Giant plate under the Indian Ocean splits in two

(ORDO NEWS) — The tectonic plate, which is located directly beneath the Indian Ocean, began to split into two parts. Experts said that in the final result it will completely break, but this will not happen soon.

To date, pieces of the plate diverge no more than 1.7 mm per year. After a million years, the distance between them will not exceed a mile. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the fault under the Dead Sea moves much faster – 0.4 centimeters per year. If we talk about the San Andreas Fault, it increases by 1.8 centimeters every year.

The tectonic plate is located incredibly deep under water and cracks incredibly slowly. Because of this, specialists did not immediately notice the beginning of such a serious process. It was possible to establish the beginning of this process only after two sufficiently powerful earthquakes occurred in the Indian Ocean.

On April 11, 2012, earthquakes were recorded in the Indian Ocean, the strength of which reached 8.2, as well as 8.6 points. In this case, the tremors occurred not in the place where one plate is superimposed on another, but in the central part, which is considered to be completely stable.

Experts began to compile a map of the ocean floor and noted that there is a huge number of depressions that have arisen as a result of impacts or sliding plates. Due to the fact that in the southern part of the plate, the troughs are much deeper, this suggests that the main processes take place there.

The formation of the first depressions began about 2.3 million years ago, but to this day the boundary of the tectonic plate has not yet been fully formed. Experts added that the process of cracking the slab began as a result of natural causes. The plate cracked due to the fact that it rose from the mid-ocean ridge to such a height where the curvature of the globe is already quite clearly expressed.

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