| MadSci Network: Earth Sciences |
Australia is located at the center of the Indian-Australian plate. This plate is limited at its south boundary with Antarctic plate, where the boundary is a divergent-type one, at the southeast indian ridge. In this region, there should be minor shallow earthquakes and a little submarine volcanic activity, related to the sea spreading at the ridge. At the southwestern segment, in the Mid-Indian Ridge, the same occurs. The boundary north is where the Indian-Australian plate collides with the Eurasian plate, at the Java trench. At this region, by the oceanic nature of the plates, there are many active volcanoes, with frequent earthquakes caused by the subduction of the Indian-Australian plate beneath the segmente of the Eurasian plate. In the southeastern region, at the Tonga trench, there are some volcanism and earthquakes because of the subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Indian-Australian plate. Some earthquakes should occur in the process. There is also a segment of collision at the northeastern region, at the Solomon Islands, with the associated volcanism and earthquakes. I guess the best way to see this process is by consulting a good tectonic map, that you can easily find in the web. I recommend "Understand Earth", by Frank Press and Raymond Siever, Freeman and Company, N.Y. as a good reference material. Best regards Eder C. Molina eder@iag.usp.br Dept. of Geophysics Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics University of Sao Paulo - BRAZIL
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Earth Sciences.