Asia-Pacific: Tectonic Plates and Faults

Tectonic Plates and Fault Lines

Eurasian Okhotsk The region is home to extremes in
Plate Plate elevation and the world's most active
Amur Plate seismic and volcanic activity. Southwest
MONGOLIA of India, the Maldives has a maximum
height of just 230cm, while far to the
north, the Tibetan Plateau averages over
DPR KOREA JAPAN 4,500m across its 2.5 million square
JAMMU & KASHMIR C H I N A kilometres and is home to all 14 of the
AKSAI CHIN
RO KOREA world's peaks above 8,000 metres. The
Himalaya were born 70 million years ago
BHUTAN when the Arabian Plate collided with the
ARUNASHAL PRADESH
NEPAL Eurasian plate.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is a belt of
oceanic trenches, island arcs, volcanic
INDIA VIET
MYANMAR mountain ranges and plate movements
NAM
LAO
Philippine that encircles the basin of the Pacific
PDR Ocean. The ring is home to 90% of the
BANGLADESH
THAILAND Plate Northern Mariana
Pacific Plate world's earthquakes - 95% if the Alpide
PHILIPPINES Islands (US) belt is included, which runs through Java
Guam (US)
CAMBODIA and Sumatra. The Ring of Fire is a direct
consequence of plate tectonics and the
F E D E R AT E D MARSHALL movement and collisions of crustal
SRI LANKA PALAU S TAT E S O F ISLANDS
BRUNEI plates, with the northwestward moving
MICRONESIA
M A L A Y S I A DARUSSALAM Pacific plate subducted beneath the
MALDIVES
Aleutian Islands arc in the north, along
K I R I B AT I the Kamchatka peninsula and Japan in
SINGAPORE
the west. To the south a number of
NAURU smaller tectonic plates are in collision
I N D O N E S I A
with the Pacific plate from the Mariana
PA P U A N E W Islands, the Philippines, Bougainville,
TUVALU
GUINEA SOLOMON Tonga, and New Zealand.
TIMOR-LESTE ISLANDS
Depth (m) Elevation (m)
VA N U AT U Below 5,000 250
FRENCH
SAMOA 5,000 500
P O LY N E S I A
Indo-Austalian FIJI 4,000 750
Plate COOK 3,000 1,000
TONGA ISLANDS 2,000 1,500
Somali NEW
1,000 2,000
Plate AUSTRALIA CALEDONIA 500 2,500
100 3,000
Volcano 4,000
Faultline 5,000
Plate boundary 7,500
Above 7,500
NEW
ZEALAND

Antarctic 0 1,000 2,000

Plate Kilometers

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

Creation date: Dec 2014 Map Doc Name: OCHA_ROAP_Tectonics_v1_2014 Sources: UN Cartographic Section, Global Discovery, NASA, Columbia University, Smithsonian Institute Feedback: ocharoap@un.org