Movement of Indian plate
The Indian Plate consists of India Peninsular and Australian continental portions. The subduction zone along the Himalayas forms the northern plate boundary in the form of continent-continent convergence.
In the east, it extends through the Rakinyoma Mountains of Myanmar towards the island arc along the Java Trench. In the East, the margin is a spreading site lying to the east of Australia in the form of an oceanic ridge in SW Pacific.
The Western Margin follows Kirthar Mountain of Pakistan and further extends along the Makrana coast and joins the spreading site from the Red Sea rift southeastward along the Chagos Archipelago.
The boundary between India and the Antarctic plate is also marked by an oceanic ridge (divergent boundary) running in roughly W-E direction and merging into the spreading site, a little south of New Zealand.”
India was once a large island off the Australian coast. Until about 225 million years ago, the Tethys Sea separated India from the Asian continent.
About 200 million years ago India started its journey towards the north, at the same time when Pangaea broke and about 40-50 million years ago India collided with Asia, producing rapid uplift of the Himalayas.
About 140 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent was located as south as 50 degrees south latitude. The two major plates were separated by the Tethys sea and the Tibetian block was close to the Asiatic landmass.
During the movement of the Indian plate towards the Eurasian plate, a major event that occurred was the outpouring of lava and the formation of Deccan traps. This started somewhere around 60 million years ago and continued for a long period of time.
And 40 million years ago and thereafter, the event of formation of the Himalayas took place and scientist believe that this process is still continuing and the height of the Himalayas is still rising.
