Did you know that Australia is like the restless traveler of the continents, constantly drifting northward at about 7 centimeters (2.75 inches) every year? That might not sound like much, but over time, this slow and steady movement has some pretty big consequences!

Why is Australia moving?
Australia sits on the Indo-Australian tectonic plate, one of the Earth's large, rigid plates that "float" on the semi-fluid layer of the mantle beneath them. These plates are always on the move, but Australia's is extra speedy! In fact, it's one of the fastest-moving continental plates on the planet, heading northward at a brisk pace. This movement is driven by convection currents in the Earth's mantle that push and pull the plates around, sort of like conveyor belts of molten rock.

What happens because of this?

GPS Headaches

Since Australia moves so quickly, its GPS coordinates need to be updated frequently. In 2016, the country’s government had to shift its official longitude and latitude by 1.5 meters to keep pace with the plate's movement! Imagine using a GPS to navigate across Australia and realizing the whole continent had moved since the last update—yikes!

Tectonic Activity

This drifting also means that Australia gets closer to Southeast Asia every year, and it causes earthquakes along the plate boundaries. Although Australia itself doesn’t have many big quakes, it pushes into other plates, building pressure in places like Indonesia, where volcanic and seismic activity is more common.

Future Continental Super-Jams 

If Australia keeps moving northward, in millions of years it could collide into Asia. Scientists think we’re headed toward the formation of another supercontinent, like Pangaea, with Australia right in the middle of it.

Over millions of years, that 7 cm per year will shift Australia thousands of kilometers away from where it started.