Plate tectonics and the Indian plate

Tectonics explains where seismic hazard occurs but not when. That is the difference between seismic zonation and earthquake prediction. The theory treats the lithosphere as rigid plates moving over a plastic asthenosphere, built from Wegener's continental drift (1912), Hess's sea-floor spreading (1960s), and the Vine-Matthews confirmation from palaeomagnetic striping (1963). Plates meet at divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries, accounting for the distribution of mountain belts, trenches, earthquakes, and volcanoes. The Indian plate's northward collision with the Eurasian plate raised the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau and continues to drive seismicity along the thrust zones.