Continental plate cracking up under Indian Ocean - Evidence vast Indo-Australian plate is breaking!

This report is the 1st that I've heard of this incredible event but apparently evidence is accumulating that the huge Indo-Australian plate has begun the process of cracking apart into 2 new and distinct plates.

YOU may not have felt it, but the whole world shuddered on 11 April, as Earth's crust began the difficult process of breaking a tectonic plate.

It would seem that 11 April was the starting point of the breakup when ...

... two huge earthquakes ripped through the floor of the Indian Ocean

These earthquakes measured 8.2 and 8.6 and were located off the coast of North Sumatra.

Also, the implication is that because of those 2 earthquakes that may have initiated the plate splitting, that many of the following aftershocks along other faults around the world were triggered as a direct response.

... they triggered large aftershocks on faults the world over, and provided the best evidence yet that the vast Indo-Australian plate is being torn in two.

In my opinion, this is mind-boggling news to digest as I've always thought of the individual continental plates as being relatively stable over millions of years and yet here we have one of the largest plates apparently in the process of breaking apart into 2 individual plates ... not in a million years time but NOW !

I wonder how having 2 smaller plates instead of one huge plate will affect the dynamics and stability of all the other plates around the world ? Surely the realignment and redistribution of stresses must mean that there will be considerably more earthquakes in total and more larger magnitude earthquakes than usual until the entire global plate system restabilizes in a new configuration status and redistributes the stress created by the breakup.

Source

reply to post by tauristercus


Interesting story.

This map lays it out nicely I thought....

reply to post by tauristercus


Alternatively this could relieve the stress of one giant plate? Could it not?

Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the "Movement" part.

So we may be witness to an event that we have only read and learned about in our history on Earth.

Something that may not happen again for a million years...What a way to go!

Now that's cool!

Peace

reply to post by tauristercus


Thanks for the heads up on that one. S&F

The following being an extract from the source.

"I think it's a fair argument that the 11 April earthquakes may mark the birth of a plate boundary," he says. Things should become clearer as more earthquakes shake the region.

If they are anything like the 11 April events, the rest of the world may shake too. In another new study, Fred Pollitz at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, and his colleagues found that the global rate of quakes with a magnitude of 5.5 or greater increased almost fivefold in the six days after 11 April - something that has never been seen before, even after very large earthquakes (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11504).

"This was the most powerful event [ever recorded] in terms of putting stress on other fault zones around the world," Pollitz says.

The last line from the source is somewhat alarming.

Kind Regards
Myselfaswell

reply to post by tauristercus


I don't even remember hearing about this back in April.

2nd.

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
reply to post by tauristercus

 

Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the "Movement" part.

I'm just wondering if the breakup would be a slow and gradual one, releasing stress and energy over a long period of time or whether it could reach a critical point whereby the break apart is more "instantaneous" i.e. over a much smaller time frame and releasing all the energy at once.
I would tend to think that "instantaneous" wouldn't be the best case scenario for the planet

I'm just waiting for the "End of the World 21/12/12" faction to jump in and start making claims that THIS is the trigger event they've been prophesizing !

Note: sarcasm above

reply to post by tauristercus


Noted!

redundant post

quote already quoted above

S & F! I was just reading one of Robin/Eric's posts on Quakewatch and he was mentioning the two Indo quakes, I think you should link in there to see what the (ats) "experts" have to say! All sounds a bit scary to someone like me who's got no real clue

oh, and your avatar freaks me out! haha

Originally posted by AlphaHawk
reply to post by tauristercus

 

Interesting story.

This map lays it out nicely I thought....

If that map and what they are saying is true this looks insane. They are saying half the plate is stuck pushing on the mountains above india and the other half may be breaking off, which would free it to move more easily now that the stalled chunk is less attached.

I have no clue what this would actually do. Does it put extra pressure against the plate to the north and to the east? Also could it mean new islands or a new rift with new magma coming up?

Originally posted by myselfaswell

"This was the most powerful event [ever recorded] in terms of putting stress on other fault zones around the world," Pollitz says.

Myselfaswell

hmmm. I don't understand all the variables, but I'm thinking this is something we've never seen before, and could be quite bad. or it could be a "smooth transition" maybe? yea? hope so.

Originally posted by Dustytoad

Originally posted by AlphaHawk
reply to post by tauristercus

 

Interesting story.

This map lays it out nicely I thought....

If that map and what they are saying is true this looks insane. They are saying half the plate is stuck pushing on the mountains above india and the other half may be breaking off, which would free it to move more easily now that the stalled chunk is less attached.

I have no clue what this would actually do. Does it put extra pressure against the plate to the north and to the east? Also could it mean new islands or a new rift with new magma coming up?

Considering that this is a whole new ball game and an event that has never occurred before in the entire existence of humans on this planet, I would tend to assume that any outcome predictions would be based completely on nothing more than educated guesswork.

reply to post by tauristercus


Makes you wonder if something even more significant is really taking place...

These are certainly interesting times.

reply to post by tauristercus


As well as the potential earthquake activity I am curious to see how this may effect volcanic activity throughout the general area of this split if indeed it is a split.

Recent Volcanic Activity.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

reply to post by LightAssassin


But sure enough, it's in the Quake watch thread.

I must've been asleep.

reply to post by loam


Expanding Earth theory?

Thank you for posting this, it's very interesting even though I don't really understand what any of it means, I find it very interesting, still trying to get a grasp of earthquake stuff. I will follow this thread just to see what happens here!

reply to post by Dustytoad

I have no clue what this would actually do. Does it put extra pressure against the plate to the north and to the east? Also could it mean new islands or a new rift with new magma coming up?

This is very interesting indeed! If this free's up the eastern part of the plate, allowing it's movement speed to increase, would that then put more stress at the fracture point, allowing the it to fracture faster as the eastern plate moves away quicker and quicker?

Could this be an event that can happen quickly, any experts in here?

reply to post by LightAssassin


It's funny that you say that, because I thought of that immediately. I don't know if that theory is even remotely true or not, but I always love reading about it.