Plate Tectonics is the process of the earths lithosphere moving, shifting, and changing in accordance to the placement of crustal plates. Each country is close or near to its regions tectonics plates and is affected by certain geologic activity. As you can see Australia currently rests in the center of the Indo-Australian Plate which is one of the 7 major tectonic plates. It borders other plates in the north, south, and east, such as the Eurasian plate, Antarctic plate, and the pacific plate.
The Australian plate is moving approximately 7 cm each year and is known to cause violent earthquakes to its neighboring countries like New Zealand. The Indo-Australian plate is also credited to raising the Himalayan mountains because of convergent plate boundaries colliding with each other.
Convergent Boundary: Plates moving towards each other and colliding.
Sources:
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2011/10/earthquakes-in-australia/
Keller,Edward A., and Duane E. DEVecchio.Natural Hazards. Fourth ed., Routledge, 2016.
It looks like you Aussies will have it pretty safe compared to my fellow Italians. With no major plates near you, it must be nice. Besides those bush fires, but it is also interesting to hear how many earthquakes you Aussies recieve!
ReplyDeleteInteresting how despite the fact your country is currently located inside a tectonic plate, you'll find out that is definitely not devoid of earthquakes... looking forward to next weeks' post!
ReplyDeleteI must say I was very intrigued to find out the information about Australia's location on a tectonic plate. I Can't wait for the next post!
ReplyDeleteI like how you started your blog by defining tectonic plates so that we understood exactly what you are talking about. I had no idea that Australia and the countries around it were effected so much by tectonic plates. I especially found it super interesting that the Indo-Australian plate is responsible for the raising of the Himalayan Mountain. Very cool!
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