Australian tectonic plate
All earth’s tectonic plates are constantly moving, but some faster than others. Oceania is the continent of the earth that is moving faster, but where are you going… and what speed?
Australia is on the continent that Move faster on Earthresting on a tectonic plate that moves around 7 centimeters per year – That is, something between the rhythm that your hair and nails grow.
By comparison, according to the earth’s earthly masses move at an average rate of about 1.5 cm/year.
This derives from the North Australian plate makes Australia getting closer to us – and since we said 9 years ago, the country of kangaroos was than 20 years before, the continent approached more half a meter: 56 centimeters.
Technically, note o, we are talking about the Indo-Australian plate, a tectonic plate that includes the Continental Australia and the island of Tasmaniamore parts of New Guinea, New Zealand and the Indian Ocean Basin.
In the distant future, – say, in a few dozen millions years – it is possible that this board can Crush the bottom of the Eurasia plate around Southeast Asia and China, forming a new continental set that some dubbed “Austrasia“.
ESte Movement has historical precedents. Up to 200 million years ago, Australia, a huge supercontinent that occupied most of the southern hemisphere. Under this configuration, the African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian and South American plates They were all together.
However, the Laurásia – which included most of Europe, Asia and North America currently – It was all together in the northern hemisphere.
It is important to remember that the continents of the earth are constantly in a Flow state (very slow). We don’t feel it in our daily lives when we walk around the earth, but the planet’s surface is not as solid as it seems.
Tectonic plates are constantly moving, some shock with the others, others to walk away. Inevitably (but in a long time), the continents will end up.
Instead of a solid sphere like a rock, another way of imagining the earth is like a road with cracks in a carrier belt in slow motion. Some cracks are widened, others are squeezed and the entire surface is in motion, but at a too slow pace to be seen.
As slow as it may be, according to human standards, is fast enough to cause confusion in our technology.
Geolocation tools – such as the US Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia Glonass, the European Union Galileo and the Beidou da China – use satellites to determine locations in relation to known reference points.
But these satellites work based on coordinate systems fixedwhile the earth’s own mass is moving slowly. Over time, this movement Creates a disadvantage Between where the maps think the locations are found and where they are actually.
Thus, until 2017, Australia used coordinates from 1994. Over the course of 23 years, Australia has been dismissed from the tectonic plate at 1.6 meters – which forced an update of the data from the geolocation systems.
