page_title: Geology of Myanmar
section_title: Tectonic settings
hierarchical_section_title: Geology of Myanmar / Tectonic settings
caption_attribution_description: English: The plate location of Myanmar
context_page_description: The geology of Myanmar is shaped by dramatic, ongoing tectonic processes controlled by shifting tectonic components as the Indian plate slides northwards and towards Southeast Asia. Myanmar spans across parts of three tectonic plates separated by north-trending faults. To the west, a highly oblique subduction zone separates the offshore Indian plate from the Burma microplate, which underlies most of the country. In the center-east of Myanmar, a right lateral strike slip fault extends from south to north across more than 1,000 km. These tectonic zones are responsible for large earthquakes in the region. The India-Eurasia plate collision which initiated in the Eocene provides the last geological pieces of Myanmar, and thus Myanmar preserves a more extensive Cenozoic geological record as compared to records of the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras. Myanmar is physiographically divided into three regions: the Indo-Burman Range, Myanmar Central Belt and the Shan Plateau; these all display an arcuate shape bulging westwards.
context_section_description: The tectonic setting of Myanmar consists of a highly oblique convergence on the western boundary, a dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault in the centre of Myanmar defining the Burma-Sunda boundary and the spreading of Andaman Sea Ridge in the south.
caption: The figure shows the location of plates around Myanmar. Myanmar is traced in dotted red lines, where the strike slip fault is the Sagaing fault and the thrust fault is the Kabaw fault. Modified with Alam et al. (2003)[6]
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