Australia is always on the move, with new and exciting events popping up all across the country. However, we’re also on the move in a more literal sense. Our island continent is gradually drifting northward at a steady pace of around seven centimetres per year, making Australia the fastest-moving continent on Earth. If it keeps going at this rate, it’ll eventually crash into Southeast Asia – but don’t stress, that’s in the very, very distant future.
Australia may be the world’s smallest continent, but it’s also believed to be the oldest, with part of its crust dating back 4.4 billion years. Unlike other continents, our landmass has remained geologically stable for hundreds of millions of years – meaning it hasn’t experienced dramatic tectonic shifts. However, Australia is still on the move and is drifting at a faster pace than any other continent. For comparison, Antarctica and Africa are inching north by 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres per year, while South and North America are shifting west by two to four centimetres annually.
Why is Australia moving?
Australia is slowly shifting northward, driven by the movement of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate it sits on. Like other tectonic plates, ours is pushed by convection currents deep inside the Earth and by pressure from the Indian Ocean Ridge (a massive underwater mountain range).
While seven centimetres sounds small, this rate of movement is enough to affect Australia’s maps and GPS coordinates. In 2016, our coordinates were off by about 1.5 metres, leading to a major update on New Year’s Day 2017, when the entire country’s GPS system was shifted 1.8 metres north – the first update since 1994. While these discrepancies aren’t a big deal for Google Maps users, the accuracy will become crucial as we start relying on GPS for things like navigating self-driving cars.
Will Australia collide with Asia?
Not in our lifetimes! At its current pace, Australia won’t collide with Asia for hundreds of millions of years. Phew!
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