List of tectonic plates explained

This is a list of tectonic plates on Earth's surface. Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere. The plates are around 100km (100miles) thick and consist of two principal types of material: oceanic crust (also called sima from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon and aluminium). The composition of the two types of crust differs markedly, with mafic basaltic rocks dominating oceanic crust, while continental crust consists principally of lower-density felsic granitic rocks.

Current plates

Geologists generally agree that the following tectonic plates currently exist on Earth's surface with roughly definable boundaries. Tectonic plates are sometimes subdivided into three fairly arbitrary categories: major (or primary) plates, minor (or secondary) plates, and microplates (or tertiary plates).^[1]

Major plates

These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean. For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20e6km2

– 61300000km2
– 60900000km2
– 67800000km2
(sometimes considered to be two separate tectonic plates) – 58900000km2
- – 47000000km2
- – 11900000km2
– 75900000km2
– 103300000km2
– 43600000km2

Minor plates

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 20e6km2 but greater than 1e6km2.

- – 5000000km2
– 1100000km2
– 3300000km2
– 1700000km2
– 2900000km2
– 11900000km2
– 15600000km2
– 1100000km2
- – 5500000km2
– 1600000km2
– 16700000km2

Microplates

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 million km². Some models identify more minor plates within current orogens (events that lead to a large structural deformation of Earth's lithosphere) like the Apulian, Explorer, Gorda, and Philippine Mobile Belt plates.^[2] 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.^[3] ^[4]

African plate
- - - - Antarctic plate
- ^[5]
  - - - Australian plate
        ^[6]
        Caribbean plate
        Cocos plate
  - Eurasian plate
    - - ^[7] ^[8]
    - – Small tectonic plate in south Iceland, between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate
      - – 250,000 km²
      - Nazca plate
      - North American plate
- ^[9]
  - Pacific plate
    - - Philippine Sea plate
      - Scotia plate
  - Somali plate
  - South American plate
    - - (mainly in Colombia, minor parts in Ecuador and Venezuela)

Ancient tectonic plates

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 ancient cratons, microplates, plates, and terranes which no longer exist as separate plates. Cratons are the oldest and most stable parts of the continental lithosphere, and shields 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.

African plate

- (Zambia)
(Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sudan, and Zambia)
(South Africa)
(South Africa)
(Algeria)
(Zimbabwe)
(Tanzania)
(Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo)
Zaire Craton (Congo)
(Zimbabwe)

Eurasian plate

(France, Germany, Spain and Portugal)
(Canada, Great Britain, and United States)
- Belomorian Craton
Central Iberian plate
(Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and Malaya)
East China Craton
- - and Eastern Kazakhstan
  - and the Junngar Basin in China
    - - Moravo Silesian plate
    - Ossa-Morena plate
- Proto-Alps Terrane
  - - - South Portuguese plate
Tarim Craton
Teplá-Barrandian Terrane
- - Volgo-Uralian Craton
Yakutai Craton

Indo-Australian plate

Altjawarra Craton (Australia)
Aravalli Craton (India)
Bastar Craton (India)
Bhandara Craton (India)
Bundelkhand Craton (India)
- Central Craton (Australia)
Curnamona Craton (Australia)
- - - - Singhbhum Craton (India)
  - . See Moa plate and Lord Howe Rise

North American plate

(Canada, Great Britain, and United States)
- (Canada)
(split into the Cocos, Explorer, Juan de Fuca, Gorda plates, Nazca plate, and Rivera plates)
(United States)
(Canada)
(Canada and United States)
- - - Mexican plate
(Canada)
Newfoundland plate
- Nova Scotia plate
(Canada)
Sask Craton (Canada)
(Canada)
(Canada)
(Canada)
(United States)

South American plate

(Brazil)
(Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela)
(Argentina and Uruguay)
(Brazil)
(Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru)

Notes and references

Bibliography

North Andes plate

Restrepo . Jorge Julián . Ordóñez Carmona . Oswaldo . Martens . Uwe . Correa . Ana María . 2009 . Terrenos, complejos y provincias en la Cordillera Central de Colombia (Terrains, complexes and provinces in the central cordillera of Colombia) . Ingeniería Investigación y Desarrollo . 9 . 49–56 . 2019-10-31.
Fuck . Reinhardt A. . Brito Neves . Benjamim Bley . Schobbenhaus . Carlos . 2008 . Rodinia descendants in South America . . 160 . 108–126 . 2019-10-29.
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 . 10^o Congreso Geológico Chileno . 1–10.
Restrepo . Jorge Julian . Toussaint . Jean F. . 1988 . Terranes and continental accretion in the Colombian Andes . . 11 . 189–193 . 2019-10-31.

External links

Bird, Peter (2003) An updated digital model of plate boundaries also available as a large (13 Mb) PDF file

Notes and References

Web site: Madaan . About Sonia . 7 Major Tectonic Plates (Pacific, African, Eurasian, Antarctic and more) . Earth Eclipse . 2020-08-18 . How Many Tectonic Plates Are on Earth?. 2022-05-12.
Bird, P. (2003). "An updated digital model of plate boundaries". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4 (3): 1027. . http://peterbird.name/publications/2003_PB2002/2003_PB2002.htm.
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.
https://antarctic-plate-tectonics.weebly.com/tectonic-plates.html Antarctic Plate Tectonics
Gasperini. L. Ligi. M. Accettella. D. Bosman. A. Cuffaro. M. Lodolo. E. Martorelli. E. Muccini. F. Palmiotto. C. Polonia. A. Late Miocene to recent tectonic evolution of the Macquarie Triple Junction. Geology. 1 February 2023. 51 . 2. 146–50. 10.1130/G50556.1. free.
Web site: Introduction – Project Cratera. utl.pt.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234468330_MORVEL_A_new_estimate_for_geologically_recent_plate_motions Demets, C., Gordon, Richard, & Argus, Donald, «MORVEL: A new estimate for geologically recent plate motions» in AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
News: Niels Henriksen . A.K. Higgins . Feiko Kalsbeek . T. Christopher R. Pulvertaft . 2000 . Greenland from Archaean to Quaternary . Greenland Survey Bulletin . 185 . dead . 2009-10-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081207074112/http://www.geus.dk/publications/bull-gl/nr185/nr185_p12-24.pdf . 2008-12-07.