Bird's Head plate

{{short description|Small tectonic plate in New Guinea}}

{{Infobox tectonic plate

| image = File:BirdsHeadPlate.png

| caption = The Bird's Head plate

| type = Minor

| move_direction = north-west

| move_speed = 92mm/year

| geo_features = Bird's Head Peninsula, Pacific Ocean

}}

The Bird's Head plate is a minor tectonic plate incorporating the Bird's Head Peninsula, at the western end of the island of New Guinea. Hillis and Müller consider it to be moving in unison with the Pacific plate.{{cite book |title=Evolution and Dynamics of the Australian Plate |last=Hillis |first=R. R. |author2=Müller, R. D. |year=2003 |publisher=Geological Society of America |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0-8137-2372-8 |page=363 }} P. Bird considers it to be unconnected to the Pacific plate.Bird, P. (2003). "An updated digital model of plate boundaries". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4 (3): 1027. {{doi|10.1029/2001GC000252}}. http://peterbird.name/publications/2003_PB2002/2003_PB2002.htm.

The plate is separating from the Australian plate and the small Maoke plate along a divergent boundary to the southeast. Convergent boundaries exist along the north, between the Bird's Head and the Caroline plate, the Philippine Sea plate and the Halmahera plate to the northwest. A transform boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Molucca Sea Collision Zone to the southwest. Another convergent boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Banda Sea plate to the south.https://reliefweb.int/attachments/38407cb4-7c1b-3dda-a321-10b9cd4a58a7/20041126.pdf USGS: Papua, Indonesia Earthquake of 26 November 2004