Geologists generally agree that the following tectonic plates currently exist onEarth's surface with roughly definable boundaries. Tectonic plates are sometimes subdivided into three fairly arbitrary categories:major (orprimary)plates,minor (orsecondary)plates, andmicroplates (ortertiary plates).[2]
Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail
These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and thePacific Ocean. For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km2 (7.7 million sq mi).
African plate – Tectonic plate underlying Africa – 61,300,000 km2 (23,700,000 sq mi)
Antarctic plate – Major tectonic plate containing Antarctica and the surrounding ocean floor – 60,900,000 km2 (23,500,000 sq mi)
Eurasian plate – Tectonic plate which includes most of Eurasia – 67,800,000 km2 (26,200,000 sq mi)
Indo-Australian plate – Major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and Australian plates (sometimes considered to be two separate tectonic plates) – 58,900,000 km2 (22,700,000 sq mi)
Australian plate – Major tectonic plate – 47,000,000 km2 (18,000,000 sq mi)
North American plate – Large tectonic plate including most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia – 75,900,000 km2 (29,300,000 sq mi)
Pacific plate – Oceanic tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean – 103,300,000 km2 (39,900,000 sq mi)
These smaller plates are often not shown on major plate maps, as the majority of them do not comprise significant land area. For purposes of this list, a minor plate is any plate with an area less than 20 million km2 (7.7 million sq mi) but greater than 1 million km2 (0.39 million sq mi).
These plates are often grouped with an adjacent principal plate on a tectonic plate world map. For purposes of this list, a microplate is any plate with an area less than 1,000,000 km2 (390,000 mi2). Some models identify more minor plates within currentorogens (events that lead to a large structural deformation ofEarth's lithosphere) like the Apulian, Explorer, Gorda, and Philippine Mobile Belt plates.[3] The latest studies have shown that microplates are the basic elements of which the crust is composed and that the larger plates are composed of amalgamations of these, and a subdivision of ca. 1200 smaller plates has come forward.[4][5]
The new Global Tectonic Map with the subdivision of the continents, oceans and mobile mountain belts in ca. 1200 smaller plates. Legend: green: terrane (microplate) boundaries in the continental blocks; cyan: terranes of the oceanic plates; orange: terranes inside the mobile belts; blue: oceanic transform faults; red: fault zones in the continental and mountain belt domain; purple: main subduction zones and suture zones; orange dots: volcanoes.
African plate
Lwandle plate – Mainly oceanic tectonic microplate off the southeast coast of Africa
Panama plate – Small tectonic plate in Central America
Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands microplate – Part of the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean PlatePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Rivera plate – Small tectonic plate off the west coast of Mexico
Eurasian plate
Adriatic plate, also known as the Apulian plate – Small tectonic plate in the Mediterranean
Aegean Sea plate, also known as Hellenic plate – Small tectonic plate in the eastern Mediterranean Sea
Anatolian plate – Continental tectonic plate comprising most of the Anatolian Peninsula (Asia Minor)Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
In the history of Earth, many tectonic plates have come into existence and have over the intervening years either accreted onto other plates to form larger plates, rifted into smaller plates, or have been crushed by or subducted under other plates.
The following is a list of ancientcratons,microplates,plates, andterranes which no longer exist as separate plates.Cratons are the oldest and most stable parts of the continental lithosphere, andshields are exposed parts of them.Terranes are fragments of crustal material formed on one tectonic plate and accreted to crust lying on another plate, which may or may not have originated as independent microplates: a terrane may not contain the full thickness of the lithosphere.
Farallon plate – Ancient oceanic plate that has mostly subducted under the North American plate (split into the Cocos, Explorer, Juan de Fuca, Gorda plates, Nazca plate, and Rivera plates)
^Hasterok, D., Halpin, J., Collins, A.S., Hand, M., Kreemer, C., Gard, M., and Glorie, S. (2022); New maps of global geological provinces and tectonic plates. Earth Science Reviews, 2022.
^van Dijk, J.P. (2023); The New Global Tectonic Map – Analyses and Implications. Terra Nova, 2023, 27 pp.doi:10.1111/TER.12662
^Niels Henriksen; A.K. Higgins; Feiko Kalsbeek; T. Christopher R. Pulvertaft (2000)."Greenland from Archaean to Quaternary"(PDF).Greenland Survey Bulletin. No. 185. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2008-12-07. Retrieved2009-10-04.
Cordani, U.G.; Cardona, A.; Jiménez, D.M.; Dunyl, L.; Nutman, A.P. (2003).Geochronology of Proterozoic basement from the Colombian Andes: Tectonic history of remnants from a fragmented Grenville Belt. 10o Congreso Geológico Chileno. pp. 1–10.
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