Alpide belt

The Alpide belt is a mountain range which extends along the southern margin of Eurasia. Stretching from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic, it includes the Alps, the Carpathians, the mountains of Asia Minor and Iran, the Hindu Kush, the Himalayas, and the mountains of Southeast Asia. It is the second most seismic region (5-6% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's largest earthquakes) in the world. The Pacific Ring of Fire is the most seismic region.

The Alpide belt is being created by ongoing plate tectonics, namely the process of collision between the northward-moving African, Arabian and Indian plates and the Eurasian plate.

Indonesia lies between the Pacific Ring of Fire along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including New Guinea and the Alpide belt along the south and west from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, and Timor. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake just off the coast of Sumatra was located within the Alpide belt. Fact|date=February 2007

ee also

* Pacific Ring of Fire

References

* [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html Historic Earthquakes & Earthquake Statistics - USGS]
* [http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html "Ring of Fire", Plate Tectonics, Sea-Floor Spreading, Subduction Zones, "Hot Spots" - USGS]