Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Region, Springer, 1989, ISBN 978 - 0 - 7923 - 0067 - 0 ^ Jump up to : Kind 2007 ^ Jump up to : Kumar et al. 2007 Jump up ^ Scotese 2001 Jump up ^ Aitchison, Ali & Davis 2007 Jump up ^ van Hinsbergen, D. ; Lippert, P. ; Dupont - Nivet, G. ; McQuarrie, N. ; Doubrivine, P. ; Spakman, W. ; Torsvik, T. ( 2012 ). `` Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two - stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia ''. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 ( 20 ) : 7659 -- 7664. Bibcode : 2012PNAS... 109.7659 V. doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 1117262109. PMC 3356651. PMID 22547792. Jump up ^ The lithospheric roots in South Africa, Australia, and Antarctica are 300 to 180 kilometres ( 190 to 110 mi ) thick. ( Kumar et al. 2007 ) See also Kumar et al. 2007, figure 1 Jump up ^ Meert, J.G. ; Tamrat, Endale ( 2006 ). `` Paleomagnetic evidence for a stationary Marion hotspot : Additional paleomagnetic data from Madagascar ''. Gondwana Research. 10 : 340 -- 348. doi : 10.1016 / j. gr. 2006.04. 008. Jump up ^ 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... 327.1214 S. doi : 10.1126 / science. 1177265. ISSN 1095 - 9203. PMID 20203042. Retrieved 5 March 2010. References Wikimedia Commons has media related to Indian tectonic plate. 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. Kind, Rainer ( September 2007 ). `` The fastest continent : India 's truncated lithospheric roots ''. Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. 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. PMID 17943128. Scotese, Christopher R. ( January 2001 ). `` The collision of India and Asia ( 90 mya -- present ) ''. Paleomap Project. Retrieved 28 December 2004. Geography of India Climate Climate Climatic regions Geology Fossil Parks Geology of India Indian Plate Stones Landforms Beaches Canals Desert Extreme points Glaciers Islands Lakes Mountains Rivers Valleys Volcanoes Waterfalls Plains Indo - Gangetic Eastern Coastal Western Coastal Regions North India Northeast India East India South India West India Central India Subdivisions Autonomous administrative divisions States and territories Districts Cities Towns Municipalities Environment Biogeographic classification Ecoregions Fauna Flora Forests Issues Protected Areas Wildlife Geography of Sri Lanka Climate Climate Climatic regions Dry Zone Wet Zone Natural disasters Geology Indian Plate Gems Central Highlands Hanthana Mountain Range Knuckles Mountain Range Extreme points Highest North South East West Landforms Beaches Islands Lagoons Lakes Mountains Rivers Valleys Waterfalls Bordering entities Bay of Bengal Gulf of Mannar India Indian Ocean Palk Strait Subdivisions Provinces Districts DS Divisions GN Divisions Settlements Cities Towns Environment Environmental issues Deforestation Biogeographic classification Biosphere Reserves Ecoregions Forests National Parks Protected Areas Sanctuaries Wildlife Fauna Flora Tectonic plates Major African Indo - Australian Plate Antarctic Eurasian North American Pacific South American Minor Amurian Arabian Caribbean Caroline Cocos Juan de Fuca Nazca Okhotsk Philippine Scotia Somali Yangtze Other Adriatic Aegean Sea Anatolian Australian Balmoral Reef Banda Sea Bird 's Head Burma Capricorn Conway Reef Easter Explorer Futuna Galapagos Gonâve Gorda Greenland Halmahera Iberian Indian Iranian Juan Fernández Kerguelen Kermadec Madagascar Manus Maoke Mariana Molucca Sea New Hebrides Niuafo'ou North Andes North Bismarck North Galapagos Nubian Okinawa Panama Pelso Philippine Mobile Belt Rivera Sangihe Seychelles Shetland Solomon Sea South Bismarck South Sandwich Sunda Timor Tisza Tonga Woodlark Historical Baltic Bellingshausen Charcot Cimmeria Farallon Insular Intermontane Izanagi Kula Lhasa Malvinas Moa Phoenix List of tectonic plates Himalayan earthquakes Notable Himalayan quakes 1505 Lo Mustang earthquake 1897 Assam 1934 Nepal -- Bihar 1947 Assam 1950 Assam -- Tibet 1988 Nepal 1991 Uttarkashi 1999 Chamoli 2005 Kashmir 2008 Damxung 2009 Bhutan 2011 Sikkim April 2015 Nepal May 2015 Nepal Plate tectonics Geology of the Himalayas Indian Plate Eurasian Plate Oldham Fault Himalayan Frontal Fault North Himalayan Normal Fault Coordinates : 34 ° 25 ′ 55 '' N 73 ° 32 ′ 13 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 34.43194 ° N 73.53694 ° E ﻿ / 34.43194 ; 73.53694 GND : 4273748 - 5 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_Plate&oldid=805659768 '' Categories : Tectonic plates Geology of India Geology of Pakistan Geology of the Indian Ocean Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016 CS1 errors : dates Coordinates on Wikidata Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia বাংলা भोजपुरी Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Kiswahili Latviešu മലയാളം मराठी Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Occitan پنجابی Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 16 October 2017, at 20 : 36. 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Question: what kind of plate boundary is nepal on
Answer: orogenic belt