South Asia

===Indian Plate===
{{main|Indian Plate}}

Most of this region is resting on the [[Indian Plate]], the northerly portion of the [[Indo-Australian Plate]], separated from the rest of the [[Eurasian Plate]]. The Indian Plate includes most of South Asia, forming a land mass which extends from the [[Himalayas]] into a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including parts of [[Southwest China|South China]] and Eastern [[Indonesia]], as well as [[Kunlun Mountains|Kunlun]] and [[Karakoram]] ranges,<ref>Sinvhal, ''Understanding Earthquake Disasters'', page 52, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-07-014456-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=M. Ravi |last2=Bhatia |first2=S. C. |title=A new seismic hazard map for the Indian plate region under the global seismic hazard assessment programme |journal=Current Science |date=1999 |volume=77 |issue=3 |page=447 |jstor=24102967}}</ref> and extending up to but not including [[Ladakh]], [[Kohistan District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa|Kohistan]], the [[Hindu Kush]] range, and [[Balochistan]].<ref>M. Asif Khan, ''Tectonics of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis and the Western Himalaya'', page 375, Geological Society of London, 2000, {{ISBN|978-1-86239-061-4}}</ref><ref>Srikrishna Prapnnachari, ''Concepts in Frame Design'', page 152, Srikrishna Prapnnachari, {{ISBN|978-99929-52-21-4}}</ref><ref>A. M. Celâl Şengör, ''Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan Region'', Springer, 1989, {{ISBN|978-0-7923-0067-0}}</ref> It may be noted that [[Geophysics|geophysically]] the [[Yarlung Tsangpo River]] in Tibet is situated at the outside the border of the regional structure, while the [[Pamir Mountains]] in Tajikistan are situated inside that border.<ref>Valentin Semenovich Burtman & Peter Hale Molnar, ''Geological and Geophysical Evidence for Deep Subduction of Continental Crust Beneath the Pamir'', page 10, Geological Society of America, 1993, {{ISBN|0-8137-2281-0}}</ref>

The [[Indian subcontinent]] formerly formed part of the [[supercontinent]] [[Gondwana]], before rifting away during the [[Cretaceous]] period and colliding with the Eurasian Plate about 50–55&nbsp;million years ago and giving birth to the [[Himalayan range]] and the [[Tibetan plateau]]. It is the [[peninsula]]r region south of the [[Himalaya]]s and [[Kuen Lun]] mountain ranges and east of the [[Indus River]] and the [[Iranian Plateau]], extending southward into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea (to the southwest) and the Bay of Bengal (to the southeast).