Arabian Plate

Arabian Plate
Type	Minor
Approx. Area	5,000,000 km2
Movement1	north
Speed1	25–20 mm/year
Features	Arabian peninsula, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean
1Relative to the African Plate

The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the northern and eastern hemispheres. It is one of three continental plates (the African, Arabian, and Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in recent geological history and colliding with the Eurasian Plate. This is resulting in a mingling of plate pieces and mountain ranges extending in the west from the Pyrenees, crossing southern Europe and to Iran forming the Alborz and Zagros Mountains, to the Himalayas and ranges of southeast Asia.

Eurasian, Anatolian and Arabian (purple coloring) plates

Borders

The Arabian Plate consists mostly of the Arabian peninsula; it extends eastward at the Sinai and the Red Sea and northward to the Levant. The plate borders are:

• East, with the Indian Plate, at the Owen Fracture Zone
• South, with the African Plate to the west and the Somali Plate and the Indian Plate to the east
• West, a left lateral fault boundary with the African Plate called the Dead Sea Transform (DST), and a divergent boundary with the African Plate called the Red Sea Rift which runs the length of the Red Sea;
• North, complex convergent boundary with the Anatolian Plate and Eurasian Plate.

The Arabian Plate was part of the African plate during much of the Phanerozoic Eon (Paleozoic–Cenozoic), until the Oligocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. Red Sea rifting began in the Eocene, but the separation of Africa and Arabia occurred approximately 25 million years ago 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 of Iran. Because the Arabian Plate and Eurasia plate collide, many cities are in danger such as those in south eastern Turkey (which is on the Arabian Plate). These dangers include earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes.