Mid-Indian Ridge
The Indian and African plates are moving apart due to spreading at the Mid-Indian Ridge, which is marked by a series of transform fracture zones. Rifting was triggered 65 million years ago when the Réunion Hotspot erupted a vast amount of basalt through the Indian continental plate, forming a plateau called the Deccan Traps. An older spreading ridge, which first separated India from Africa, lies subsided between the Mascarene Basin and the Mascarene Plain.
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- Length 2,100 miles (3,400 km)
- Average Height above Sea Floor 5,000 ft (1,500 m)
- Rate of Spread 1.25 in (3 cm) per year