List of tectonic plates
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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 Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert
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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 Template:Convert but greater than Template:Convert.
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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
- Australian plate
- Caribbean plate
- Cocos plate
- Eurasian plate
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- Template:Annotated link – Small tectonic plate in south Iceland, between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate
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- Nazca plate
- North American plate
- Pacific plate
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- Philippine Sea plate
- Scotia plate
- Somali plate
- South American plate
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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
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- Template:Annotated link (South Africa)
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- Template:Annotated link (Algeria)
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- Template:Annotated link (Tanzania)
- Template:Annotated link (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)
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Antarctic plate
Eurasian plate
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- Belomorian Craton
- Central Iberian plate
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- East China CratonScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
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- Template:Annotated link and the Junngar Basin in China
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- Moravo Silesian plate
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- Ossa-Morena plate
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- Proto-Alps terrane
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- South Portuguese plate
- Tarim craton
- Teplá-Barrandian terrane
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- Volgo-Uralian craton
- Yakutai craton
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Indo-Australian plate
- Altjawarra Craton (Australia)
- Aravalli Craton (India)
- Bastar Craton (India)
- Bhandara Craton (India)
- Bundelkhand Craton (India)
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- Central Craton (Australia)
- Curnamona Craton (Australia)
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- Singhbhum Craton (India)
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- Template:Annotated link. See Moa plate and Lord Howe Rise
North American plate
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- Mexican plate
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- Newfoundland plate
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- Nova Scotia plate
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- Sask Craton (Canada)
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South American plate
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See also
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- List of tectonic plate interactions – Types of plate boundaries
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Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
- North Andes plate
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External links
- Bird, Peter (2003) An updated digital model of plate boundaries also available as a large (13 Mb) PDF file
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- ↑ Bird, P. (2003). "An updated digital model of plate boundaries". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4 (3): 1027. Script error: No such module "doi".. 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. Script error: No such module "doi".
- ↑ Antarctic Plate Tectonics
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- ↑ Demets, C., Gordon, Richard, & Argus, Donald, «MORVEL: A new estimate for geologically recent plate motions» in AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts.
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