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The Australian plate, which Australia is on, is moving faster than other plates. The Australian plate is moving about 6.9 cm (2.7 inches) a year in a northward direction and with a small clockwise rotation. The Global Positioning System must be updated due to the movement, as some locations move faster. [13] [14] [15]
The Pacific plate sinks below the Australian plate and forms the Kermadec Trench and the island arcs of Tonga and Kermadec. New Zealand is situated along the southeastern boundary of the plate, which with New Caledonia makes up the southern and northern ends of the ancient landmass of Zealandia, which separated from Australia 85 million years ...
Indo-Australian plate – Major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and Australian plates (sometimes considered to be two separate tectonic plates) – 58,900,000 km 2 (22,700,000 sq mi) Australian plate – Major tectonic plate separated from Indo-Australian plate about 3 million years ago – 47,000,000 km 2 (18,000,000 sq mi)
The oceanic Australian plate is subducted beneath the continental Sunda plate along the Sunda Trench. The oceanic Solomon Sea plate is subducting beneath the South Bismarck plate and the New Hebrides plate driven by the mutual movements of the Australian and Pacific plates and local spreading centres.
Baragwanathia longifolia was the first Australian land plant appearing at this time. The Tabberabberan Orogeny compressed the eastern seaboard in an east–west direction, with Tasmania, Victoria and southern New South Wales folded 385 – 380 Mya. Northern NSW and Queensland was compressed 377 to 352 Mya.
Map of the northern end of the Alpine Fault and Marlborough Fault System. The Pacific plate and Indo-Australian plate boundary forms the Macquarie Fault Zone in the Puysegur Trench off the southwestern corner of the South Island and comes onshore as the Alpine Fault just north of Milford Sound.
The geochemistry suggests that before a complete suture formed, the section of the North Australian Craton directly underlying the Kimberley Craton may have detached, instigating a short period of renewed northwest-dipping subduction (that is, the Northern Australian plate again subducting under the Kimberley plate). [11]
The Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary of the Tonga plate is one of the fastest subduction zones, with a rate up to 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year ...