Sunda Plate

The Sunda Plate is a tectonic plate located in southeast Asia and commonly considered a part of the Eurasian Plate. The Sunda includes the South China Sea, the Andaman Sea, southern parts of Vietnam and Thailand along with Malaysia and the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and part of the Celebes in Indonesia. Also included is the seismically active western Philippine Islands.

The Sunda is bounded by (clockwise from the east) the Philippine Plate, the Bird's Head microplate (western New Guinea); the Molucca Sea, Banda Sea and Timor microplates; the Australian Plate;the Burma Plate; the Eurasian Plate; and the Yangtze Plate to the north.

The eastern, southern, and western boundaries of the Sunda Plate are tectonically complex and seismically active. Only the northern boundary is relatively quiescent.

References

* Bird, P. (2003) An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252. [http://element.ess.ucla.edu/publications/2003_PB2002/2003_PB2002.htm] also available as a PDF file (13 mb) [http://element.ess.ucla.edu/publications/2003_PB2002/2001GC000252.pdf]