Madagascar is an island country located off the coast of southeast Africa in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is also located in the southwest area of the African Plate. The Antarctic Plate is south of Madagascar and the Australian Plate is to the east. The Indian and Arabian Plates are located in the north. All of these plates have boundaries that are divergent. Divergent boundaries are the result of plates that move away from each other producing new lithosphere which is the outer layer of earth. This process is called seafloor spreading and occurs at mid-ocean ridges. The mid-ocean ridges are the result of hot mantle that rises up when the plates move away from each other. The majority of earthquakes and volcanoes occur along these plates. Madagascar is around 750 mile from the Antarctic Plate boundary and 1100 from the Australian Plate boundary. The Arabian and Indian boundaries are even further. The distance is my own estimation using the map in the textbook and may not be completely accurate but the bottom line is Madagascar is not close to any of these four plates.
Madagascar does not have any active volcanoes presently or in recent times. There are two active volcanoes close to Madagascar. To the east of Madagascar is Reunion Island where one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Piton De La Fournaise, just recently erupted on Aug. 25, 2015. To the north-west of Madagascar are the Comoros Islands where the volcano Karthala erupted April 2005 and in May of 2006. The Ankaratra Plateau in the center of Madagascar experienced a 5.2 magnitude quake in 1985 and a 5.5 magnitude quake in 1991. More recently a 5.3 magnitude quake struck Anakao in the south-east part of the island on Jan 13, 2013.
REFERENCES
Kellor, Edward A., Devecchio, Duane E., (2015) Natural Hazards, Earth's processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes (4TH ED).
Piton De La Fournaise, en.Wikipedia.org.
Mount Karthala, en.Wikpedia.org
Madagascar - Earthquakes - Earthquakes Today, www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake.php?id=302161
Madagascar Plates, en.Wikipedia.org
Nice summary!-As you saw, even if your country is not at a plate boundary, it can be affected by geologic activity. You'll dig in earthquakes in detail next week. See what your classmates comment!
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