Is Australia affected by tectonic plates?
Australia doesn’t sit on the edge of a tectonic plate. However, the Indo-Australian plate, at the centre of which our continent lies, is being pushed to the north-east at about 7cm per year. This build-up of pressure within the plate can cause earthquakes in Australia.
What type of tectonic plate is the Australian plate?
continental plate
The Australian plate is a continental plate and the Pacific plate is an oceanic plate. At this boundary, the Pacific plate is slowly moving under the Australian plate. This process is called subduction.
How many tectonic plates are under Australia?
two plates
Indo-Australian Plate – A major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and Australian plates – 58,900,000 km2 often considered two plates: Australian Plate – Major tectonic plate, originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana – 47,000,000 km.
Why does Australia have a lot of earthquakes?
Why do we get earthquakes in Australia? The Australian plate is the fastest moving continental land mass on Earth and is colliding into the Pacific plate to Australia’s north and east, and the Eurasian Plate to the northwest. On average 100 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more are recorded in Australia each year.
Can Australia get tsunamis?
Historical documents suggest that tsunamis may have caused 11 deaths in Australia. These happened in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. The largest documented tsunami in Australia occurred on 17 July 2006. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake near Java, Indonesia caused a tsunami that inundated a campsite at Steep Point, WA.
Where are the most earthquakes in Australia?
Therefore, earthquakes in Australia are most common in areas such as the Eastern Highlands or Flinders Ranges, and less so in flat low-lying basins.
What is causing the Australian plate to move?
Australia’s movement is caused by the shifting tectonic plates that make up the earth’s surface. The North American plate, by contrast, travels roughly one inch per year.
Is Australia moving towards India?
Plate movements The eastern part (Australia) is moving northward at the rate of 5.6 cm (2.2 in) per year while the western part (India) is moving only at the rate of 3.7 cm (1.5 in) per year due to the impediment of the Himalayas.
Is Sydney on a fault line?
SYDNEY – An earthquake fault line has been found under the site of a A$300 million ($171 million) nuclear reactor to be built in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, authorities said last week.
Is there a fault line in Australia?
The Darling Fault is one of the longest and most significant faults in Australia, extending for at least 1500 km in a north–south orientation near the west coast of southern Western Australia. The fault zone is very ancient and initially formed during the Proterozoic Eon.
What is the biggest tsunami in Australia?
The largest documented tsunami in Australia occurred on 17 July 2006. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake near Java, Indonesia caused a tsunami that inundated a campsite at Steep Point, WA.
Are there any fault lines in Australia that can cause earthquakes?
The darling fault in WA can cause destructive earthquakes any day or the region where the plate split could outburst again causing catastrophic effects on Australia. Geologists said that it is not likely for the plate to split again but they were proved wrong by the earth before so who’s to say it can’t happen again?
What kind of plate tectonics does Australia have?
Australia’s Plate Tectonics. Convergent interactions is when two plate collide into each other causing one plate to sub-duct under another which causes the two crust to rise thus creating mountains or volcanoes. Both of these interactions happen in the “Ring of Fire” which is located right on the Australian/Indian plate.
How big are the fault lines in Adelaide?
“Some faults around Adelaide have moved slabs of the continent up to 30 metres in the last one million years,” says ARC Professorial Fellow, Mike Sandiford.
Where was the earthquake in Western Australia in 1968?
It occurred in a sparsely populated area and resulted in damage to a major gas pipeline. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake at Meckering in 1968 caused extensive damage to buildings and was felt over most of southern Western Australia.
