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Arabian Plate
 
 
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The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
s (the African, Arabian and Indian crustal
Crust (geology)

In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle . Crusts of Earth , our Moon, Mercury , Venus, and Mars have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantle s....
 plates
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
) which have been moving northward over millions of years toward an inevitable collision with Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
.






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Earthquake Information for Pakistan
The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
s (the African, Arabian and Indian crustal
Crust (geology)

In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle . Crusts of Earth , our Moon, Mercury , Venus, and Mars have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantle s....
 plates
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
) which have been moving northward over millions of years toward an inevitable collision with Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
. This is resulting in a mingling of plate pieces and mountain ranges extending in the west from the Pyrenees, crossing southern Europe and the Middle East, to the Himalayas
Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
 and ranges of southeast Asia.

The Arabian Plate consists mostly of the Arabian peninsula
Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of Landform that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paeninsula : paene, almost + insula, island....
; it extends northward to Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
. The plate borders are:
  • East, with the Indo-Australian Plate
    Indo-Australian Plate

    The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the Australia and surrounding ocean, and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters....
  • South, with the African Plate
    African Plate

    The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges....
     to the west and the Indo-Australian Plate
    Indo-Australian Plate

    The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the Australia and surrounding ocean, and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters....
     to the east
  • West, a left lateral fault
    Geologic fault

    In geology, a fault or fault line is a planar Fracture in rock in which the rock on one side of the fracture has moved with respect to the rock on the other side....
     boundary with the African Plate
    African Plate

    The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges....
     called the Dead Sea Transform
    Dead Sea Transform

    The Dead Sea Transform fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a geologic fault which extends through the Jordan River Valley in the Middle East....
     (DST), and a divergent boundary with the African Plate called the Red Sea Rift
    Red Sea Rift

    The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center between two tectonic plates, the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It extends down the length of the Red Sea, stretching from the southern end of the Dead Sea Transform to a triple junction with the Aden Ridge and the East African Rift in the Afar Depression of eastern Africa....
     which runs the length of the Red Sea;
  • North, complex convergent boundary
    Convergent boundary

    In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary or convergent plate boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary , is an actively deforming region where two tectonic plates or fragments of lithosphere move toward one another and collide....
     with the Anatolian Plate
    Anatolian Plate

    The Anatolian Plate is a continental tectonic plate consisting primarily of the country of Turkey.The easterly side is a boundary with the Arabian Plate, the East Anatolian Fault, a left lateral transform fault....
     and Eurasian Plate
    Eurasian Plate

    The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia....
    .
The Arabian Plate was part of the African plate during much of the Phanerozoic
Phanerozoic

The Phanerozoic Eon is the current eon in the geologic timescale, and the one during which abundant animal life has existed. It covers roughly 545 million years and goes back to the time when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared....
 Eon (Paleozoic
Paleozoic

The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geology Era of the Phanerozoic Eon . The Paleozoic spanned from roughly , and is subdivided into six period ; from oldest to youngest they are: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian period, Carboniferous, and Permian...
 - Cenozoic
Cenozoic

The Cenozoic Era...
), until the Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
 Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. Red Sea rifting began in the Eocene
Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
, but the separation of Africa and Arabia occurred in the Oligocene, and since then the Arabian Plate has been slowly moving toward the Eurasian Plate.

The collision between the Arabian Plate and Eurasia is pushing up the Zagros Mountains
Zagros Mountains

The Zagros , are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. They have a total length of 1 500 km from western Iran, on the border with Iraq to the southern parts of the Persian Gulf....
 of Iran.