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1 Plate movements
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,[10] a process which led to the
opening of the Indian Ocean.[11]
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,[10] and is believed to have
begun colliding with Asia as early as 55 million years
ago,[12] in the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic. However,
some authors suggest that the collision between India and Due to plate tectonics, the India Plate split from Madagascar and
Eurasia occurred much later, around 35 million years collided (c. 55 Ma) with the Eurasian Plate, resulting in the for-
ago.[13] If the collision occurred between 55 and 50 Mya, mation of the Himalayas.
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 shortening estimates in the Himalaya and paleomagnetic
two collisions to reconcile the discrepancy between the data from India and Asia.
amount of crustal shortening in the Himalaya (~1300 km) In 2007, German geologists[10] suggested that the rea-
and the amount of convergence between India and Asia son the Indian Plate moved so quickly is that it is only
(~3600 km).[14] These authors propose a continental frag- half as thick (100 kilometres or 62 miles) as the other
ment of northern Gondwana rifted from India, traveled plates[15] which formerly constituted Gondwana. The
northward, and initiated the “soft collision” between the mantle plume that once broke up Gondwana might also
Greater Himalaya and Asia at ~50 Ma. This was followed have melted the lower part of the Indian subcontinent,
by the “hard collision” between India and Asia occurred which allowed it to move both faster and further than
at ~25 Ma. Subduction of the resulting ocean basin that the other parts.[10] The remains of this plume today
formed between the Greater Himalayan fragment and In- form the Marion Hotspot (Prince Edward Islands), the
dia explains the apparent discrepancy between the crustal Kerguelen hotspot, and the Réunion hotspots.[11][16] As
1
2 5 REFERENCES
India moved north, it is possible that the thickness of [6] James R. Heirtzler, Indian ocean geology and biostratig-
the Indian plate degenerated further as it passed over raphy, page American Geophysical Union, 1977, ISBN
the hotspots and magmatic extrusions associated with the 978-0-87590-208-1
Deccan and Rajmahal Traps.[11] The massive amounts of
[7] M. Asif Khan, Tectonics of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis and
volcanic gases released during the passage of the Indian
the Western Himalaya, page 375, Geological Society of
Plate over the hotspots have been theorised to have played London, 2000, ISBN 978-1-86239-061-4
a role in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, gen-
erally held to be due to a large asteroid impact.[17] [8] Srikrishna Prapnnachari, Concepts in Frame Design, page
The collision with the Eurasian Plate along the boundary 152, Srikrishna Prapnnachari, ISBN 978-99929-52-21-4
between India and Nepal formed the orogenic belt that [9] A. M. Celâl Şengör, Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Re-
created the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya Mountains, gion, Springer, 1989, ISBN 978-0-7923-0067-0
as sediment bunched up like earth before a plow.
[10] Kind 2007
The Indian Plate is currently moving north-east at 5 cen-
timetres (2.0 in) per year, while the Eurasian Plate is mov- [11] Kumar et al. 2007
ing north at only 2 centimetres (0.79 in) per year. This
is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the Indian [12] Scotese 2001
Plate to compress at a rate of 4 millimetres (0.16 in) per
year. [13] Aitchison, Ali & Davis 2007
• List of tectonic plate interactions [17] Schulte, Peter; et al. (5 March 2010). “The
Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the
• Paleogeography Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary”. Science. AAAS.
327 (5970): 1214–1218. Bibcode:2010Sci...327.1214S.
doi:10.1126/science.1177265. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID
4 Notes 20203042. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
6.2 Images
• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Origi-
nal artist: ?
• File:Himalaya-formation.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Himalaya-formation.gif License: Public
domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Tectonic_plates_boundaries_detailed-en.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Tectonic_plates_
boundaries_detailed-en.svg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors:
• Data: Prof. Peter Bird’s map Original artist: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting)