Tectonics of Asia. Introduction: General tectonics of the region. The configuration of the Asian plates has changed significantly through history. At 15 Ma ago, it found itself roughly in its current position and rotation had ceased. Zahran et al,
Asia Pacific Regional Hazard Map: Tectonic Plates and Faults
Eurasian Plate - Wikipedia
The region is home to extremes in elevation and the world's most active seismic and volcanic activity. Southwest of India, the Maldives has a maximum height of just cm, while far to the north, the Tibetan Plateau averages over 4,m across its 2. The Himalaya were born 70 million years ago when the Arabian Plate collided with the Eurasian plate. The Pacific Ring of Fire is a belt of oceanic trenches, island arcs, volcanic mountain ranges and plate movements that encircles the basin of the Pacific Ocean. The Ring of Fire is a direct consequence of plate tectonics and the movement and collisions of crustal plates, with the northwestward moving Pacific plate subducted beneath the Aleutian Islands arc in the north, along the Kamchatka peninsula and Japan in the west.
In such places, new land is continuously emerging and is added to the bulk of the continent by episodic collisions of the island arcs with the mainland. The fact that Asia produces vast quantities of fossil fuels—petroleum, natural gas , and coal—in addition to being a significant contributor to the global production of many minerals e. The morphology of Asia masks an extremely complex geologic history that predates the active deformations largely responsible for the existing landforms.
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent , the Arabian subcontinent , and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia. It also includes oceanic crust extending westward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and northward to the Gakkel Ridge. The eastern side is a boundary with the North American Plate to the north and a boundary with the Philippine Sea Plate to the south and possibly with the Okhotsk Plate and the Amurian Plate. The southerly side is a boundary with the African Plate to the west, the Arabian Plate in the middle and the Indo-Australian Plate to the east.