The
Indo-Australian Plate was a major
tectonic plate that included the
continent of Australia and surrounding
ocean, and extended northwest to include the
Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of Indian and Australian plates 43 million years ago. Recent studies, and seismic events such as the
2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes, suggest that the Indo-Australian Plate has broken up into two or three separate plates due primarily to stresses induced by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia along the
Himalayas, and that the
Indian Plate and
Australian Plate have been separate since at least .