Indo-Australian Plate

[in-doh-aw-streyl-yuhn]

noun

Geology.

1. a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising India and the Australian continent and adjacent suboceanic basins (the Tasman, South Australian, Mid-Indian, Cocos, and Australian Basins); separated from the Eurasian Plate by the Java Trench, from the Pacific Plate by the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches, and from the African Plate by a series of mid-ocean ridges (the Carlsberg, Mid-Indian, and Southeast Indian Ridges).

Example Sentences

The researchers tested the idea near Indonesia’s island of Nias, where the Indo-Australian Plate is bumping under the Sunda Plate.

Read more on Scientific American

To its south, the Indo-Australian plate is slowly being forced beneath it.

Read more on National Geographic

It is the Eurasian plate, not the Indo-Australian plate.

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The Indian Ocean floor is marked by the steep and rugged Southwest Indian Ridge, where the northern African and southern Antarctic plates move away from each other, and the relatively smooth and flat Southeast Indian Ridge, where the northern Indo-Australian plate moves away from the southern Antarctic plate.

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They say their analysis of the tremors - the biggest was a magnitude 8.7 - suggests major changes are taking place on the ocean floor that will eventually split the Indo-Australian plate in two.

Read more on BBC