Break-up of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate
Australian and American researchers investigating forces exerted on the Indo-Australian tectonic plate have discovered that the considerable stresses being exerted on the plate could be leading to its breaking up.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Professorial Fellow, Mike Sandiford (BSc 1978, DSc 1985), from the University of Melbourne’s School of Earth Sciences is conducting research aimed at understanding the forces that drive the motion of the Earth’s tectonic plates and the distribution of stresses in the Earth’s crust that give rise to great earthquakes such as the magnitude 9 Boxing Day Sumatran quake.
Professor Sandiford says the research shows that as much as 10 per cent of the huge amounts of energy being created at plate connection points at Sumatra and Java are being transferred back into our plate and causing major stresses.
“This is enough stress to contribute to mild earthquake activity in the central regions of the plate, such as in the Australian continent or central Indian Ocean, and provides us with clues as to why our plate has been slowly breaking up,” he said.
“The Indian Ocean quakes are, in effect, leading to the active rupture of the Indo-Australian plate into separate Indian and Australian plates. This new research provides us with important information about the stresses that are driving this drawn out tectonic plate divorce.”
The research is also important for understanding why smaller intra-plate earthquakes such as the 1989 Newcastle quake, which occurred nowhere near the edge of the plate, take place. Up to now, why earthquakes occur in apparently safe zones in the centre of plates has not been very well understood.
For more information visit www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au
<< Previous: Bio21 complex open for business | Next: Data rich remote soil water mapping >>
